We’re standing in the trenches of a marketing revolution.
Greater consumer demands … changing technology … more messages … different strategies … new metrics …
All these changes combine to create added responsibilities for anyone tasked with generating leads.
As I mentioned last month in my article Why Today’s Consumers Create Fewer Leads, the competitive marketplace grows larger every day, meaning alternatives to your product or service are as close as a mouse click.
Unfortunately, few companies make adjustments to accommodate today’s informed consumer. This inflexibility presents big problems.
You see, if your marketing tells prospects what they need instead of providing for their needs, it’s time to rethink your approach.
Just as the way people interact with the world has changed, so has their method for gathering information. Patience is not a priority for today’s prospects.
Not long ago, businesses held an advantage because they controlled the availability of information. Gathering insight into a product or service required traveling to a store, talking to a salesperson, picking up the phone or watching/reading an ad that delivered a controlled message.
These days, almost everyone turns to the Internet to satisfy an ever-increasing appetite for information. As a result, prospects now own the advantage.
They expect access to knowledge, engagement and information in a different formats — and they want it now. When your marketing doesn’t meet these needs, you get ignored.
But here’s the good news:
Besides their hunger for information, today’s prospects are on a continuous quest to find something worth sharing. They seek to distribute activities, opinions and media that entertain or inform.
In fact, even topics typically unworthy of interest get shared. Spend just a few seconds on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or any other social network, and you can’t help but notice personal posts published only as a ploy for attention.
Please understand, though, this is not a knock against social media. I believe it’s an incredibly effective tool for making connections and spreading your message.
After all, social media use exploded because it exploits an evolutionary trait hardwired into our brains. The human race survives and thrives by sharing experiences.
So what’s motivating people to share your marketing?
