In today’s fast-paced world we put huge amounts of pressure and expectation on ourselves and our marketing teams to deliver immediate results. is there another way?

Marketing is exactly like gardening. You plant a seed and nothing happens straight away. You’ve got to be patient and not give up, but continue to water and feed the mound of soil.

Your patience is then rewarded with a strong, healthy shoot pushing through the earth.

But sometimes, we give up, stop paying attention, and move on too quickly because we don’t see results. Often because we’re not putting our customers at the centre of our marketing strategy.

Closing the sale, converting prospects – the word that we are forgetting is that behind these phrases is people.

We are putting pressure on people to buy, and in doing so, losing out on valuable, long-lasting relationships through better connections.

Slow marketing no-no’s

If you want to embrace slow marketing, there are some approaches that just don’t sit with this approach.

Cold calling

Nobody likes receiving an unsolicited call these days – unless it’s to say they’ve won something! Always start with an introductory email or DM and nurture the relationship slowly.

While stocks last

This old-school marketing tactic creates false scarcity – that customers will miss out if they don’t take up the offer just now. Unless it’s an actual clearance sale on a physical product, you might like to steer clear of it as it’s becoming an oversaturated message.

Most customers are savvy to this kind of messaging and know that more often than not it’s a guise.

Bogof

How can anyone resist an irresistible offer? The danger here is that we are feeding overconsumption and mass consumerism, and if you’re simultaneously flaunting your sustainability efforts then the more intentional customer will be put off.

Buy now, pay later

Otherwise known as secure the sale now, receive the cancellation and make the refund later. Buyer’s remorse is so common, and while we agree that it’s important to have affordable payment options for customers, this one-stop solution can be bad for business and mess with your financial accounting.

Whether you’re the business or the consumer, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Actively encourage deliberation

If you actively encourage your customers to think about their decision before they purchase your product/service, in fact even insist that they do – then you’ll gain the right customer, who will hopefully continue to buy from you in the future and help you find more good customers just like them.

Not all customers are made equal.

Encourage deliberation through free trials, nurturing introductory conversations and demonstrations, and tell them to sleep on it! Give something away for free that they find useful enough that they want to come back for more.

Remember – true results take time

We tell our clients that it can take up six months to see results from any marketing activity, particularly when creating organic content and SEO.

If you post something on social media, it’s only seen by a tiny proportion of your followers/connections, but if any of them like or comment on it, then that post is fed to a few more people. If those people then like and comment on the post then it’s given to a few more people… and so on.

Success is accumulative: most online algorithms only give you the green light when it sees that a piece of content has been well-received.

Going viral is less common than you think.

The success of your post is dependent not just on what’s in it, but what you are doing too. If you are active on social media in the immediate hour after you post by liking and commenting on other people, you will be rewarded with the likelihood of more people seeing your post.

While this is one approach, we recommend the best way to connect with your customers is to reach out to them directly, offering them something that’s valuable, and without the hard sell.

This is how to create loyal customers who pass the test of time. Our favourite slow marketing tactic? A client magazine that’s filled with pages of inspiration and usefulness! To find out more, contact us today!