Quantity versus Quality marketing - what is the right formula?

It's an age-old debate, where do you stand when it comes to quantity versus quality?  What is the right formula for your marketing?  How do you judge success on social media, email marketing or other types you use?

The fascinating thing about all the mass marketing techniques you can adopt is the percentage of those who are potential buyers is usually less than 1%.  The 'letterbox' drop is a good example.  It is used by real estate agents all the time.  The response rate is tiny.  They spend a bit of money on the flyer/magnet/letter (produced on mass) and then delivered by relatively cheaply or do it themselves.  It works for them because every new listing is worth thousands of dollars to them, so one response gives a return.  

For most businesses that sort of ROI is not likely.  

The modern equivalent is the electronic direct mail (EDM) or mass email/newsletter sent to an extensive database (either you own or one you purchase).  There are three types of productions in this category. The first are those who do it professionally utilising great design and well-written copy tailored for their business.  The second subscribes to a service which puts a brand on a generic production.  The third do it themselves with too much text and very little graphics.  In the end, the response rate is less than 1% unless what you are selling is cheaper products.

Of course, there is mass advertising in its various forms as well.   

The alternative is the pursuit of quality.

Where do you stand?

The time factor

Are you looking for a short-term gain or longer-term sustainability?  Often the argument for quantity-based marketing is guided by very short-term strategies.  When you send out something on mass, it is rarely tailored; you are instead relying on hope.  Hope that someone will want what you are offering at the time you choose to send it to them.  

When you take on a short-term strategy based on quantity marketing, you are revealing your hand to your audience - you want business now.  You are not interested in relationship building, just a quick sale.  While that may boost your bottom line now, it has virtually no impact down the track.  You have to keep repeating the exercise, each time casting the net wider.

If you keep going to the same people all the time, you will turn people away.

If you take a quality approach to your marketing, you are showing you care about your audience; you are interested in their needs.  Service-based industries can teach those marketing more physical-based products.  For example, the dentist does not send out a mass email to all patients saying you must all book your check-up appointment for the same date. 

Instead, they schedule appointments six months on from your last one.  

No matter what type of product you offer, if you want quality leads, you need to build a strategy based on building awareness for your brand and long-term relationships.  Those relationships don't need to be one on one.

If you keep your brand current, you keep offering content, advice and expertise to your audience as and when they need it, then you are focussed on the relationship; this a brand-building focus.  

An example of the wrong approach

Recently I saw an example of someone running a 'lead-loss' promotional campaign.  The strategy has its merits in banking on your ability to upsell and helps build a database.  The reason for the approach was actually to build some quick equity in the business to sell it.

The problem is two-fold, a smart finance person will pick up quickly what he has done, but even more to the point was the nature of the campaign.  It all centered around the business owner - he was very much the face of the campaign.

A change in ownership would mean any net gain from the activity would be lost.  He needed quality, not quantity.  

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