A client remarked this morning that everything is changing more in marketing now than ever. I would dare say that at 86 years of age and with 60 books published and 56 years teaching experience under his belt Philip Kotler, the legendary Northwestern marketing professor, would argue that things are always changing in marketing and yet the 4 P’s – or whatever you want to call them these days – remain very much the same.
New technologies for automation and measurement combined with a multitude of social platforms are simply providing options for marketers and business owners to do it better. By that I mean I don’t think we’re going to see a significant difference in what successful marketers are doing but we are going to see their efforts get refined as they further sharpen the stick used to go after their target.
Take, for instance, content marketing. When SmartInsights surveyed 850 marketers about which single marketing activity they thought would have the biggest impact on their commercial clients, content marketing ranked #1 (ahead of big data and at double the level of social).
Content marketing is not new but for content marketing to be a truly effective component of marketing plans, marketers must agree to invest in authenticity. Beyond simply creating original (not syndicated) content, finding and focusing on tone of voice is crucial to authenticity. We used to have a client that we referred to as the ‘sit on the couch and drink beer’ guys. It wasn’t about their education level but rather the informality of their approach. That persona resonated in their content. Does your content sound like you and/or your firm/brand?
Personalization of content is also going to help marketers move the needle farther forward. We’re no longer in a world where broad reach, generic campaigns are the centerpiece of our plans. Instead, with all of this aforementioned technology, we have the ability and the data to be laser focused with our communications, both online and offline, and can and should deliver on the promise of personalization at every opportunity.
Personalization isn’t just about the greeting (the TO: line) but about the content within. Revisit the aforementioned couch-sitting profile but this time think of them as a target audience. To what messages, vehicles and offers do you think they would be most responsive? Not the same ones I would share with the soon to be Princess Meghan.
Stop the whale fishing. Well written, authentic, personalized (when possible) content will help you land your daily limit of grouper every time.
This post courtesy of Jennifer Koon
