Famous Last Words : 'Stop Touching Me!'

How Often Should You 'Touch' a Customer or Prospect?
The obvious eight word answer: Only when you have something meaningful to say—something beneficial, such as a terrific offer or, if you are a fundraiser, an overpowering need.

For example, in his WSJ piece, Queenan railed against an enterprising woman in his town "… who runs a business where entrepreneurs share office space. She sends me two or three emails a week, sometimes more than one in a single day, telling me about don't-miss workshops, don't-miss artists' receptions, don't-miss open houses."

Hey, Joe, quit whining. Hit the spam button and get on with your life!

What you do not want is for your customers and prospects to be so fed up with your intrusions that they do a Joe Queenan—tell their friends what a pain in the ass you are and put you into their spam filters. Here is a short checklist to think about before bothering a customer:

• "The prospect or customer doesn't give a damn about you, your company or your product. All that matters is, 'What's in it for me'?" —Bob Hacker

• Make an offer or give a good reason to respond. The exception: The Twining's Tea example of Joe Queenan. These are informational follow-ups where you emphatically do not want to hear from the customer.

• If you don't get any responses, you have no idea whether the message was read. 

• No responses mean no way of measuring the success or failure of your effort.

• "The right offer should be so attractive that only a lunatic would say no." —Claude Hopkins

• "Give the reader a chance to make a deal with you—not tomorrow or next week, but RIGHT AWAY." —Maxwell Sackheim

• "Make it easier to say yes than to say no." —Maxwell Sackheim

• "It must be a bargain in one form or another." —Maxwell Sackheim

• Ruthlessly self-edit.

• "You cannot bore people into buying. The average family is now exposed to more than 1,500 advertisements a day. No wonder they have acquired a talent for skipping the advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and going to the bathroom during television commercials." —David Ogilvy

Denny Hatch is a freelance direct marketing consultant and copywriter, and author of Business Common Sense. Visit him at dennyhatch.com, or contact him via email at dennyhatch@yahoo.com.

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