To be tickled pink is to be overcome with happiness and/or amusement about something that’s happened or is about to happen. This charming idiom adds a dash of colour to your expressions of glee and delight, proving that the English language, like life itself, can sometimes be rosy. So, the next time you’re beaming with joy, remember, you’re just tickled pink!
Marketing’s job is to tickle their audience pink.
So Marketers, let’s examine your specific activities? If you think about shades of pink, light pink being 1 and bright, happy pink being 5, every marketing tactic has the opportunity to be a 5. To authentically please and delight their prospects and customers. Every channel we use – everything we put out in the marketplace – is an opportunity to cause our audience to be tickled pink.
In my experience, few brands are good at this. Said another way, many brands think they are marketing, but what they have really become is lead generators for the sales team.
Let’s remember, our job is to “tickle ‘em pink” not “chase them down and pound them every chance we get. Not hound them until they buy and even way beyond”. Many digital marketers actually spend money knowing they piss their prospect or customer off, but they rationalize the click is worth it. Have we given this the critical thought it requires.
Email Marketing
Let’s begin with Email Marketing. Blasting them everything that’s going on in your company, across all brands, everyday. Does that tickle them pink? When they abandon their cart on your eCommerce site does sending them repeated, somewhat desperate emails tickle them pink? When they have already registered for your webinar, does sending them emails to register tickle them pink?
I have dramatically improved my overall health and lost over 40 lbs doing Dr Berg’s Healthy Keto Program. I have bought over $2,000 of his products (supplements and books) during the past 6 months. I should be tickled pink. But some of their marketing tactics are leaving me less than pink. They are annoying bordering on frustrating. It feels like I get 4-5 emails every single day, not including the many that get caught in my Junk folder. I have not actually counted them, but the facts matter less than the feeling I am left with. I feel bombarded by email messages from Dr Berg.
This in no way infers all Dr Berg’s messaging is bad. The average consumer would differentiate the “mass” promotion tactics like content on social media. For example, I have watched dozens of educational videos on Healthy Keto issues on their YouTube channel. That feels different from the personalized messaging I get bombarded with via their email tactics. They are all consumer touch-points but at least I have a choice in whether I interact with YouTube or not.
I am tickled pink when…
