For me it might be this:
I click on an advert purporting to be from a comparison service.
I give them some details, on the understanding that they will send me some general information about the service, along with some suggestions for potential suppliers.
I am a bit suspicious when they ask for a phone number, but I give them the benefit of the doubt.
I am even more suspicious when at the end of the survey, just after I click submit, I’m told that ‘Solar UK Compare’ is actually part of Prism Marketing.
That suspicion is confirmed when I get notified by ‘Solar UK Compare’ of an upcoming phone call from the sole supplier they’ve ‘matched’ to my needs.
By the time I get the phone call, I’ve checked out their website. They’re based in Southampton and from the look of them, I decided they’re not for me.
So when I get the phone call I just let them know I was expecting information, rather than a sales call, and ended there.
To my mind, a most dishonest form of marketing.
Details are captured on one side of the platform, by lying about what the platform is, then, I suspect, sold as ‘hot leads’ to the highest bidder on the other side of the platform, when they are actually nothing of the sort.
Both sides lose. Only the platform wins.
This is of course nothing more than Google or Bing or any comparison site already does, with slightly more transparency.
But it’s not marketing. It’s hustle.
And it’s not just dishonest, it’s also incredibly inefficient. How many ‘hot leads’ turned out to be people who were just trying to do some research?
If you’re a business seeking to grow your client base, you’d do much better to spend your money really understanding what makes you tick and therefore what makes you the best solution for a unique subset of ‘everyone’.
Then you can focus your marketing spend on attracting *only* them, honestly, openly and transparently.
You’ll get fewer ‘hot leads’, but more loyal customers, who save you even more marketing budget by telling others like them.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
Ask me how.
