Thoughts on Marketing

Contact Us…. if you can

Why do companies make it so difficult to book a call?

[Originally published as The Marketing Mix newsletter on Substack. Please subscribe for the latest, every 2 weeks]

I’ve been looking at a lot of websites recently. And one thing that stands out to me is how often the “Contact Us” page is a blocker.

My biggest peeve: Why don’t they offer a calendar?

It’s simple to embed a live booking function directly on the page. But if that’s too much to handle, then what about fixing these issues:

  • Wording is unfriendly, or too corporate
  • Contact Form requires multiple fields, often irrelevant
  • What will actually happen when you submit? When should I expect an answer?

The hard work is already done. You’ve created the awareness. You’ve driven someone to the website. You’ve convinced them that they want to talk to you…

…and then you throw up an obstacle.

Using an app like Calendly or a plugin from your CRM is low cost, low maintenance, and creates a much better user experience. Not to mention, a better internal workflow.

For one client, I set up logic that selected the correct sales person based on a qualification question; for another, it’s a round-robin system to spread the leads equitably. Either way, make it easy for folks to get in touch.

What bugs you about ‘Contact Us’ pages? Let me know!

What I’m Reading

I spend an inordinate amount of time reading about tech and marketing, whether it’s newsletters, Substacks or ‘old media’. So I figured I should share some of my favorite articles from the last couple of weeks*:

Chinese Livestreaming ‘Virtual Human’ Salespeople Are Outselling Their Human Counterparts [404 Media / Wired]

tl;dr – AI-powered sales avatars that stream 24/7, and sell while you sleep

Favorite Quote – “The sales are better for the first few minutes or the first hour with a real person, but then it goes down because that person gets tired… The [human] host will get less smiley, less engaging, and so on. The virtual human is very standardized in terms of attitude.”

MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing [Fortune]

tl;dr – Most big companies are struggling with implementation, while Start-ups are thriving. Oh, and maybe Marketing isn’t the best area to use AI 😏

Favorite Quote -”Purchasing AI tools from specialized vendors and building partnerships succeed about 67% of the time, while internal builds succeed only one-third as often.”

*Note: Many of these articles are paid, or gated after the first 24hrs. In which case, I’ve linked to an archive copy

The Paper Plane [Drink of the Week]

It’s been a while since I’ve been served a cocktail that made me reconsider my “best ever” list. But the Bar at the Modern in NYC managed it with a fantastic Paper Plane. Not sure if it was the ingredients, the mix, or the ambience (housed inside MOMA), but I’d go back in a heartbeat.

From their menu, ingredients were:

The standard recipe calls for equal measures of each of these, plus some lemon juice. So if you happen to be at the MOMA, stop by for a drink.

Cheers! 🍸

Steve

P.S If you know you need to take marketing seriously, but don’t know where to start, let’s chat. I help growing B2B tech companies build their marketing muscles.

P.P.S If you’ve enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to The Marketing Mix newsletter – my thoughts on B2B marketing, sent out every 2 weeks.