Today, I spoke to Scott Stratten, who is the president of UnMarketing, and author of the upcoming book, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, which comes out in the fall. In this interview, Scott talks about the difference between marketing and engaging, gives some tips on engaging your audience, and more.
How do you define marketing and how do you define engaging?
Marketing has been about getting the word out of your product or service in front of as many people as you can, figuring if you can get it in front of enough people at once, someone will have the direct, immediate need for it and buy.
Engaging is about building up the three pillars of relationships: Know, Like, Trust. That’s who people do business with by default.
What are some ways to engage your audience?
There are ways to do it in almost every way that you currently communicate. You can start conversations through your current customer database through email, even better lead them to a blog post where you can use threaded comments (those that allow replies attached to the original comment) and have an entire conversation. Using social media like Twitter and Facebook are also great, as long as you realize that social media doesn’t change the fact that building relationships take time. Too many businesses think social media is a new way to peddle their crap. People are there for the most part for the interaction. Understand that before you jump in.
Do you really think it’s impossible to unlearn marketing? Why?
UnLearning anything is hard. We’ve been conditioned to be hypocritical marketers and sellers. People hate receiving cold calls, but try to find better ways of doing it for their own businesses. That’s like learning how to get punched in the face better. It still sucks. The only way to change your way is to believe that business is built on relationships. If so, you have to make building them your business. You can still target and be efficient at it, but it’s tough to “sell” relationships to someone who wants to know an immediate and hard ROI.
What is your Pull & Stay method?
Old marketing was all about “Push & Pray” pushing your marketing message out and praying someone bought. ” Pull & Stay” is all about attracting your market towards you and then staying in front of them, so when they have the need to buy, you’re the logical choice. The key here is top be able to control the “stay” part by getting them to sign-up for your newsletter, blog updates or follow you on Twitter.
How has unmarketing impacted your life both personally and professionally?
Over the past year and a half, just on Twitter alone, I’ve met some of the most talented, funny, caring business owners I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. I launched the blog, got a book deal, doubled revenue and have never had this type of network in my life, both personally and professionally, since they are one in the same for an entrepreneur like me.
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Scott Stratten is the president of UnMarketing. He is an expert in Viral, Social, and Authentic Marketing which he calls Un-Marketing. Over 50,000 people follow his daily rantings on Twitter and was voted one of the top influencers on the site with over 90 million users . His recent Tweet-a-thon raised over $16,000 for child hunger, in less than 12 hours. His book UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging is due to hit the shelves in the Fall of 2010 from Wiley & Sons.His clients’ viral marketing videos have been viewed over 60 million times and has generated massive profits and lists. One of the movies was chosen by the Chicago Bears as their biggest motivator towards their Super Bowl run a few years ago, while another made their client over $5 million in 7 days. He recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Mashable.com, USA Today, CNN.com and Fast Company.
