Quantity vs. Quality

Everywhere I go, people are telling me how filled their in boxes are; how much email they get: how irate they are at the level of spam they get; how absolute strangers are asking them to be Facebook friends; and how much they are hating "Linked In – it reminds them of one big bulletin board for job searches.

Do you feel it too?  Do you feel that your inbox is overwhelmed and that the crap that does get trapped in spam is only half of what it should be?

So if you feel it and your customers feel it, what will you do about it?  

A few years ago when I started to write my blog, I chose people who I wanted to send information too and I called almost all of them to see if they would want my blog.  After two years or so, I only had about 12 to 15 opt outs…and that’s over two years!  

And if people wanted in, they usually called me. I didn't make it particularly easy. Because I only wanted people that would be part of my “tribe”, that liked and appreciated the information I distributed FREE.

Maybe you need to look more at the quality of the people you are adding to your list as opposed to just playing the numbers game. 

Perhaps instead of just asking for name, email, sex and age, we should ask questions, in this order qualify up front, get the names later.  

Understand this is diametrically opposed to what you have been trained to do for the last umpteen years, but with open rates at an all time low and people's complaints at an all time high, why not look for another alternative?

Hey I'm a marketing guy.  That's what I do.

1.     How interested would you be in joining a short season league?

a.    (1 to 5) with 5 being very interested and 1 being no interest at all

2.    Would you be interested in getting information about?

a.    Birthday parties                 1 to 5

b.    Company parties               1 to 5

c.    Fund raisers                      1 to 5 

d.    Open play specials            1 to 5

3.    If you answered somewhat interested (4) to two or more of the above, then please fill out this portion.  All information will be held confidential and we will NEVER sell or distribute this to a 3rd party. GUARANTEED.  Cross our heart and hope to die!!

a.    Name  ________________________________

b.    Email address  _______________________________

c.    Gender  M__________  F____________________

d.    Birth date   day___________  month____________  year__________

Now I know you won’t get quantities of people, but you will get people that are interested in your product and people who will appreciate the information you are distributing.

The real question is, why would you want all those disinterested people?  

Is it just so you can feel all warm and secure when you tell your colleagues that your data base is home to 22, 378 records? 

AT the end of the day, all that matters is how many sales you made and believe me, you will make more sales when you speak to more people who are REALLY interested in your product and LOOK FORWARD to getting your stuff