Everyone knows the drill: it’s dinner, the phone rings, a telemarketer tries to sell you something that you don’t want or need. It’s painful telling the person on the other end to can it. You feel impolite, but are not going to waste your time on a forced conversation about spending your money on something that has no value to you. These interruptions are frustrating and annoying to consumers, and are costly and ineffective to the growth of businesses. There has to be a better way to market…
Invitation marketing is an approach to campaigns that allows for people to be invited to a brand. With this, there is an embedded politeness and respect for the consumer. Because there is so much of everything, it’s important for brands to set themselves apart; people can and will go elsewhere if they don’t feel valued as customers. The “invite” allows for a lot of really positive brand to consumer interactions: it offers them a service, it includes them in the brand, and it targets those who are more likely to be interested. Instead of throwing a sign onto a billboard and hoping that the right person looks up, invitation marketing redirects the product to the person in a specialized and considerate way.
Invitation marketing creates a bond
Everybody likes to be invited to parties or events, and everybody likes to feel included. With invitation marketing campaigns, there is an inherent inclusivity attached to the discovery of a product. A person that you know and respect is inviting you to be a part of something that they think that you would appreciate. Why not sign up?
Do NOT pardon the interruption
Where invitation marketing is tailored to an individual or a directed collective, interruption marketing is the opposite. It’s cowboy marketing: cavalier, wild and unrelenting. Whether these campaigns arrive as ads, phone calls or television commercials, they are unrelated to what you need and want. Generally, you’re forced to watch them. Interruption marketing works because people end up taking in the information – albeit, into that section of your brain that imbibes and discards without exertion – but ultimately, a real sense of genuine respect is lost.
For example, Google’s system of tapping into your desires and placing ads that are “suited” to you has been described as “creepy.” What isn’t creepy is having someone that is in – or has been in – your work or social circle invite you to engage with a company. When a person invites you to engage with their business, your time spent researching is decreased and what you really need, can be delivered. Your time is valuable.
The CloudSponge approach to invitations
That’s where and how CloudSponge can add to your business’ honesty, integrity and familiarity. CloudSponge is a contact-importer widget that can be quickly integrated into your referral program. It allows customers to access their address books to select which contacts they would like to share your business with. By eliminating the time-consuming process of manually typing in multiple email addresses, you increase the amount of people who will follow through and refer others. By allowing people to share your brand, business or product with their email contacts, CloudSponge is changing the game for sharing with its focused approach.
Not only does having a referral program, augmented with CloudSponge’s contact importer widget, on your website mean that there will be regular sharing of your brand amongst friends and colleagues, it means that your brand comes across as one that is built on trust, accented with inclusivity, and most importantly, accurately targeted. In a way, invitations and referrals are bringing manners back, and CloudSponge is making it easier to do so. People receive information from a source that they trust to provide them with products that directly serve and interest them. Why not put a face (of a friend) to a product?
Client growth starting with a personal referral…? Now that sounds like the right way to market.
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