Which marketing strategy is the best: rude and aggressive or calm and friendly?
"Rude and aggressive" I mean outbound, e.g., email bombing, all these follow-ups and short calls to explain, usually enterprise ones.
And "calm and friendly" is inbound: content marketing, friendly updates etc.
Which brings better results and why?
The best marketing strategy depends on the product or service being marketed, the target audience, and the goals of the marketing campaign. In general, however, rude and aggressive marketing tactics are less effective than calm and friendly ones. Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to purchase products from companies that they perceive to be friendly and helpful, rather than those that come across as angry or pushy. Additionally, aggressive marketing can alienate potential customers and damage a company's reputation.
Maybe in the short term you'll get results with aggressive outbound, but for longer term success you 100% need to invest in content, brand etc.
To start with try to strike a balance between the two. Eg having and outbound email + cold call strategy (and these don't necessarily have to be 'rude + aggressive'), while investing in social/blog/in-person or virtual events.
Outbound guy here! But trust me, I've never killed anyone.
Like everything it depends on what you're after.
Obviously talking 1on1 with customers doesn't scale well, but there are many scenarios where it makes sense, like if you're still trying to validate your product, if you need marketing material, or if you're working on closing "big" B2B deals just to name a few.
But please, never be "rude and aggressive" especially if you're after long-term customers. There is nothing wrong with reaching out to potential customers but spamming random people is not really a thing.
No "calm" game works with outbound. I mean, one touch does not really work. Let's say we have 1000 cold leads. Sending the first email and waiting for a response isn't a working tactic. To make it really work, we should send follow-ups again and again. right?
That's why I call it "aggressive". Otherwise, it does not work and just burns resources.
Yes, but do not expect a 100% conversion rate even with endless follow-ups.
In the end, you're trying to prove if that person it's actually a lead or not. Once you've understood it's not your job is done.
I think you can reframe the debate a little bit. Instead, pick an enemy.
Think the old apple commercials Mac vs PC (cool, young, fun vs old, slow, boring).
You can broadcast how you're better than the alternative by using a more "rude and aggressive" approach when you rally against a common enemy of your customers.
What if customers believe there is no enemy?
Thank you for the good thoughts. I'll definitely take the advice to use the approach "Mac vs PC".
An enemy doesn't have to be competition directly! Maybe your "enemy" is a spreadsheet that takes too long to accomplish the same task your SaaS does in seconds.
I think that there is definitely some middle ground here.
Nobody likes email spamming and endless follow-ups. But dedicating resources to content marketing is also worthless if you never build up an audience that wants your content.
There can be a balance- which I believe would bring the best result.
Yes, trying both is a very good tactic.
But I see that the "rude" one brings results faster. It is definitely harder, but compared with "calm," it seems much faster. In a position of limited resources, it is quite difficult to choose where to put more power, since "rude" direction takes a lot of energy.
It depends of the math of your business.
You can get results much quicker with "rude and aggressive" but you want to switch ASAP to "calm and friendly".
However for some niche, you are stuck with one of the other.
E.g.
If you build a product as a media with a strong community, trying to be aggressive won't work. It can even have negative effect.
If you build a product where people have a very painful problem and you can solve it quick, "rude and aggressive" is not a problem for them. Just be honest, get straight to the point and be prepare to receive a LOT of NO rapidly.
Also, let's say than you estimate a 0.5% conversion rate for finding your first early adopters.
You might need to send at least 2000 outbound and hundred of calls. Is running a "Rude and aggressive" will work for you ?
Thank you for the valuable comment. It gives me something to think about.
In my case, it works 100%. Pure b2b, long funnels, and outbound should bring results faster.
who does 'rude and aggressive'?
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