Here’s the problem with your market and everyone else’s – noise and choice. There is so much noise that the default for most people is to simply check out, opt out and tune out. Since marketing has become so ubiquitous, the only defense people have today from being overwhelmed is to simply ignore anything that does not speak to their immediate pain or what they highly value.
As for choice, your competition is a mouse click away. Whether a person lives in a rural southern town or in the middle of a metropolis, they can search for your products and services quickly and conveniently. With mobile, the ease to pick someone else is even easier.
Most marketing messages still persist in selling. It feels sterile, disconnected and pushy to be sold the great features of some new hardware device we don’t need or have thought about. It’s intrusive and annoying, much the same way we feel about email and web spam.
Just because you can get your message out there does not mean you are even in the game. If it is not relevant and engaging, then you are merely spam. Having something interesting to say over a long period of time has to either come from you or you have to borrow someone else’s platform to use their collateral. People want to have something to talk about. Effective marketing today means creating engagement. It pulls people into caring about your story and what you have to say. This means:
- You have conviction
- You care about every step of your customer’s experience
- You can turn off the overwhelming impulse to sell
- You can focus on process
- You believe in cause and effect
- You have a story to tell beyond your product
- You can create engagement, not just clicks
- People eagerly tell other people about your story
People have gotten smarter and they have much more control of what they are looking at than in times past. It doesn’t necessarily eliminate marketers, but it sure does filter out the spammers and noise makers.
You have to have something interesting to say. That story has to be continually engaging and helpful. Otherwise, save the money and effort. It’s better spent elsewhere.
So, what is it you are going to do to change your engagement with people that want to tune you out? How can you make it interesting?
