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Mike DamphousseMike
Damphousse

Green Leads' Founder, CEO and CMO, Mike Damphouse, writes frequently about b2b marketing, demand generation, appointment setting, lead gen, and marketing in general.

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Marketing Strategy of Going Negative -- Does Mudslinging Pay Off?

Posted by Michael Damphousse on Mon, Feb 15, 2010 @ 05:30 PM
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Marketing StrategyWitnessing the recent Scott Brown senatorial campaign in Massachussetts caused me to question the value of mudslinging -- I'm sure Coakley's staff is analyzing the same. 

A week after the election, the topic surfaced again after reading a recent article on HubSpot's blog, Are You Unwittingly Making This Disastrous Sales Mistake?, focused on turning a bland, salesy voicemail into a compelling voicemail.  Guest authored by Jill Konrath, who wrote the book Selling to Big Companies, it suggested language for more effective voice messages. And it sparked a controversial thread of blog comments led by Luke Brown, who signs his comment posts "Sales Pro", but the comments soon turned to mudslinging.

Let's analyze the marketing value.  Negative blog posts/comments that create controversy also create traffic.  Marketers love traffic.  So is the strategy of going negative worth the traffic it generates? 

Most controversy revolves around intelligent debate, but occasionally it slips (degenerates?) into ranting.  The former can be valuable, the latter ... just plain damaging.

  • Debate (for or against) = Traffic and Branding
  • Ranting (illogical, slanderous, or otherwise) = Traffic with Negative Branding

Tips to take advantage of a controversy:

  • Keep the controversy at the debate level
  • Don't get personal
  • Back up your statements
  • Take a stand on the issue, not a stand on the others in the discussion
  • Write a blog article that expands your thoughts on the debate, and post a link to it on the original site that started the debate (take some of the traffic)

The controversy that sparked this article had turned into a one-sided war from Luke, who wrote a scathing blog post on the topic and offered a $10k A-B challenge to Jill.  He even posted a negative Amazon review on her book and posed a question about voicemails on LinkedIn that assaulted her anew (then pulled it off after a few days.)  I'm sure his site traffic was up (I visited several times to try to find value), but I'm also sure his negative branding offset the traffic.

Healthy debate draws interest and showcases your thinking abilities. What about a personal crusade over a difference of opinion? Would you do business or hang out with a mud-slinger?


Comments

Wow, I just read the string from Jill's Hubspot post. There is a bit of East Coast-West Coast hip-hop wars in there. (which mind you helped both sides sell alot of records).
Posted @ Monday, February 15, 2010 6:20 PM by Craig Rosenberg -- Funnelholic
Being an avid Hubspot blog reader as well as a BIG Konrath fan, I read with horror the comments being posted on their blog as well as Mr. Brown's. It got ugly and it got personal. I don't get it.... there is no reason to get personal over professional differences of opinion. People...we are not curing cancer here we are simply selling stuff! 
 
I think Mr. Brown (Luke not Scott) did himself a huge disservice and threw his own brand under the bus. Listen, I am no shrinking wallflower but I will tell you if I feel so strongly about something that I get that worked up about it, I would pick up the phone and go mano y mano and keep it out of the public eye. Here is a oldie but goodie "You have one chance to make a first impression." That first impression to the Hubspot audience was not a good one for the Sales Pro.
Posted @ Monday, February 15, 2010 7:16 PM by trish bertuzzi
I'll call him the 'unnamed one' because he's already gotten more mention than he deserves. I didn't think that Jill's voice mail message was the best that I ever saw and I commented in such a way that I thought added to the conversation but did not discount the thought process behind her post. First, being asked to 'guest post' is an honor and just by being there, Jill's due a certain amount of respect. Second (agreeing with Trish) argue in private and one on one. No need for mob mentality, especially when you're a guest.
Posted @ Tuesday, February 16, 2010 12:33 PM by Rick Roberge
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, however the ability to professionally state your opinion without vitrol is a very Western Hemisphere phenomena. This is seldom seen in Eastern cultures, primarily because it reflects poorly on the trash talker
Posted @ Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:08 AM by Dan Tyre
I’ve known Jill for a long time and she has never been anything but the consummate professional.  
 
 
 
Luke Brown could have challenged Jill’s suggested email in a professional manner and begun a constructive conversation. Unfortunately, his immaturity got the best of him and rather than challenging her wording, he chose to seek to denigrate her, later justifying his comments were due to his great passion for his customers and clients (such as manipulating them into returning a phone call--which obviously demonstrate a great deal of passion for them). 
 
 
 
One can argue whether Jill’s email was good, great, OK, terrible or whatever, but one cannot argue whether Jill is a class act--and one of the best at helping sellers become better sellers.  
 
 
 
As it stands right now, the same can’t be said for Luke Brown and won’t be said until he learn a bit of humility and gains a much needed dose of wisdom, for he has had no negative impact on Jill’s reputation, but he has caused a tremendous negative impact to his own.
Posted @ Monday, February 22, 2010 2:06 PM by Paul McCord
One Way to pull more inquiries to your <a href= "http://www.blog.smallbusinesscopywriter.com/" >advertising? Offer a free special report.
Posted @ Thursday, March 18, 2010 11:56 AM by joleng16
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