Until now, traditional marketing has been highly fragmented into advertising, public relations, social media, events and more. Yet little of it could demonstrate a direct connection to actually making your company any money.
Today, a new concept called ‘user engagement’ is merging all these marketing efforts, engaging mass potential sales targets but in a way that feels like it is one-on-one. It’s like having a meaningful conversation with a sales target that leads to a sale, except you are now conversing with millions of targets at the same time.
The key is relentlessly using metrics to measure the direct business results of your marketing
efforts, eliminating the overly-expensive or ineffective efforts and amplifying the efforts that generate real results.
Simultaneously, you must maintain overall brand awareness – recognizing that not everyone will connect with you the first time they see your name – while still tracking the long-term results.
The keys to success in the new marketing era are remembering that:
- Tools don’t matter; results do. There's no point in spending time and effort on a Facebook account if it doesn't generate customers.
- Customers want to interact and have a conversation with you. The more meaningful the conversation, the more likely you will gain a strong first sale, subsequent sales and referrals from your customer.
- That conversation needs to happen in ‘surround sound.’ Everywhere your customer goes, you need to be there. Different audiences go to different places, so every marketing strategy needs to target your specific audience.