Future Marketing: Become Big Social Mobile
The Keystone of Data-Driven Marketing
H
as social fundamentally changed business? It’s
a question still central to how companies
effectively compete in this new social economy.
While I firmly believe “no it has not,” social has
fundamentally changed marketing itself, the
corporate-consumer relationship, and the method
by which companies are valued.
So if business hasn’t changed—it is still about
creating profit—but marketing has, what is the new
intersection between the two? This is the keystone
which must be in place if you are to become truly
big social mobile, connecting with today’s social
consumers and dominating your market. It seems
a good place to start this column.
The Big Change
The change to marketing is actually more profound
than most marketers understand—certainly few
outside of marketing understand it at all. Traditional
marketing is almost exclusively focused on creating
the most concise message, combined with the most
memorable images, video or sounds, delivered to
the most people. Its effectiveness was measured in
impressions. Think of Super Bowl commercials
created by Sterling Cooper. The hope is that at their
moment of need, consumers would remember the
message. A memorable message is critical because
consumers are choosing among competitors—the
more memorable the message the greater its
potential to influence them.
This is the process of traditional marketing, and
despite what some experts say, it is actually more
effective now than ever—videos going viral shows
how the digital equivalent to advertisements (digital
content) can now reach an even larger audience for
significantly less cost.
But this effective process is no longer generating as
many customers because at the moment of choice
the consumer now has access to information; they
can now make an informed decision.
This is what social consumers do: they use
information not provided by the company to make
a buying decision about that company’s products or
services, such as third-party reviews, social
recommendations, competitive information, or just
educational information.
The result is that companies are putting resources
into an effective process—they are applying this
traditional marketing approach to digital
mediums—to reach more people than ever before
but they aren’t generating tangible results—new
customers, higher conversion rates, more revenue,
higher CLV. The measure of effectiveness has
become antiquated.
Remember, this is capitalism. Perceived value first
influences consumer choice more than true value.
As we move from a capital driven market to one that
is socially-powered (where buyers are informed)
perception has less influence—the true value your
company provides to buyers will influence what
happens more than your message. This is a
behavioral change for consumers. Most companies
haven’t adapted to it because executives still define
effective marketing as marketing that is memorable,
certainly more value-driven than before, but being
memorable still gets their blood pumping.
Strictly Marketing Magazine March/April 2016
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