Want Business? Don’t Bury The Good Stuff.
This shows up in my in-box - New White Paper: Five ways to increase efficiency while cutting costs The pitch is:
With rising expectations to deliver immediate and personalized service and support in businesses of all sizes, organizations in the midmarket are coming under increasing pressure to do so with fewer resources. In turn, organizations must find new ways to optimize operational and business process efficiency. Read this paper for a look at five challenges facing organizations today and how a secure network can provide your business with a new way of doing business to improve efficiency and cut costs.
Run! Run! It’s the Attack of the Corporate Crap Monster!
This “free” paper, “sponsored by Cisco” may well have some great things in it. But, I’ll never know because:
1. The title and summary bore the bejesus out of me. (Why not call it, “5 Things You Can Do To Save Money and Still Blow ‘em Away With Your Service.” Yeah, that needs work, but I wrote it in about 1.5 seconds…) And, what the Hell is the “midmarket?” Am I part of it? Do I care? What? What?
2. It’s another very poorly disguised “lead generation” c’mon. When I click on the “learn more” link to verify my suspicions…yep, I land at IDC where I have to click again to get to this form…to get TWO WHOLE PAGES. That’s one page more than the flippin’ form.
You also have to notice (among all the BIG BOLD type and yadda-yadda) and click on a box next to this shadowy tiny text to NOT receive anything else.
Not only does IDC not have me as a “lead” - I’m now predisposed against any pitch they may give me.
(Tip: Forcing people to fill out a long form does not mean they’re a lead, much less a good one.)
Related Posts:
Oh Boy! A Free Account Review!
Hello Am Ex? Free Should Be Free
Want truly free stuff from me? Go to - ta-dah! - Free Stuff. You can also sign up to download my free Marketing Troubleshooter Guide and receive a short monthly eletter (up there at the left.) All I need is your name and email address. And, nothing else will be popping up in your inbox but the monthly eletter.
P.S. Yes, that photo is exactly what it looks like.
During WWII the American GIs, trying to be good guys as they advanced through the French countryside, would diligently work to move ginormous manure piles out of farmers’ yards. The farmers moved the stuff right back. Next group of GIs move it…Farmers (sigh) move it back. And round and round they went. Puzzled GIs, “Why do they have all this crap in their yards?” Increasingly ticked-off farmers, “Why do this clueless people keep moving my great pile of merde?”
Don’t say you never learn anything here.
Tags: emarketing, business development, marketing troubleshooting, IDC
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