The old school thinking of the industrial age still persists for companies that think they can merely throw more money at a problem to simply get a higher output. That may have worked in a world where distribution of products, services and, yes, marketing, was monopolized via well-defined channels. The marketer could count on buying more TV time or printing more one-page magazine ads for attention. The formula was rather simple. Spend more money and you get more demand.
Demand generation today is not so easy. You can spend a lot of money, but find that the return is not so linear or even effective. Buyers can simply tune you out with all the options from skipping TV commercials to blocking you via all the spam filters available in email, direct mail and faxes. The marketer’s challenge is not so much about getting a ton of cash and bombarding the different channels of communication as it is to innovate.
Innovation requires continual and consistent positioning of your message within logical processes which a buyer can experience and walk through for themselves. Ideally, this happens in a personalized, relevant and logical flow and timing. We think of it as building an inbound marketing engine. It is dialed into servicing the desires of a prospective customer as they are walking through the building trust with your brand.
The hard part of a company that is wanting to build such an inbound marketing engine is innovating on the design and strategy for connecting with the buyer. Understanding the psychological and social profiles of each of your buyers and getting their attention requires intimacy with your customer. The creative process involved in setting up the right steps and pathways for helping someone get to know you provides multiple frameworks for engaging buyers. Thereafter, implementing these ideas and each of the pieces that have to work together and then be measured for tuning the engine requires continuous attention.
Ideally, your customer can start from a place of low trust and grow in their trust based on how well-designed and thoughtful your inbound marketing engine has been created. It is a discipline of targeting and customization which differs greatly from mass marketing approaches.
How are you innovating for each of your buyer types?
