April 7, 2010
The Adrienne Alert: Things We Did for Years Aren’t Working any Longer.
You bet they aren’t! A wise man (whose identity I do not know) once said, “There’s nothing so constant as change.”
Unfortunately it’s come so quickly that many aren’t ready for it.
Not too many years ago there were three major television networks. Now there are myriad specialized networks, and the three majors are floundering. Where channel numbers used to end at thirteen, they now go into the high hundreds.
Not that long ago, there were both morning and evening newspapers in virtually every major city. How many dailies have closed down in the past decade?
It’s only since 1991 that the Internet has become available outside of the scientific and academic communities; yet how much has the Internet changed the way we seek and acquire information in only 19 years? That’s not even a generation!
And recently Facebook celebrated its mere 6th anniversary. In only six years, consider how Facebook in particular (and social marketing in general) have altered the ways we communicate and market.
So . . . the complaint that “things we did for years aren’t working any longer” simply reinforces the resistance to, or denial of change. We’re fast leaving behind the passivity of promoting our companies and waiting for people to respond.
Here’s the good news, however: there are several marketing strategies that cost next to nothing, or are even free, that do work. Today we have to be far more pro-active, as in strategies that are face-to-face, voice-to-voice and educational.
The big question is, how fervently are you resisting them, because “we’ve always done it (another) way”?
Marketing today is all about emotion. Certainly not the logic of going for the numbers and percentages of response. People buy from you because they have confidence in, are comfortable with and trust you – all emotions.
Here’s more good news: expensive, unaffordable advertising and direct mail campaigns are on the decline. We’re marketing and targeting on far smaller scales.
How can you incorporate interactivity and participation into your marketing activities? It’s time to engage your prospects, clients and customers . . pro-actively!
