Why a ‘Publicity Slut’ Turns Down Free Listings from Robocalls: Seven Reasons

Anybody else out there hate robocalls and refuse to do business with them?

I’m a self-described “publicity slut.” I average well over 100 media publicity placements per year. I spend a lot of time reading and responding to reporter queries, posting to discussion lists, commenting on blogs, participating in social media, etc., etc., and I recommend these tactics to my clients and to the readers of my books on marketing. And I actually get some very good clients from free listings.

So why do I hang up on all the robocalls that greet me with “press 1 to update your free listing” (and I seem to get several of these robocalls every week)?

For a whole bunch of reasons. Here are seven among many examples:

1. I don’t know who the company is. There is no greeting on these robocalls, just the command. I have no idea who they are, whether they have a pre-existing relationship with me, what kind of reputation it has, and whether anyone uses this database.
2. I don’t know if the company using the robocalls even has a public database, or if the robocalls are just a scammy way to gather information for nefarious purposes.
3. There’s no clue about how easy or hard it will be to update this listing. Will it take me two minutes…or two hours? There’s no way to ask the robocall.
4. Since the update is by phone, accuracy is a concern.
5. I am sure there’s going to be an ask for money somewhere, and I don’t want to invest (potentially) a whole lot of time only to find out that I’m not eligible because, for instance, I don’t choose to buy a copy of the directory for several hundred dollars. I have learned from hard experience that free often comes with a catch, and free via robocalls will be pretty much guaranteed to have a catch.
6. I also don’t want to proceed down this road without knowing the real price or any other terms and conditions.
7. And the biggest reason of all: if you are trying to sell me something, I want contact with a human being who can answer my questions; robocalls don’t cut it in my world.

From one marketer to another, I have to ask: why are you running up your phone bill with this useless, wasted marketing?