Marketing for freelance: Expert says I’m on the right track

Live phone conversations are the way to go in 2016. Email lists are likely to fail.

To be honest, an article in the January 2016 issue of the American Marketing Association’s Marketing News by Pete Gracey doesn’t say I’m right. Gracey doesn’t even acknowledge I’m alive. Still, he and I are on the same wavelength.

In his “Five Must-Know Sales and Marketing Predictions for 2016,” he writes that “the use of automated e-mail for sales prospecting will get punched in the face.” He claims that open rates will drop precipitously and that email is too impersonal.

Actually, I believe that open rates have already dropped and that unsubscribe rates remain modest because people are so overwhelmed with floods of email that they won’t even take the time to cancel. (Anyway, many of us fear that when we unsubscribe, we are acknowledging that the account is live, possibly encouraging more spam.)

Then Gracey predicts that live phone conversations will make a marketing comeback as emails fall to the wayside because “customers and prospects seek authentic engagements.”

Yep, that’s what I’ve been saying all along.

The telephone has been around for a long time but it continues to excel as a communications medium. For complex conversations, it allows more nuances of expression and prevents misunderstandings. It’s warmer and more friendly.

And it’s the fastest, most efficient way to exchange information, ideas and emotions.

Want to market your freelance services more effectively? Why not simply pick up the phone.

(Here’s a link to a summary of the AMA article. The summary falls far short of the full article, which is available online only to organization members.)

Originally posted 2-15-16