Automated marketing thingies... do they actually work?

[Ilyra Chardin]

As a consumer, recently, I’ve been flooded with notecards, pictures and "green chat," that tells me that thus and such merchant made something.  I’ve been offered demos and free gifts that I haven’t' asked for and occasionally told how to opt out of their direct-to-consumer marketing blitz.  I find the whole thing rather distasteful and annoying; much in the same way that I opt out of the annoying email updates from online stores in RL.  In SL, I find it to be even more annoying and it makes me not want to buy another thing from that seller.

Do those of you that use them find that they work?  Do those of you that receive them like getting automated chat, notecards, pictures, demos, etc?  Does it make you want to buy more from that merchant?

I'm not entirely sure if the new policy changes that are being proposed will stop the ability for direct-to-consumer spam, but I can honestly say that if they do, it will be the one thing that I would find great about the new proposed changes.

Thoughts?

[Alicia Sautereau]

Had it happen on 2 accounts with Noya, spam galore and just muted her...

[Zanara Zenovka]

I get them from the merchants whose lists I've subscribed to. I joined cos I like their stuff, and yes I open them, read them, and sometimes TP to buy/look.

I send the same to my list when I have news stuff/specials and people turn up to buy.

So yes they do work in these instances.

Question should prolly be: Why are you getting all these notices you don't want?

[Ilyra Chardin]

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Zanara Zenovka wrote:

Question should prolly be: Why are you getting all these notices you don't want?

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I don’t think that every merchant that does this has the "opt in" feature.  I think they're just pulling the names of anyone who ever bought one item from them.  I don't want to name names; some of them have been very nice about taking my name off of their list when i ask them to.  But i wish I didn't have to deal with what i consider spam and having to notify them.  I'd rather that they do what you have suggested - ask people if they want to subscribe.

There are instances when I am repeat customer and others where I buy one thing, don't like it and don't buy there again.  The funny thing is, the ones that have spammed me the most, in general, are the ones that I only bought one item from (and I didn't like it.)

[Pamela Galli]

If I get unsolicited spam, which is very rare, I mute and AR them and/or the sending object.

It's pretty hard to tell if some marketing approach works or not in SL; but in RL, yes, spam works enough to make the negilible cost worthwhile; otherwise no one would do it. But in RL you can't just mute them.

[Ilyra Chardin]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

If I get unsolicited spam, which is very rare, I mute and AR them and/or the sending object.

It's pretty hard to tell if some marketing approach works or not in SL; but in RL, yes, spam works enough to make the negilible cost worthwhile; otherwise no one would do it. But in RL you can't just mute them.

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I mute them also, if they don't respond and don't take me off their lists. However, I don't AR as i don't view the meaning of AR to be Annoyance Report.  

[Zanara Zenovka]

Yeah it's not very smart marketing to annoy your customers, esp if you're trying to build a long-term relationship.

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Ilyra Chardin wrote:

The funny thing is, the ones that have spammed me the most, in general, are the ones that I only bought one item from (and I didn't like it.)

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Interesting that you should say that - I find my response to notices definitely depends on the quality. I read a lot of them - as well as my subscribed lists, i'm also in groups like "What's New SL", and i also encourage my customers to add me to their lists, cos I'm interested in what they're doing, so I do get quite a lot.

I look at nearly everything I get, and it seems like the ones with bad copy or photos also 'feel' more like spam. Whereas, conversely, I'm also in Pamela's (above) list, and although the chances of me ever buying a kitchen or house are next to none, I read her notices every week cos the quality is great and the photos are just nice to look at.

Relevance is an issue too - if you're actually interested in something it doesn't seem like spam, which is where smarter target marketing comes in (starting with restricting mail to those who've requested it). I've very occasionally sent notices to all owners of a certain product, to notify them of a new product that's designed as an addition or improvement to what they already have, and those are well received (and there's usually some sort of discount structure involved). In fact I think more people would be annoyed if they didn't hear about it, but this only works because I've put a lot of effort into knowing what my customers do and their business needs.

[Sassy Romano]

I don't want to waste anybody's time just blinding marketing to anyone in as much as if I rent a spot, i'm not interested in just "how much traffic" but "what sort of traffic".

I'd rather market to 10 very interested individuals than 1000 who have no relationship or interest and then i'd rather do as much as I can to keep their subsequent interest since it's easier to sell to an existing satisfied customer than to find a new one.

As a result, I do use a mailer (waves to Zanara) and that's on a subscription opt-in basis only and messages are sent infrequently.

[Chelsea Malibu]

Personally, I hate them.  I don't even spam my customers with group joins or landmark givers when they go to my store.  If they want a LM I have a giver they can click. If they want to join my group,  they can join from a kiosk in my store.

Lately, I've been getting a ton of spam from stores I only visited and have never purchased from nor joined their group meaning I never opted in for their spam.  When I get spam like that, I pretty much guarantee I wont use that merchant.  I also mute them.

[BlackMagi Darkwatch]

We use an opt-in gadget (also waves at Zanara) and like Sassy, we send very infrequently to people who have chosen to receive messages  (first one this year went out end of February – next one possibly around June).   

When I receive notecards from a couple of my favourite stores I will normally pop over and check out the latest offerings and that is then only if I am actually in the market for something.  I don’t usually AR as a simple mute will normally suffice for those notecards that turn up out of the blue after hitting a welcome mat or similar, especially if frequently sent and I really do have no interest.

[Deja Letov]

I subscribe to a few lists through the kiosk method and those I subscribe to, yes I absolutely do read them. Most are for other creators whos products I buy like sculpty  or texture makers, but I have a few others as well, but all are ones I subscribed to. I noticed in the last couple of weeks I have gotten a couple from shops I just visited and one from someone I purchased something from the Marketplace. That annoys the heck out of me. If I wanted to hear about your stuff I would have asked for it. I do use them for my own shop and I send out something maybe once a week if that. And I can tell you mine is completely by choice through touching a kiosk and they can remove themselves any time by touching that same kiosk. Do they work? Absolutely. Anytime I send out a notice, for about 4-6 hours my sim is usually populated by many shoppers coming to see whatever it is that I just announced.