Becoming obsolete is a reality in today’s fast-moving environment. Yes, today’s business needs require us to leave our comfort zone and venture into an environment that can achieve marketing innovation.
The customer never buys what you think you sell.
Peter Drucker
Luckily, it doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the principles we’ve learned along the way. It just means evolving our thinking and applying these same principles to the new mediums.
Related: Secrets to Share on Lego’s Marketing Campaigns
Looking for more marketing innovation? Check out the work of Jay Baer.
Here are ten areas of business change. They will get the organization paying attention on where to find breakthrough innovation ideas for marketing needs:
The arrival of channel convergence
All mediums are converging. The customer dictates the content they want to consume, across multiple mediums, the times they want it.
On-demand mediums will challenge the marketer as consumers move swiftly between tablets to a smartphone to television.
The new ways of targeting customers across multiple platforms now allow the marketer more long-tail opportunities. These will augment and support traditional targeting.
Data is the new norm
The promise of big data brings with it enormous benefits. They include ones that can now inform customer preferences. Ones that identify relevant prospects in real-time. And ones that distil meaning from reams of information where it impacts competitive or brand reputation.
The opportunities to target more granularly beyond just “company”collected transactions provides profound examples. Examples to find the right customer, at the right time, in the right channels, with the right message.
The need for strong data analysts to compile this information across multiple platforms and mediums will be an essential component. A component to target effectively for acquisition. And a component to improve retention rates and optimize for real-time performance.
Change is imperative
Gone are the days of relying on historical data. These days, any data point longer than 30 days is too old and therefore, of limited value.
No longer are we required (or should we be required) to sit and wait for results.
With data becoming more embedded in our daily work, marketers must work towards a more agile, near real-time environment:
This also means becoming more data responsive to an increasingly splintered market. It means having the structures and processes to change tactics on the fly.
It is the context
Google has gone beyond just keyword and now tries to extract real meaning from what people search or speak about.
Semantic algorithms go this one step further and now give marketers the tools to improve the understanding of what people need and want.
It’s here that will help predict and define areas the brand can connect and provide value to customers.
A more informed customer expects an optimal experience. Such an experience “allows them to shop and receive their purchases where they want when they want and how they want.”
This means providing the ‘continuous experience’ across brands, devices, and format.
Today’s marketer is channel-agnostic and is aware of sites, platforms and channels.
Note that the customer is researching, eliciting recommendations, price-comparing and ultimately, buying.
Marketing innovation examples … value is the new currency
One of the hardest lessons for marketers to have learned is to refrain from leading with overt company or product messages.
“Leading with value” has become a difficult principle to adopt, after years of “me-me-me” communications.
Declining performance of digital ad units means marketers must rethink content. Rethink content from the position of the customer.
The rise of editorial as an essential function within marketing will be necessary to install this new discipline.
Marketing innovation ideas … building sustainable relationships
The value of social media as open two-way conversations now provides brands with the ability to build relationships. It provides brands the effort and commitment to nurturing customer relationships through these channels.
Word of mouth and advocacy are strong indicators of brands doing it right.
The value of organic traffic that results from content value, social consistency, and customer commitment, will become more critical. More critical than the more costly campaign-driven ad-buys and promotions.
Agencies will never be able to be truly able to build effective community management services. This function needs to live within the heart of the organization.
Customer relationships with brands cannot be fostered via surrogate means, and then adopted by the organization.
Only employees within the organization, with the proper knowledge and solutions, can effectively troubleshoot customer complaints. They need to provide the right responses in the expected timeframe.
An emerging discipline in community /customer relationship management will be critical. It will permit the community to gauge the pulse of the audience It will also bridge the gap with the organization.
Team organizational focus
The result of these changes will inevitably move away from marketing and become embedded in all parts of the organization.
A responsive, dynamic organization means that PR, HR, Product development, Inventory Management, Operations will need seamless communication channels.
Channels must receive properly and disseminate information into and outside the company to stakeholders as well as external customers.
The future marketers will become more operations-minded but will rely on the collective organization to function effectively.
Customer-centric is all there is
As digital media matures, the areas mentioned above will move companies to start to shift. Shift in ways that puts the needs of the customers at the center of the organization.
One-to-one marketing will become a reality as data allows us to personalize experiences truly for each customer.
Retention will get increasingly harder as mediums and platforms rise and fall with the nomadic consumer.
Where critics have prophesied the death of marketing, a more responsive, dynamic and collaborative organization will take its place.
Takeaways
Marketing is no longer a discipline with best practices and tried and true techniques.
As long as the technology exists, and media evolves, consumers will continue to find new ways to connect and consume information.
What’s clear is that these days our traditional definition of longevity is short-lived. Not only does the marketer need to morph with the times, but the organization also does as well.
Marketing needs demand breakthrough innovation.
Do you have an Integrated Marketing Strategy?
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing. And put it to good use.
It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing efforts. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?
Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.
More reading on marketing strategy from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
