The Three Rules to Marketing Reset - Spreadable. Ultra-Niche. Consistent.

The last portion of this interview with Paul Laudicina of A.T. Kearney really struck me. Take a read through this paragraph, and then let's discuss.

You know, Peter Drucker used to say that companies fail not because they do the wrong thing or because they do the right thing poorly, but because they fail to understand a fundamental shift in the theory of business. Immelt [from GE] calls it an economic reset. Drucker called it a change in the theory of business. But you could call it a fundamental transformation. The most important thing any company could or should be doing now to prepare for the post-recession environment is to look at all of the fundamentals and reexamine what changes in the theory of business might mean for their core competencies, for their ability to meet the new consumer demand.

As I read this paragraph, I think of the many traditional publishers out there who have been working toward the end goal statement, "When advertising comes back..." Scary proposition.

Seth Godin blogged about the marketing reset as the movement from attention shortage to attention surplus.

There was an attention drought for the longest time. Marketers paid a fortune for TV ads (and in fact, network ads sold out months in advance) because it was so difficult to find enough attention. Ads worked, so the more ads you bought, the more money you made, thus marketers took all they could get.

This attention shortage drove our economy.

The internet has done something wacky to this situation. It has created a surplus of attention. Ads go unsold. People are spending hours on YouTube or Twitter or Facebook or other sites and not spending their attention on ads, because the ads are either absent or not worth watching.

Marketing is in the process of resetting itself (and has been for a while). What does this mean for us? I think we are all trying to figure it out, but here are three concepts to kick around.

1. Advertising can work, but more and more will be in the form of content and storytelling. If our advertising must be relevant and opt-in, great content is the only way. I think of Blendtec's Will it Blend? for this example. Ultimately, they are pitching the product the entire time - two minute product demos of their blenders in action - but they do it in such an entertaining way that you never feel like you are being sold. It's so good that people sign up to watch their marketing. To do: Stop thinking about pushing your product and start thinking about what your customers would do after engaging in your advertising/marketing. If the inclination is to spread the message, then you've done something right.
2. Go more niche. Instead of just a company Twitter account, maybe you need five - one for each customer segment.  Instead of a corporate Facebook account, maybe you need three Facebook "movements" - all focused on a customer concept or idea that solves their pain points. Each customer will have it's own niche channels you need to focus on - different blogs, different communities, different social media tools. To do: break down your customers' informational needs by segment.  Treat them differently. The more niche the better. The story needs to be relevant at all times. Remember that your customers won't search through your irrelevant content to get to your relevant content. They'll just give up and go somewhere else. Google makes that easy.
   
3. The most important content process issue that people forget is the idea of consistency. That's where the idea of the microsite fails.  It's one big push...lots of content all at once and then silence. It's better to start small and build up over time. To do: Don't launch your content marketing initiative waiting for perfection. Launch small, get feedback, adjust, pick a content schedule and stick to it.

Create marketing that spreads (or that your customers would be likely to talk about), go ultra-niche and whatever you develop, do it consistently. This is the recipe for content marketing success as our marketing resets itself.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Comments

[James B]

It's interesting that the infrastructure of marketing/advertising/PR is built for one-time volume, whereas the infrastructure required for the marketing-reset needs to handle multi-stage conversations and individual personalisation of the messages. Multiple-messages even.

Many in 'traditional' marketing will look upon these requirements in horror: 'think of the amount of work involved', and there will be huge efforts needed, until the infrastructure catches up. Any thoughts on what that infrastructure will(does) look like?

[Joe Pulizzi]

James...I agree with you. From a traditional standpoint, this looks like a ton of work that falls outside of most current processes.

I think, most importantly, it means assigning a content strategist, or chief content officer, to the role to oversee this area. All companies will set this up differently, but there needs to be someone who takes ownership who is responsible for the customer conversation and publishing initiatives.

What else should we add?

[Promotional Products]

Very interesting topic. I would definitely agree that marketing is in a bit of a rebirth or rejuvenation stage. Marketers are adapting to new technologies and developing new strategies. I really think that your idea of storytelling is one of the answers to the future of marketing. This is something that is going to be viable in the future.

[Rumah Dijual]

Thank you for this insightful lesson. I find abundant new theory and knowledge here.

[Adam@How To Make Money Online]

Thanks for this great information,
I think most important is to focus on one plan and when success repeat what you do with other ( don't promote a lot affiliates in same time )

[Beermatman]

I sort of hate to throw a spanner in the works or anything; but we are experiencing a strange phenomena in our business.
We as a company sell advertising space on the "traditional" Beermat; and have been bracing ourselves for some real hard times; what with Pubs and Clubs closing on a regular basis. However companies have been steadily increasing their orders for our product over this last year or so; please don't get me wrong it's not on fire or anything; but we are seeing a definite upturn; not sure why this is.
Cheers
Keith
aka Beermatman