Marketing today is out of control. There are so many new techniques and tactics, so many ways to reach out and not just touch our audiences, but often to annoy them as well. So many things have changed over the last few years, but so many have not changed a bit. How do you survive this brave new world?
These are the questions that bothered me as I was writing my new book Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
Yes, of course marketing has changed. We have so many new ways to reach our audiences—and the ability to expand our reach on a global basis. Our customers expect us to react in near real time when they contact us, particularly if they have a problem. There’s a strong focus on connection—with conversations, content, and communities. And we are practically drowning in data generated from every conceivable source (and some that are almost inconceivable).
All of this creates noise. In the marketplace, noise prevents customers and prospects from paying attention to what we have to tell them. Inside an organization, static prevents marketers from achieving optimal results. Instead of focusing on the customer, they’re often quarreling with other functions in an ongoing sibling rivalry.
I started to look at organizations that actually were being heard. Some of them were big, others small. Some were household names, others known only in their specific niche. But I started to see the common threads among them. It turns out to be that what works now are many of the same things that have always worked for marketers. The problem is that over time, many marketers lost their focus and didn’t start with the basics.
Because, you see, in spite of all the advances in technology, the basics of marketing haven’t changed in thousands of years. You still need to start with a solid strategy. You need to understand both your market and your customers. You need to have good quality products and the appropriate sales channels to get them to market. You need a strong brand and an effective communications strategy to get the right message to the right audience. And you have to have a way to manage and track the effectiveness of your efforts.
And, within an organization, marketers cannot succeed as lone wolves. We must know how to work effectively within the organization—to work closely with the executive team and to align with product development, sales, customer support, and more and more importantly, with IT.
The last year and a half have been a journey—in researching and writing the book, interviewing a series of fascinating marketers, and then moving through the book production process with my publisher.
Now my mission is to share the insights I’ve learned with as many people as possible. How can I help as many organizations as possible get above the noise? To this end, I am speaking and writing extensively about this topic.
Here’s to helping lower the noise level and create more musical results instead!
