Tara Hunt writes an open letter to marketers:
"At every step of the way, I have to lament the fact that I was
missing yet ANOTHER item to complete my experience…yet…when I turned
around to seek out those items, NOBODY WAS THERE. Nada. Nope. Y’all
were too busy running around the interwebs sending unsolicited emails,
gaming Google search results, planting awful banner ads where nobody
wants them and setting up MySpace and Facebook pages that everyone
mocks.You see where I’m getting with this?
Now, my buddy Doc Searls and a group of really smart folks have been working on this thing called VRM
(stands for Vendor Relationship Management), which gets at solving the
issue that I’m talking about. In basic terms, it puts the customer in
charge of when the vendor can deliver messages.Now, I know what
you are thinking: “Customers in charge? What about ME? I’m trained to
get the word out there! Haven’t you ever heard of branding?” Yep. I’ve
heard of it and I also see it declining in relevance. Truly long
lasting brands are those who build RELATIONSHIPS with their customers,
who then go off and recommend them to others they have RELATIONSHIPS
with. Those pop up ads? Billboards? Television commercials? They are
just interrupting people, which ends up annoying them. Do you stay in a
RELATIONSHIP with someone you are annoyed with? Nope.Believe me,
this VRM stuff is not only good for customers, but it is good for YOU
as well. It puts you firmly in the position of being exactly where you
need to be (available) when the customer has money in hand, poised to
purchase. It puts you in the role of helpful sidekick. It makes you
indispensably useful."
