I tossed it into the recycling bin.

My friends accused me of being anti-calendar, but they missed the point. It wasn’t the calendar that I had an issue with, it was the thoughtless nature of the contact. It seemed pretty obvious all my realtor did was send her contact list + calendars + letters to a mail-house to fulfill. She didn’t even pay the extra $.07  to merge my name onto the letter. Did it make me feel special? Remembered? No, it made me feel like a name on a list. This is 2009, not 1979.

Even back then the more personal a business got the better, but with database marketing still in its infancy the public tolerated, maybe was even flattered, by this type of lazy marketing. “Oh look dear, the realtor sent us a calendar, how nice of her to remember.”

And the thing is, it doesn’t have to be much. Even a simple handwritten sentence at the bottom of the form letter would have made this impersonal mailing something more meaningful. Better still if she had written something about our relationship.

Every contact with your customers is a chance to express how you sincerely value their business. And today customers expect some sort of relationship with the people they do business with. The level of engagement obviously varies depending on the type of business, but a very personalized service like real estate – lazy marketing won’t cut it.

Talk soon.

“Is a Twitter follower or Facebook fan better than an email address?“

William cites a few contests that require you to become a fan or follower to enter – a definite break from the traditional name and address – and reasons a fan or follower is better than getting someone’s email address because it creates an opportunity for two-way interaction between company and consumer, something an email address can’t provide.

I couldn’t agree with him more. Social media channels offer companies a chance to have real interactions with their customers, but is it the silver bullet? Well, yes and no. “Fans and Followers” suffer from the same big challenge “Names and Addresses” do – qualified leads.

The Holy Grail of your consumer database are qualified prospects – people who are actively interested and receptive to your company’s products and services. Culling out the “prize pigs” and whittling your leads down to find qualified ones is just as hard on social channels as it is on traditional ones; 100,000 fans and followers are no more qualified than 100,000 email addresses.

I bring this up because lately I’ve been talking to a lot of people who are “ditching it all for Social Media baby.”

Social Media is a powerful way to connect with customers, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story. If you’re growing your fans and followers mostly through tactics like contests or (God forbid) paying for a service that promises XXX number of people, expect fewer than 25% to make it to your qualified list. If you’re growing your fans and followers organically, through word-of-mouth or community engagement, you can move most of them to your qualified list right away.

I’m not suggesting contests and giveaways are a bad thing, far from it. Just temper your enthusiasm when the sign-ups roll in, you’ve still got some work ahead of you.

It seems like the right thing to do – a courtesy to your visitors – to let them know that you’re hard at work getting your site up. And lots of Bricks and Mortar shops use this as a way to build anticipation to their grand opening. But physical stores have the advantage of actually showing progress (eg. shelving being installed, lighting, drywall, signage, etc), website don’t typically show this. Instead web visitors just see the same “Coming Soon” graphic day after day.

Now  you might be thinking, “So what?” Well here’s the problem with “Coming Soon” – soon means something different to everyone. To you soon might mean six months, or worse, no specific time. But to your web visitors soon could mean two months, two weeks, or two days. So they come “soon” back only to see the same “Coming Soon” graphic. They might give you the benefit of the doubt and come back one or two more times, but if nothing’s changed since their first visit, you’ve likely lost them for good.

What you’re better off doing is either not launching until the site/section is ready, or put down a specific launch date. It doesn’t mean that you have to launch by that date, but at least users know when they can expect an update. If the date rolls around and you’re not ready, post a brief explanation with a new date. Users will actually “see” progress and not get frustrated guessing when “Coming Soon” is coming down.

So… in order to practice what I preach, expect to see this template built out by the end of November 2009. Hope to see you then (or sooner).