Why do hard-sell emails to cold audiences typically fail during Q4?

People do not respond well to being hardcore sold, especially by someone who hasn’t been actively marketing to them with non-salesy content throughout the year. It’s like approaching someone you haven’t contacted in months with an aggressive sales pitch — it’s off-putting. The approach violates basic human psychology around trust and relationship-building. Instead of coming out swinging with a hard sell, you need to start with some rapport-building, provide value first, and warm up your audience before asking for the sale.

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Asked by hypothetical artist named Brad · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2018-09-25