Drip-Irrigation Marketing

November 30, 2008

One of the biggest mistakes that I think marketers make is thinking that their success or failure is made up of large-scale campaigns at a strategic level.

Karl von Clausewitz, author of On War, famously stated, "no plan survives its first encounter with the enemy."

Marketing is the same.

Which is why your infantry/ground troops (or in this case the little tactical details) are the ones that make the big difference. (You know, for wont of a shoe...)

Building relationships with customers, clients, prospects, friends is not all about a 'master plan.'

It's about little details over time that build up and demonstrate that you (or your company) are someone worth knowing.

Case in point.

I send out a quarterly update email to my network of contacts.

After the most recent one, I got this note from Bob.

"Jeremy, I have to admit that I find you increasingly interesting the more I know about you :-)

My response:
Wow! So thoughtful of you. May I ask (out of curiosity) what generated that comment?

and his response

"Nothing specifically this time, just an aggregation of "Updates" from you over the last month or so... You know the recovering techies like me struggle understanding marketing guys :-), but I get it - or you rather now.

I just thought I'd share.

It's not that I am a master (far from it), it's Bob saying, "with little bits of information (drip irrigation, if you will)," you demonstrated a prolonged commitment to offering me something of interest and a commitment to keeping in touch.

Show that to your contacts and slowly, but surely, like erosion (in a positive context, of course), they will feel that sense of trust for you, your micro-brand, and your company.

Comments

Paul L'Acosta said on 11.30.2008 at 10:35 PM

Jeremy, you're so right. I like your analogy, and if I may add, the erosion in the end will create the perfect foundation on which all strategies will succeed.

Tools like twitter make it very easy for marketers to create this environment, if only they'll pay attention to the content they're "dripping" down to their customers. But for example, I signed up for dominos.com SMS updates and all I get every week is the same... 2xTuesday specials. Every single week! Have I ordered? Nope.

Thanks for a great post!

Adam said on 12.01.2008 at 1:33 AM

Jer:

I think there is a master plan. The master plan is you. You have decided (and you've been quite explicit about this) to be you - warts and all in public. And while on a tactical level there isn't always clarity (what is the right way to be you in a given circumstance), you are always clear about what you're trying to achieve.

A brand is the same. Brand marketers need to understand what they want their brand to stand for, what is does stand for and what they might be able to do to close that gap (or if there is no gap, maintain the current). The tactical plan can change but the strategy (or at least objective) shouldn't.

Adam said on 12.01.2008 at 1:36 AM

Jer:

This post reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George talks about how he worms his way into women's lives:

George: And I got a date with the sales woman. She's got a little Marisa Tomei thing going on.

Jerry: Ah, too bad you got a little George Costanza thing going on.

George: I'm going out with her tomorrow, she said she had some errands to run.

Jerry: That's a date?

George: What's the difference? You know the way I work, I'm like a commercial jingle. First it's a little irritating, then you hear it a few times, you hum it in the shower, by the third date it's "By Mennen!".

Jerry: How do you make sure your gonna get to the third date?

George: If there's any doubt, I do a leave-behind keys, glove, scarf, I go

back to her place to pick it up...date number three.

Gadi said on 12.01.2008 at 4:32 PM

Adam, you beat me to the punch. I was going to say the same thing.

Karen Hepner said on 12.04.2008 at 1:55 PM

I like what Paul said about paying attention to the content that's dripped -- it's got to be meaningful and varied, or else social media is no better than a billboard.

kenny smith said on 3.12.2010 at 5:34 PM

It is a useful information about drip irrigation. I am a farmer and we have very large fields, before drip

irrigation system was found it was a nightmare to irrigate all those fields because where i live is a place

that does not rain so much. Now we use drip irrigation, saving so many water and it is a lot easier to irrigate

the field with that. I am trying to read everything about drip irrigation and i recommend every farmer to use that

technique, so i am grateful for everyone who gives information about it. I also found a very good guide about drip

irrigation and it may be useful too for those who want to learn more information about that;

http://agricultureguide.org/

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