And Five Ways Today’s Marketers are Different
It is a sustained initiative and it involves a shift in organizational culture. It takes persistence (read serious commitment) and consistency. When we talk about diversifying marketing strategy, we don’t mean ditching efforts that have been part of a company’s marketing mix. We mean taking a hard look at historical data and figuring out what is working for our ideal market and what isn’t cutting it. And then re-allocating resources. Huge difference. Let’s not make the mistake of considering content marketing as a threat to most other marketing tactics out there. Certainly not the only way, but it is simply a proven effective way to market today.
When I started following the big idea and fleshing out this whole new concept in my head, I had to revisit what inbound was all about and why journalism is the strategy that will propel this methodology to new heights. There is nothing new with journalism. It’s been around for many many years. Except the way digital has greatly influenced the way brands and marketers capture and keep audience attention.
How are today’s marketers different?
For one, today’s marketers are expected to be great story-tellers . Real and authentic. As many blogs have said over and over again…
“People don’t like being sold to. People like to listen to stuff that matters to them.”
The A-B-C (Always Be Closing) days are now replaced by a new A-B-C (Always-Beefy-Content).
Second, today’s marketers wear a publisher’s hat . Content marketing’s explosive growth in the last five years shows no sign of slowing down. The media evolved into real-time, live streaming audio and video. And no, it is not the grand TV commercial production-kind. These days, a web commercial can be a live footage of either a regular or a completely spontaneous and random event. People find these more relevant and relatable than a perfectly polished Hollywood-inspired production. Brands have practically ingrained itself in their consumers’ lives.

Third, today’s marketers are expected to (more than ever) tie actual hard numbers (results) in their marketing efforts . Enter attribution and data intelligence from every campaign and how this translates into engagement and sales. This blog by Keith Reynols ( @maximfuel ) at Austin Lawrence Group explains these points very succinctly. Think Like a Publisher With Inbound Journalism
Technology. Marketing. Technology. Sales. [I picture daisy chains or a chain sinnet here]. It’s weaved to lure and to catch. Fourth, today’s marketers are agile and the silos in which we used to operate have been broken . We call it “FishingSpeak” in the office. 🙂 It means everyone from Admin to After-Sales is tuned-in to why we do what we do, what our customers should get out of everything we do and what we do. It’s a chain that’s connected to another chain and another chain…
Finally, today’s marketers educate, more than sell to their customers . Only when trust and authority/expertise is built will the whole strategy make sense.
It’s a Friday and the prospect of relaxing and de-stressing is too tempting! Thanks for stopping by. Bookmark this for later or share away! I hope you have a great weekend! Connect with me on twitter too @lornsbondoc or visit www.yoveodigital.com