NOTIFY ANYWAY?

Technology is always cool and always advancing. And for every action in communications there is an equal and opposite reaction in filtering and blocking. Have you noticed that?

Let’s take SMS texting. Once the purview of close friends and family, now marketers can (and do) text us and of course, somewhere along the line to get some sort of deal we actually probably did “opt in” to receive these messages.

But, you can also SILENCE notifications either while you’re driving or just because—and this is how you get your attention and your life back from the onslaught of deals, links, messages and spam. Reaction and opposite reaction.

And when notifications are silenced the sender gets a nice message about it. But did you know that most mobile phones also allow you to “Notify Anyway” and push past that user preference or direction and push your message through? Oh yes, you can do this, but at great personal risk.

If it’s an emergency and you really are friends or family, we will allow you to push through because the message is urgent and needs to get through. But I recently saw a less than scrupulous SMS marketing company advertising — “get your message past silenced notifications” and “We deliver your marketing message despite any and all privacy settings”  Wow. Now, is there anyone out there who thinks this is a good idea?

This is the classic failure in marketing. Where OUR needs (the marketers’) overshadow the customer’s needs and right to be left alone. And it’s a choice. Always a choice. Of course, it’s our job to want the sale, to want the revenue — but at what cost? Are we really ready to interrupt and bother people who want to be left alone? If marketing is a numbers game to you, then that answer is yes and congratulations you are officially part of the problem.

But, if among the rare few who share the values of Seth Godin, Donald Miller and sure, even Scott Robertson, then you’ve taken the first step in the real marketing journey — the one that rewards you with powerful, lifetime customer relationships, strong brands and unshakable customer loyalty.

We don’t want to be the “notify anyway” people. We don’t. We want to be the “wow that was awesome and I’m so glad I got this text or email from you…” people. Doing that requires more than just any marketing — it requires a fierce daily commitment to the customer where we only send things when they are incredible, where we stay on THEIR hero story (not ours) and where we LEAD with empathy in all of our communications the same way we wish to be treated.

AI will never understand any of what I just said. Not really. It’s just software code and lacks empathy or even the understanding of any human emotions, which will ALWAYS make it weaker in communications—unless driven by a human being leading with emotion.  AI will always want to “notify anyway” because its objective (or prime directive) is to deliver the communications.

But a real human communicator will always choose the relationship over the notification and even the sale.