Understanding the Nature Of New Marketing
The science of marketing a business has seen unprecedented change over the past several years. Gone are the days when you could throw an ad in the newspaper or send out a postcard and experience a significant return on that investment. As returns on traditional advertising continue to decline most of us are aware that the future of reaching customers will be centered around media that didn’t even exist five years ago, and that’s a SCARY thought.
Scary, because there is almost too much to know about all theses new ways to communicate, scary because the rules keep changing and scary because there is pressure to find something that works. Being a bit frightened about learning and changing is understandable. Here’s a couple of things I’ve learned have helped to calm me a bit:
First, I learned about the difference between the “old” or traditional ways we marketed and the “new” media that is changing our lives. The basic difference is that traditional media was generated and aimed towards a big group of people with the hope that it would “stick” with some of them. New media like email, blogs, tweeting and Facebook (just to mention a few) are client driven towards businesses that can fill their needs. That’s because the emails, tweets, blogs and Facebook messages a business sends only reaches to those who ELECT to receive them. That’s right, in this new day of marketing, the customer makes the decision about who they listen to. Blasting out a message (traditional marketing) isn’t being received anymore. The good news is that customers who ELECT to receive your messages (new marketing) are much more likely to become loyal. The trick is to begin using “new marketing” methods that reach those who WANT to hear your message.
This is where my second tip comes in. Too many businesses that understand the first point think they MUST jump into several types of “new media” because it’s the right thing to do. True, we need to use these tools, but not just because it’s the thing to do. Instead, we need to use the same set of rules in “new marketing” that we did with “traditional” marketing. Dont forget- we are still marketing our business- that hasn’t changed, we are just using new forms of doing so. That’s why it’s wrong to just “jump in” and start tweeting or using Facebook. Instead, we should think about where to find those who want our message. One way to do this is to survey the clients you already have- ask if they are on Facebook or if they tweet. Try using the media that your customers already use- you are much more likely to find others who want to hear your message. Remember, branding our business is still the goal- many misunderstand and think the goal is to use any new method of new marketing. Find the new media most used by customers who want what you offer and then commit to developing those new ways of branding – doing this correctly immediately puts you in touch with great possibilities for growing business.
