I get offered, regularly, the "opportunity" to sponsor executive conferences in the Australia and Asia regions.
As part of this they generally offer me the chance to open the event, and a chance to speak at one of the corporate luncheons that they hold.
The problem here isn't the opportunity, it is the delivery.
These people didn't come to lunch to hear me. They didn't sit down to their well paid for meal to have me preach to them about who I am, who I represent, and how we can help them do whatever it is I think I should be talking about.
They didn't ask me to speak because I am a good after diner speaker, or because I have a certain brand in the area. No, they offered me the opportunity because I bought my way into it.
Thats spam. Uninvited, unexpected, bland and impersonal, as well as probably unwanted. Similar to the opening lines. They aren't there to hear me, they are there to listen to the conference speakers.
The likelihood that they will listen is low, and if they do the likelihood that they will act on it is exceptionally low. There are far better ways to get peoples attention, and to get them interested in continuing a conversation with you.
I learned this with the marketing company I built in Latin America. It was a phenomenal experience and one that happened purely by accident.
My competitors were into the whole scraping emails and spamming everyone.
I, on the other hand, was working diligently in 1997 to build a list of people who were interested in what I wanted to say, wanted to be part fo the community, and weere so impressed that they told others about it.
Within three months, in 1997, I was running a site with 100,000 hits a month.
In Spanish...
About engineering... (Dead boring for most)
No spam, No interruptions, No unwelcomed and unanticipated messaging = Greater chances of success.
Your take?
