When Did Customers Become Cattle?

“Drive traffic to your site!!!”

“Create a traffic funnel to drive customers to your website!!!”

We hear stuff like this daily from so called marketing “experts”. “Driving traffic” is one of the current buzzwords for marketing online, often used in SEO as a hook to get people to pay for SEO. And I have a real problem with it!

I think that it is dehumanizing. It designates site visitors as masses to be manipulated like pieces on a gameboard, rather than feeling, thinking beings. It takes the relationship and caring aspect right out of the whole marketing equation. And that, is deadly.

You drive a car - something that has no mind of its own. You drive cattle - beasts who do not possess the ability to truly reason or choose. You do not drive people! Traffic is not just numbers on a list - it is PEOPLE!

“But it’s just words.” you may say.

“It doesn’t mean that at all.” you may protest.

But it does mean that. Words have meanings - just because we repeat them frequently does not mean they have lost their meaning. When we use dehumanizing words, they impact our sense of other people. We begin to think more about numbers than about the people themselves. We lose touch with the very people we need to understand in order to market well. That becomes visible in our actions toward our customers in ways we don’t even see, because we have dulled our sense of respect through use of dehumanizing terms. They do feel it, and they do notice.

If it is just about numbers, then you are losing the greatest advantage you have as a small business owner. Corporations can do numbers far better than you can. The only advantage small businesses have is that they can do PEOPLE far better than corporations can! Why would you want to dull your sense of understanding toward those whom you are serving, when it represents the largest asset you have in the battle to win a market share from companies who can always do it faster, bigger, and cheaper than you can?

Marketing is about understanding needs, desires, and feelings. It is about meeting them in a way that works - not about manipulating, but about presenting something to an individual in a way that they can understand, then delivering on the promise. If the delivery cannot equal the promise, then the marketing is not done right!

Speaking of your customers in the same terms you use to describe cattle is not a good idea! Give them the dignity of referring to them in ways that acknowledge their differences, and which are considerate of their needs. It does filter down, they do feel the difference, and it will affect your business.