Not my ideal customer - part two

So here’s the other thing.

I’ll admit it’s possible my Ideal Customer may be a whole lot less cranky than I am.

But isn’t it also possible they may, like me, be very tired of being on someone’s mailing list? Tired of endless newsletters and personalized offers of things we never signed up for? In other words, aren’t they tired of constantly being sold to?

If that's true, then how can I use - let's call them persuasive measures - on other people when I don't like them used on me? 

So I'm back to being troubled by all the advice for finding people to take my self-publishing course. (See Part One)

Depending on who you ask – I need to first get someone on my email list. Then set up a series of emails so that I write to everyone on my list every other day. Or maybe just five times. Then follow up with a newsletter. And this is supposed to show that I care.

But suppose again, my Ideal Customer is like me? Wouldn’t they also think being on a mass mailing – even when it’s got our very own name – doesn’t mean the writer cares about us one bit?

It’s a lot like CVS asking me how was my last visit every time I walk out of the store. When I know if CVS cared about my opinion, they’d eliminate that awful woman’s voice who scolds me about not placing items in the checkout area even though I have.  

I’m afraid that during the pandemic, a few too many marketers discovered they had a captive audience. So a free webinar on how to live your best life, buy your first Bitcoin, make a million dollars with a side hustle sounded like a good idea for reaching millions of people at home, working or not, bored and desperate for something to do.

And newsletters, even if they had no real news, were a way to make people feel connected. But do they?

In this week's newsletters, I learned - at least three people don't want me to make the same mistake they made when they started out. The mistake? They didn't build their email list earlier. This means, I guess, they think I wanted to hear from them a year ago. 

At the end of every newsletter, I'm supposed to have what's known as A Call to Action. Meaning we should all sign up for - a master class worth $1200 available right now for $497; a membership circle for only $20 a month; and the one that makes me smile – an even better newsletter for only $97 a year.

I could stick to the news but it turns out both papers I read, the NYTimes and The Washington Post, have figured out how to slip ads in between the paragraphs so I can get the only boots I’ll ever need and a sports bra that won’t make me feel trapped, whenever I want to find out what’s going on in the world.

I digress.

The point is – Where is the advice that will show me what I need to do to reach people so that I’m not repeating all the methods that I, personally, find annoying? I can’t seem to get past believing a lot of other people feel the same way.

Or is it just that, as a customer, I’m less than ideal?
 

Image by Microsoft Design