Spam me on Black Friday

Yesterday, a Tuesday, I received over 100 emails in my Gmail promotions, most of them marketing Black Friday promotions. I deleted all of them.

I opened Instagram and my feed was littered with ads. Some of the ads are relevant, some are the same as the emails I deleted. But honestly, most of the time I’m just confused- did I follow this person/thread? How do I know this person/company again? And, where are the cat videos?

I even deleted my Instagram yesterday.

I gave up cable TV in my 20’s. Deleted Facebook years ago. Snap & Pinterest, couldn’t get into it. Tiktok, no. Twitch, nope. Youtube…I have an adblocker for the few occasions I do use it. I’m missing some others, so you know the answer is a “no” to those as well.

Essentially all of these emails and apps (aka advertising channels) have made me an exhausted consumer. The irony, as my spending ability has increased, the fewer channels I am willing to tolerate. Can anyone relate?

Gif of a delete button on a yellow background

BLACK FRIDAY MARKETING CRINGE

The thought of Black Friday is giving me anxiety and is leaving me feeling totally conflicted as a marketer.

If you’re in marketing- are you taking the batch and blast approach this year for Black Friday & the Holiday season?

If my inbox is any indication of the answer, then I have a feeling many people will be answering “yes” to that question.

I know, from my own experience, many marketers will feel like they have to take the batch and blast approach to try and maximize profits during an incredibly important time for companies. I get it!

But how can we as marketers do exactly the thing that we hate as a consumer?

The answer I keep coming back to is short term profits outweigh the long term value of the customer and the cost of acquisition is super low. Is that really true though? Or are we digging ourselves into a costly and exhausting hole by blasting our customers trying to maximize short term profits and potentially losing out on a greater long term profit?

In order for the above to really be true- the cost of acquisition would have to be low and/or declining. Meaning it doesn’t matter if you lose customers because it’s cheap to get new ones!

Well, if you are losing paying customers faster than you gain them your LTV will start taking a hit as well which would mean your CoA will have to keep decreasing to truly maximize profits.

So where exactly does this leave us?

Essentially, we are taking a risk with the batch and blast approach that is probably more costly than we realize or have the data available to calculate.

So what do we do?

WE TARGET CUSTOMERS

Can we agree that there are only so many non-relevant blasts a customer can receive until they fatigue, or worse, unsub?

Batch and blast is essentially casting a really wide net over the entire lake hoping that you catch all the fish in it. The thing is that you are also going to get a lot of other crap in the net and completely deplete your future fish supply. How do you cast a wide net without getting the unwanted stuff too, like low open rates and unsubscribes?

There is a more efficient way to maximize your revenue potential, maximize the LTV of customers, and maintain a healthy opt-out rate. It’s targeting. And, it’s not too late to start adding it to your campaign plan and even replacing some of your generic mass campaigns with targeted and more specific messages.

Insert an extremely shameless plug for my place of work – Tinyclues! We are using AI to help you identify marketing opportunities customers will react to and target customers who are most likely to purchase.

MANAGE FATIGUE

Time and again my coworkers and I witness the marketing teams we work with increase the number of campaigns being deployed, even increasing the average number of campaigns received by customers – their opt-out rates decline while they hit their revenue targets. How? Because they are sending their customers what is relevant through intelligent targeting methods without losing sight of their business goals. Casting a targeted net.

For the consumer, I imagine it is like listening to a well-curated playlist that feels like it was made just for you as opposed to having to listen to the same top 40 songs playing on the radio over and over again.

It seems too good to be true- well it’s not, it’s real, just like your curated Spotify playlist is real. At the same time, I recognize it’s not easy to try something new! Without Instagram, I have to find The Dodo videos online now. Wish me luck.

P.S. If it’s too late for you to start planning to target your customers more efficiently for Black Friday and this Holiday season- well the New Year, Valentine’s Day, and Mother’s Day are just around the corner too.