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The natural urge for marketers seems to be to deluge potential consumers with information. How often have you seen one of these:

• A brochure with no white space and so much copy that your eyes blur.

• A company that explodes onto the marketplace and you see it everywhere – TV, radio, print – for about two months, and then you never hear of it again.

• An e-mail campaign that floods your in-box with multiple messages in a short period of time.

• A 12-page newsletter (white space or no).

• A corporate Web site’s home page that is packed with copy, starbursts and news items galore.

Some marketers are compelled to shove as much information at their consumers as possible.

I think in most cases it’s a mix of insecurity and not really understanding the audience. It’s as though they’re saying, “I’m not confident in knowing what my audience needs or wants to know, and I don’t trust my own instincts, so I am going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them.”

Bad marketing strategy.

Here’s the analogy we use to help our clients. When there’s a hard, driving rain, the ground can only absorb so much of it before the water just runs off. Consumers are the same way. They can only absorb so much information before our well-crafted words just run off, falling on deaf ears.

But a gentle all-day rain has a different result. Because of the slow and steady pace, the ground can easily, over time, absorb all the water that comes.

How can you be a drip when marketing your company?

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2009 Drew McLellan