Expert Advice vs The Sales Pitch

It can be a simple matter of perspective. I mentioned before that I'm a fan of Bliss Sawyer's Marketing Blog. Were I looking for a coach, she'd be on the top of my list, and mostly because of the little kernels of marketing genius that she shares on her blog.

So it was interesting to me that I got a differing opinion when I mentioned Bliss to my Mother. When I say I was born into this industry, I mean it. My Mother is a regional manager for a wholesale lender. Anyway, her opinion of Bliss Sawyer is based on the marketing emails that Bliss sends her. I asked if the emails had the same sort of advice that the blog offers. She didn't know, as she never bothered to look. All she knows is that Bliss sends her a lot of email, that it's one more emial she has to delete to keep her inbox in order, and assumes that the loan originator focused emails really don't apply to her career path anyway. Conversely, I visit Bliss' blog on my own time in search of the very advice that my Mother filters out.

Now, this is not an argument against "push" marketing. It certainly can be effective. But this example makes me wonder if an email campaign might become more effective as the "sales pitch" volume is lowered. Since email is so cheap, it might even make sense to bench the pitch for every two out of three emails, and just focus on offering the sort of information that makes your customer look forward to your next email instead of being annoyed by it.