I love spam! Well not excessive repeat of the same products but I am fascinated by other businesses marketing messages.
In the UK we detest being sold too where this is a respected profession in other cultures, why is that?
I believe it is becoming increasingly harder to get noticed In business today, traditional marketing channels aren’t working as well as they used to, printed advertising is on the decline and society filters marketing messages anyway. We sky+ and fast forward tv advertising, gate keepers protect us from cold calls and technology removes unwanted email… So how is a small business with limited marketing budget meant to attract new customers?
Networking? Maybe, networking is indeed a powerful route to Market if you do it right. I have built a brilliant network particularly in the last 8 years where I networked with strategy and purpose.
Networking is ideal for professional services but not as effective if you are selling low cost product with low margin. There are always exceptions but networking is a medium to long term strategy to fill your pipeline IMHO.
Guerrilla marketing? Personally I love guerilla marketing, for those that don’t understand, it is unconventional campaigns which are typically interactive and take consumers by surprise. It relies more on imagination rather than marketing budget and can if done right become really viral. I will blog more about this separately.
What about social media? Of course, it’s cheap and has great reach if done properly. So tell me why do most businesses still resist? What are they afraid of? I say it a lot, but most people reading this will think they have a social media strategy because they have profiles on several sites, they may even use them a bit? But generally you are there because you feel you should be, afterall everyone else is, but really you don’t have a clue how to make it work for you and achieve the all important return on investment.
The world of marketing has changed & continues to do so. In fact it has seen an incredible evolution in the last 10 years and most haven’t kept up. So many companies which have been around for many years are closing their doors and why? Because they failed to innovate! They failed to embrace change!
They are ignorant of 21st century communication methods!
Wake up! Smell the coffee and adapt people! If this resonates with you, get in touch, I will try to help!
About Warren
Okay, just for fun I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate…
Social Media isn’t cheap – it costs time. For some people it costs a lot of time and unless times doesn’t equal money, that makes it expensive! Are you calling me cheap?
Guerrilla marketing costs time in the same way: it’s all well and good to sit back and look at, for example, a viral video and reflect on how much effect it’s having for relatively little input but that misses the point. Coming up with an idea that works takes time – lots of thinking time; lots of development time. And then there’s the time put into the ideas that didn’t work…
Don’t get me wrong – I agree with you, generally… I’m just putting the opposite side of the coin. All too often SM stuff, for example, can become a means of putting of doing something more effective. After all, what takes most effort – banging out another tweet about how good our presentation skills training is or having a really, really good HARD think about how to make it available to more people…?
Clue: one of them I can do while I have a cup of tea, the other involves me thinking!