Yes, Most Marketing Messages Are Ignored

You’re probably wondering, well, I delete most of my emails. Yup. An important concept in marketing: the vast majority of marketing messages are ignored, thrown out, destroyed, right?

When you get the mail from your mailbox, you go in front of the garbage and you go “no, no, no, oh, this is interesting!”

What that means is that it’s a game of numbers.

In direct mail if you get a 1% response rate, you’re a hero. That means that 99% ended up in the garbage.

Same thing with any other marketing tool.

If you’re thinking of buying a car you’re going to pay attention to all the car ads on TV. If you’re not going to be buying a car soon, you’re ignoring it.

If you get a postcard in the mail for lawn maintenance, and your spouse has been complaining about the lawn looking terrible, hhmmm, maybe I should call them.

It’s very hard to determine who is ready to buy when. That’s why in marketing you need to address a broad market, with the hope, when done intelligently, that someone will say “Hey, I’m interested, tell me more.”