We consider the act of getting noticed the Visibility phase of our Relationship Experience Framework at Solomon. Visibility is about understanding your audience, where they assemble and how to best reach them. Not just reaching them but doing it really well. There is so much noise. The average consumer is exposed to over 5,000 advertisements in a given day. You heard that right…5,000! So, what’s a savvy marketer to do when there’s so much clutter, white noise, and distraction in the marketplace? A good marketer is in tune with the individual.
Don’t forget the basics.
It never ceases to amaze me how different and nuanced each industry and vertical is within the marketing space. As marketers, we are reminded, over and over again, of these differences and must identify the right channels, at the right time, with the right message. White noise is ignored, the personal message, the individual voice, is our only hope for being heard.
Focus on the individual’s needs and not the needs of your business.
Don’t just build content, build the most kick-ass content in your market.
Content is cheap! If your content doesn’t activate a real relationship, it’s meaningless right? If your competitors are not already creating awesome content, they will be soon. This is not a joke – it should be considered a warning. Playing catch-up is not a fun exercise. Every other blog post talks about the importance of content strategy, content marketing, and building great content – this is no exception. The most impersonal content is just another set of talking points. However, without the appropriate hooks into a personal relationship, content is just a waste of time. It’s a one way street leading to a dead end.
Great content is not just self-serving gibberish, instead it is content that understands the pain-points of the audience and provides a meaningful solution to the problem. It provides the guidance, resources, or information for taking meaningful action. Most importantly, it offers a solution. The solution is always a person. Yes, the technology enables a solution. A product enables a solution. But, that solution is always facilitated by a good old fashioned human being. Marketing Automation is not the replacement of human caring interaction, it’s the fostering of it.
I could point you to a content mapping tool or a template… but everyone does that. Just google it. Try to break the web 2.0 barrier. Once you are done surfing the endless landscape of white-papers, case studies, and research digests, schedule a meeting with a member of your audience (take them out for a nice lunch). Talk to them.
Ask them the following:
What do you think?
Do you actually care about this?
Does it help you solve the problem?
What would you change?
You will learn. So much.
Test everything and hold your channels to the same standards.
Transcending the metrics, you need to know how much a name, suspect, lead, mql, sal, sql, and deal is worth to your business. It’s business time. Each content or channel may provide people that qualify for any one of these marketing segments. A good marketer should constantly be monitoring to ensure each channel and content combination is adhering to the thresholds for your business. Most importantly, they should be measuring how successful the human interface is performing. Be sure to have a means for measuring success. Always tie back to the lifetime value of leads from each channel, not just immediate ROI.
Before implementing more SEM, display advertising, video advertising, or social media. Measure, re-measure, repeat. Most importantly, test the human element. How are your customers being helped? Are your clients coming to you for solutions? Are your customers and sales people forming real relationships? Are your sales people breaking the mold of machines, and transcending marketing automation into personal sellers?
You will be amazed at what you find.
