By Paul Deffenbaugh
We are in the middle of a communication revolution. New
technologies are altering the way we interact with each other at a
speed of change that is almost impossible to keep up with.
Telephone conversations have become as quaint as writing
letters.
The millennial generation are ignoring email and communicating
almost exclusively by text and message through Facebook and other
social media providers. Even in the business world, we're finding
that our organizations have become so reliant on emailing, that
business can crash to a halt if a server fails or a cable line gets
cut.
I believe we're at a change point in our world that is unlike
anything we've seen in the last 1,000 years. After Gutenberg
invented the moveable-type printing press, information became
available to huge swaths of people who previously had been
uneducated and uninformed. The result was the creation of a middle
class that is now the foundation of all open and modern
civilizations.
The change we're seeing now is achieving the same kind of
results. More democratically available information is, in part,
responsible for the pressure on repressive Middle Eastern regimes,
and causing havoc in China where the government insists on keeping
a cork on the information bottle while the contents are finding
even simpler ways to leak out to the people.
It is also-at a fundamental level-changing the way we engage and
learn. I heard a speaker at a conference ask, "Why do kids have to
learn the reasons for the War of 1812 if they can get that
information in a heartbeat?" What we learn and how we learn is
changing.
The problem for business people is that we want stability and
predictability. But the upheaval in communications is causing us to
try more and more unproven marketing and communications venues in
the hope (fleeting, sometimes) that we can connect with our
prospects and move them to action. Consider, for example, the
problem of engaging people via email when they are already
overburdened with email.
What we've learned here at Modern Trade Communications is that
any marketing that gets done via email has to provide value to the
recipient in more than just a "hey, look at my great
product/service" format. There has to be education and information
that is usable at that moment. Otherwise, readers-who already have
a cynical eye toward marketing messages-tune out immediately. And
they tune out by unsubscribing. Once that happens, you've lost a
prospect forever.
So, what do you do? The answer is content marketing. This is a
discipline of marketing that uses valuable information to engage
prospects on a different level. You leverage your expertise to give
knowledge and help to your audience, and through that, you
associate and build your brand. Ultimately, you want to create true
believers in your product or service because it's through their
testimonial and support that you build your business. Content
marketing allows you to establish your expertise and build trust
with your prospects before they even make a buying decision. Any
sales or marketing person will tell you that increased trust from
prospects translates into shorter selling cycles and higher
margins.
It doesn't matter whether you are sending your information via
print or electronic format, positioning your company as a source of
expert advice and being a problem solver will make it easier to
engage with your prospects. Yes, people want to know about new
products, but they want to control that search themselves. It can't
be forced on them.