Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Inquiry Marketing Intercepts Customer Demand with the Advertiser's Message at the Instant It Matters
By Sage Peterson
November 2003
Stop nagging/bugging/annoying or "spamming" me! Sound familiar? We are an easily "annoyable" bunch, aren't we? We don't like anyone telling us what
to do. We kicked the British out and dumped some very fine tea in the ocean a few years ago, just to get them off our back.
The decline in the effectiveness of all forms of "interruption marketing" has caused despair for many online marketers. When an email marketing
campaign goes wrong (as they sometimes do), no longer are marketers greeted with a friendly Ñ "Thanks, but I'm not interested." The usual calm
response has been replaced by an acrimonious snarl, "if you ever call this number or email me again I'll !#E%!* you." People no longer want to be
reached, they don't want to be found Ñ they want to reach out. The National Do Not Call Register is maybe the only thing Congress has ever done that
makes Americans actually want to hug their Congressman. "Stop reaching me. I will reach you Ñ when I'm good and ready."
Marketers are slowly becoming aware of a fundamental shift in human behavior, brought on by growing access to a wide number of search engines. It's a
new form of non-invasive, non-disruptive marketing that allows consumers to tell the marketer what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.
The proper response to this new buyer behavior is something that is called, "Inquiry Marketing."
"Search engine marketing" is all the rage these days. It's the current buzz-word, and everyone knows that it drives all the clicks, but it's just a
tactic. What is the truly important underlying behavior that marketers should be attempting to influence? The answer is, inquiry behavior or the
seeking mindset.
Inquiry marketing seeks to influence people as they move along a self-directed buying cycle that includes and is in fact characterized by their
inquiry behavior. It attempts to introduce brands to people while they are in the mode of seeking out and exploring the information they determine to
be most salient to their buying decision. In other words, your customers are thinking, "I'll find it, research it, and buy it on my own timetable."
Your job as a marketer is to make sure that your brand is there, in front of them, at each stage of their buying cycle, in the form that will offer
them the most value at that moment. You cannot interrupt this seeker Ñ you can only hope to be there when they seek to interrupt you.
Sage Peterson is the vice president of strategic alliances for iProspect, and a recognized expert in helping agencies understand search engine
marketing and Inquiry Marketing. Sage has spoken at online advertising events organized by Johnson and Johnson, and command performances at numerous
Fortune 500 companies.
