Unlike the name suggests, it's not about marketing of spaghetti ;-)
I am talking about the 'do something' attitude applied to marketing. It is like throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.
Well, not a lot, as we all know. And it just creates a mess. I'd like you to hear me out.
As funny as it sounds, it is much worse than you think. It's often not even fun to do it because it's done out of desperation. It is a waste of time and money on something that has little to no effect. But at least, you are doing 'something', right?
Wrong. It's actually bad—really bad—and a whole industry, and, unfortunately, many people make a living off it. They tell you to advertise more, print more, send more emails and texts—just throw more stuff in the face of... somebody. It's also often referred to as a 'Spray & Pray' because it's built on the (unsubstantiated) hope that something good will come out of it.
Your e-mail inbox (check your junk/ spam folder just for a few seconds!) is full of embarrassing, stupid, annoying stuff thrown your way in the hope that something good will come out of it. Just look around you, turn on your radio or your TV (how many Liberty Mutual and Progressive insurance spots did you notice in one day?). Yes, it's bad.
Why is it bad?
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It's not effective, because most of it does absolutely nothing.
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It's not efficient because it is often very challenging to link the efforts directly to the results.
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It has an overall negative effect on any future interaction. Because it creates noise.
It clogs our senses, and we get numb to important messages. We often can't find what we are looking for anymore because somebody is constantly throwing a handful of spaghetti at us and seeing what sticks. It's a distraction at best; it's outright annoying most of the time. And we rarely earn any respect for doing it—it's often the opposite. We are regarded as 'spam' or 'junk'.
Why do we do it anyway and is there a better way?
'Everybody is doing it' sounds logical, but it is the worst reason because it just exacerbates the problem.
If your flyer or email is getting a response rate of only 1%, i.e.,, you send it to 100 contacts and only 1 person responds, the logical answer to getting more responses seems to be to send it to 1000 contacts—so you get 10 responses.
We care about the 10 responses and ignore that we have annoyed 990 contacts with an irrelevant message. Increasing the frequency means annoying more people more often.
So, what's the way out?
The obvious secret with any messaging is to be relevant, i.e., deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Too difficult? Think again.
You got 1% response, that's a fact. So, find out why your message was relevant to the 1%- what did you do right (1%) vs. wrong (99%). And then try again and try harder, without annoying the $#!/ out of people. It's tough at first but don't you owe your target audience and yourself a little more respect?
Impossible? Too hard? I would like to give you an example:
I am in charge of a neighborhood newsletter. We have 700+ contacts in our list and a 60%+ opening rate every week. My data also shows that those people are sometimes different from the same people. So, over a quarter, over 90% engage with our content and think it is relevant to them.
That makes us feel good about it because we are not spamming people; we are doing them a service. It's hard to stay relevant and come up with engaging content, but if we don't have any, we just refrain from sending anything out (e.g., throwing spaghetti at my neighbors). We also watch the engagement data very closely. Out of respect.
Does any of that have something to do with the Rainbow Box? I believe so.
What is the Rainbow Box?
First of all, it's a gift. And from my research, it's still very unexpected for pet owners who suffered a loss. It feels like a random act of kindness because it (sadly) is still pretty rare.
At its heart, it is a bereavement gift veterinarians offer to pet owners who have recently lost a beloved companion.
In my book, it's one of the kindest forms of marketing because its primary purpose is to give something to the client without an immediate expectation of a return. And that makes it so powerful.
But it also makes it so rewarding for those who give. Because it is highly relevant. Every single Rainbow Box reaches exactly the right person at the right time. When it is needed the most.
It represents the final gesture of support following the pet's death and cremation. It symbolizes closure and honors the client's longstanding loyalty to the veterinary practice.
It also offers some closure to the vet, the technicians, and everybody involved because the death of the pet was not your last touchpoint.
To put it more practically, as one vet has said, "You already lost a pet; now you don't want to lose a client."
You are doing something really beautiful. We are doing something beautiful together because I create every Rainbow Box with love and passion. In my entire career as a Marketing Professional, it is truly the only one that I am personally so invested in, both figuratively and literally, and I love it so much.