Day 29 - Too Much Control In Marketing?

I just trashed another email from someone offering a product that sounded like an interesting and perhaps very helpful resource. Though it sounded really great, I trashed it because of the video sales page. No, it wasn't lewd or offensive in any way (at least that I know of - I only watched 10 seconds of it). So why did I trash it? In a word - CONTROL.

You see, it was one of those sales videos that I've been getting like crazy over the past few months. You may have seen them. They let you click on them and that's it. They don't tell you how long the video is going to take or let you scroll ahead. I find it intensely frustrating.

I understand why they do it. In many cases, it is a replacement for pages that made you optin to find out what everything was about, without even giving something for doing so. They've just wound up replacing one controlling and annoying tactic with another.

Seriously ... to me, this is like having a salesperson in my office who insists on going through his script, refusing to let me interrupt to ask anything or skip to the question of price. As a former VP of sales and marketing for a public company, I understand that it is ideal to control the presentation. But, I also know that if the prospect felt controlled, the salesperson would lose the sale before they even got started.

Of course, it may just be my 'control issues,' but frankly, in today's open architecture, on-demand environment, I think we ALL have control issues to some degree. It's not a mass character flaw thing, it's just that we're now used to getting information we're seeking on-demand and I don't think I'm the only one who has resentments when that is taken from me. Am I?

I'm not advocating that we give up any control whatsoever. However, the same person whose video and product I'm now ignoring, could have accomplished what they needed to in many other ways - including an optin for a free report and video - with the next page being the same video I was watching with the ability to scroll forward. Or, perhaps even just a button below the existing video saying "If you're in a hurry, click here and download a free report with all the details."

The bottom line for me - I want to always be marketing to others as I want to be marketed to ... or even more important, as I want others marketing to my wife or children. I don't just think it's the right thing, I think it's the SMART thing for an entrepreneur who understands the value of brand and relationship building versus short term transactional success.

The savvy entrepreneur understands that they can build relationships and positive PR even with those who don't become clients immediately. And this good 'experience' or feeling that you leave even non-clients with can pay off handsomely as they share your message, products or services with others in their sphere of influence.

Oh ... and as a side note. This video tactic isn't even fool-proof. You see, die hard control freaks like myself figure out workarounds. If it's something I really want to hop to the bottom line on - I simply use my screencasting software to capture the video in the background while I keep working and then later, I can open the file and scroll ahead to the features and price that I'm looking for ;-)

So, am I the only one here that get's put off by this tactic? Are there other marketing tactics that you find annoying or off-putting? 

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About This Chart: For those who haven't been following, I created this daily chart for the purpose of communicating and tracking some of my more important goals - publicly. You can read about it in THIS EARLIER POST.