Can Digital Sales & Marketing actually be authentic?
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't feel like anyone LIKES feeling like a transaction.
Now, that's not to say that sometimes we're not OK with being a transaction. I might be a transaction at the grocery store. Or the drug store. Or maybe even the nearest emergency room. In these scenarios, I just need what I need.
That being said, it always FEELS different to have a pharmacists that actually responds to Nicholas when he asks a 4yo-style question. And it feels different when your nurse seems to really care that you went to 3 Medi-Centres that were closed before you came here. It even feels different when the grocery clerk joyfully shows me where the Pretzel Crisps are (even when I could have totally found them by myself).
That FEELING? That's a brand.
And those people? They're showing up and creating a Brand Experience based on what's important to them.
THAT 👆 IS POSSIBLE ONLINE.
But it requires a couple of things:
Honoring what's important to you, and
Being intentional about delivering that to other people.
Let's take a look at some typical digital marketing and social selling experiences, and where they rank today in these arenas. We'll go with A-F grades based on my response to the original message.
InMail Promotions
Honestly, I hate that this is even an option on LinkedIn. Why? Because there's absolutely NOTHING good that can come of it.
All it is is outreach based on demographic assumptions. And I would guess a HECK OF A LOT of it.
Let's take a typical InMail Message and pressure test it against the two principles above in terms of how it FEELS for the recipient:
I am NAME from COMPANY and I see that you are in the Broadcasting space. Let me quickly jump to the point - We help media companies have their own white-labeled video experience/ OTT platform (like your own Netflix) with an ability to stream, monetize & distribute video content. Do you have video content that you want to share with millions with a reliable and secure platform? Can we get over a quick call to discuss in detail about our product? Let me know the best time that suits you?
My interpretation of what is important to you: the number of messages you send out. Maybe your compensation is based on it. But it can't possibly be important that I need what you have, because I'm not even in the space that you mentioned.
Being intentional about delivering a human experience to people: Ok, so this one did use my name, the sender's name and company. So maybe there was a minimum viable amount of personalization. But an experience is based on a FEELING. I would say there is no attempt to create any kind of feelings here, except, "get out of my inbox", which I'm pretty sure wasn't the goal.
GRADE = F
Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. This didn't even make it into my focused inbox for a follow-up. Nor did I connect with the sender. 0 relationship earned. And that's because I saved this one as a sample. Most of these straight up get deleted. I couldn't even tell you who sent it.
Unsolicited DM’s
Know let's talk about people we're already connected to. People who we have given the benefit of the doubt because maybe, just maybe, they seemed like they might be cool people based on their connection request.
People who suddenly KNOW they can help me without even having a conversation with me. Without reading my content. They just...KNOW.
Let's pressure test this one!
Happy New Year! I know we have been connected for a while now and I hope your business is going well? I took 3 weeks off and went home to Ireland! ☘️ If you are like me, you are planning your marketing strategies for 2023! I wanted to reach out to you as I am hosting my first free workshop of the year and I think it will speak to you. I will be sharing my exact strategy to close 6+ clients a month through speaking, social media and mastering sales online without ads, a big audience or a big team. Let’s scale and make a bigger impact in 2023! Register for free here LINK.
My interpretation of what is important to you: the number of people attending your webinar. Since we've never even talked before, there's no possible way you could know that it would speak to me. Also, if you knew me, you would know that generic marketing advice is something I actually hate.
Being intentional about delivering a human experience to people: I'm sure this person went through all their connections and searched for entrepreneurs. Effective for THEM. But not helpful to me. So, my interpretation is that you don't actually care about helping me, you just care about spreading your message. With an inauthentic vibe, no less.
GRADE = D
What kind of response did this get? An ignore. Which is actually a whole lot better than a delete. But not when it comes to funnel. There a TINY bit more of a relationship because we're already connected. And it's not quite enough to make me block you, but it's definitely not taking the relationship anywhere.
Webinars
Since the last item spoke to webinars, let's look at those next. Just one more version of mass one-way communication, framed as a personalized help model.
Let's be honest. Webinars are GENERIC. And they are based on what a COMPANY wants to say, not based on what you need to hear.
A quick LinkedIn search led to me this title:
FREE WEBINAR > How Financial Advisors Gain New Clients on Linked In (without being great at sales or technology).
BONUS: when I go to the company's website, the first thing I am offered is a download of 12 Proven Copy-and-Paste Email Templates to Get Appointments NOW
My interpretation of what is important to you: selling a solution you have that is related to getting clients on LinkedIn. All of the "testimonials" are financial related, so that says to me that you're about money over everything else. Plus, from the Bonus, I interpret that you don't care about authenticity, because that's not generated from copy-and-paste activities.
Being intentional about delivering a human experience to people: In all of the interactions I had with this brand as part of the research for this article, there were 0 things that made me feel like I was seeing the real version of this person. I'm sure they're successful, and they might even have a great solution. I just can't TELL that from the brand experience. So, I opt out.
GRADE = D
You know that whole thing people say about how marketing should help people Know, Like and Trust you? Well, trust feels like it's being avoided in this scenario, even through I believe the results are real. It just feels like a show. A show I want to leave behind and forget about (like the CATS Puppet Theatre show I saw in Prague 😂).
What Grades would YOU give?
What I'm learning about myself through this exercise, is that I'm a People Person. Not that I didn't know that before, but when it comes to grading my experience, I need to feel like a person FIRST before I can start to believe that you are the right person to help me.
I realize that not all people are the same. So perhaps you would have given these examples different grades. And that's OK. The important thing to look at is the grade YOU gave. And then, extrapolate YOUR activities to see where you would rank them.
Now, of course, the tactic isn't actually the problem...
Did you pick up the actual fail points in each of these scenarios? It's not that someone SENT an InMail Message. It's not that someone sent an Unsolicited DM. And it's not that someone hosted a webinar.
It's that those tactics didn't reflect who those people are as humans.
You COULD send an InMail message to someone thanking them for sharing a piece of content that was meaningful to you.
You COULD send an Unsolicited DM to someone checking in on them because you knew that their dad was sick.
You COULD create a conversation on social media BEFORE your webinar so people could actually learn what you are all about.
The tactic is NEVER the problem. It's the intention (or lack thereof).
When you know what kind of brand experience you want to create online, you can do it. You can use any of the above tactics, or any of the hundreds of other tactics, to create your unique brand experience.
But when we forget about the experience we want to create in favor for doing more things faster, we end up creating the examples above.
Sales. Marketing. In-Person. Online. Authenticity is available in ALL of these places. If you actually care about a brand reputation that can stand the test of time (or a recession).
My brand is the MOST important thing to me. I don't just believe in authenticity. It's who I am. And if that didn't come across in my digital experience, I would NOT be OK with that.
If you're like me, let's chat. You can never have too many peeps supporting your authentic digital brand experience 💖
