The skills you develop spending Thanksgiving with the in-laws could prove invaluable to your next online marketing campaign.
Thanksgiving is almost upon us. For many of you, this might mean a trip to the in-laws’ house for a family dinner. Maybe you get along with your in-laws. Maybe they think you’re hopeless letch that has never been good enough for their son/daughter. Regardless, you’re going there for Thanksgiving dinner, and you need to mind your P’s and Q’s.
Fortunately, the skills you develop by making it through dinner at the in-laws can translate to online marketing. Yes, that’s right; online marketing is just like eating a large holiday meal with your in-laws. Or pretty close, at least. Here are a few of the lessons you can take from Thanksgiving dinner and apply to your future online marketing campaigns:
You don’t ask for money right away.
When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, do you immediately lean over to your father-in-law and ask for a $10,000 loan to cover the crippling credit card bills from your wife’s designer shoe habit? Do you just smack down a request for several grand to replace the funds your husband drained from the kids’ college funds during his last trip to Vegas? No, dummy, not if you want that cash.
First, you gotta butter up the old man like a Thanksgiving turkey. Start small, with some easy table talk and idle chit-chat. Talk about areas of common interest—and listen as much as you talk. Provide some value—give away some useful information and wow him with some interesting tidbits on his favorite topics. Show that you’re not a total waste of space and that those disapproving looks he shot you all night at your wedding weren’t warranted. Then let it marinate. At that point, after he’s had a few glasses of wine and he’s gazing warmly over his family, then you can subtly slide in the money request.
Internet marketing works the same way. You can’t just show up in someone’s online space and clobber him over the head with a sales pitch. You have to join the conversation, listen to your prospects, participate in their world. Then add some value. Teach them something, provide some insights, free content, free online tools, things they can use. When you’ve built up some trust and engendered yourself to a community, then can you suggest that they check out your products and services. If you jump the gun, then you’re just blindly advertising, which is a whole different Butterball.
Don’t bring the Spam.
Thanksgiving dinner is a special occasion. Even if your in-laws are total dead beats living in a foreclosed former meth house, you still want to put your best foot forward. For example, if you’re in charge of a dish, make something fresh and tasty. Don’t show up with a can of Spam or any other pre-packaged garbage. You’ll just embarrass yourself and your “food” will go straight into the trash.
Similarly, don’t SPAM your audience in the online world. Much like your in-laws’ table, the Internet has rules of social decorum. Don’t show up and thrown down a bunch of unwanted, pre-packaged garbage. You’ll just embarrass yourself and your “content” will go straight into the trash.
Control your portions.
Thanksgiving is a festival of gluttony, but experienced eaters understand that there’s an art to feasting. You can’t just scarf down six pounds of meat and four helpings of the double chocolate mousse and expect to fit in any of your pants the next day. Instead, mix it up; have some vegetables, maybe some starch, maybe a legume or two. Give yourself a well-rounded experience, or you’ll be the well-rounded experience.
Same goes for online marketing, particularly on social media. You can’t just promote yourself over and over, with every single post. Many digital marketers recommend a 10:4:1 ratio for social media posts. That means that for every 15 social media posts, 10 should be purely informational posts linking to other people’s content, 4 should be links promoting your own content and 1 should be a specific offer or direct sales promo. That’s a loose guideline, but the point is: Watch your portions and don’t over-serve your audience. If you do, they’ll hate you the next day when they’re all bloated from your salesy junk food.
Like this article? Want to learn more, or maybe just need an excuse to avoid your in-laws this Thanksgiving. Then drop us a line. We promise not to call you back until the food coma has worn off.
