Telling Your Friends What You Do Isn't Marketing

A few days ago, Tom Reynolds posted an entry on his blog highlighting how poorly some marketers try to reach out to bloggers. In it he holds up an earlier post of his about a film from one of his friends as a prime example of how people should market to bloggers.

I can’t see how you can call that marketing, apart from in a very small limited sense. My friends all know that I’ve written a to-do list web app, and I’m sure they’ve mentioned it to other people, but that isn’t going to take me very far in my quest to reach everyone that might be helped by my software.

It’s difficult to know how to present my arguments, without coming across like a disgruntled outsider, but I’m interested in finding out what I’m doing “wrong” and hopefully also improving how marketers interact with bloggers.

In the comments on that post, Tom says:

“Actually posting about Gia’s film is perfect, because you have to ask yourself why I’m her friend, and it’s because of the things that she writes on her blog, and does in life that have endeared me to her.

That’s why - it might not scale, but then there are people out there who trust me and will be influenced by my recomendations.”

and Gia (whose film Tom was talking about) adds:

“I’d say if you are working in online marketing and want to ‘use’ bloggers to spread your word, then invest your time and yourself in blogging.”

The only problem with that is that, as Tom says, it doesn’t scale. People who are marketing are looking for things that scale. If Tom is right, then either we end up with lots of marketing people trying to become our friends, or people like Tom who are touting the “How to market to bloggers” talks are selling snake oil. The former sounds like a terrible pollution of the blogging “community”, and if it’s the latter, can someone please let me in on the secret so I can go back to looking for other ways for people to discover my software.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that the mass-emailed I’m-throwing-this-at-as-many-bloggers-as-I-can-find-in-case-one-likes-it is the right way to market to bloggers either. I think the real answer lies somewhere in the middle, which is what I’m trying to do right now. But a lot of it is just leaving the odd comment (where I’ve got something relevant to add) or sending an out-of-the-blue email to someone whose blog I’ve found (and spent some time reading, and checked to see if there are any indicators that they won’t be interested) that might be interested.

I just think this “immerse yourself in blogging” as a marketing strategy is bollocks. I love blogging, and my blog has helped me make all sorts of connections and helped with all sorts of things in life and in my business. But it hasn’t helped me market tedium. Maybe I’ve been too much on the fringe of the “UK blogging ‘gang’” that Gia mentions? Or maybe I’m not good enough at self-promotion? Maybe people don’t realise that I’ve got something to promote, and so don’t help out?

So, in case anyone hasn’t realised…

I’ve written a web app that helps you stay organized and even tells you how well you’re doing, called tedium. I’d love it if you could tell anyone who you think might find it useful. I’m still getting to grips with marketing, so if you’ve got any pointers I’d love to hear more. And finally, if you’ve got any thoughts or opinions on what I’ve been ranting about above, leave a comment or write about it on your blog.