Not that long ago, the thought of ignoring a phone call would have been considered rude.
When I was growing up, I was that unique balance between not having the internet as a child, but it started to become normal when I was a teenager. The evenings spent on MSN Messenger that was interrupted if someone was trying to call the house, along with the ever recognisable sound of AOL loading the dial up internet that still brings me back to simpler times.
But there is a whole generation that will simply not pick up their mobile phones to a number they don’t recognise.
Why do you need to remember that? Because what has always worked for the demographic you target may not work as that demographic changes. Remember, if your target audience is 25-35 year olds, every 5 years half of that audience is completely different people. Sounds simply, but people sometimes get lost in forgetting that people change.
And you need to change with those times, understanding what doesn’t work anymore.
That’s not to say calling people doesn’t work, but you can call people from registered numbers with your business name – if they know your business they are more likely to pick up.
Emails are a great example – a really incredibly useful tool but still tough to get open rates over 20%. This newsletter has an average open rate of 37%, and I’m happy with that while it grows, but still means that 60%+ of the mailing list doesn’t open every email. So, we look at WhatsApp. Not for broad emails like this, but for transactional and responsive messages.
You know this though!
You know that people are now looking at mobile phones when 15 years ago the thought of ads on your phone was a bit alien. People laughed at influencers and the impact they can have, now the command more weight than a lot of TV adverts.
The internet changed a lot of things, but nothing more than people’s attention and behaviour. Being aware that what once worked now might not is going to be pivotal to success online.