Marketing 1.0 in a Web 2.0 World
I try not to dwell on it but I've been in the corporate world now for over two decades. When I started at my first job we not only didn't have the Internet, we didn't even have a PC on our floor! We took our typing downstairs to a typing pool that did our projects, returned them to us for editing so we could return them to the typing pool for another draft. Repeat. Repeat. No one had heard of email, web sites, social networking or blogging. It was a world of hard copy office memos, hard copy brochures, hard copy advertising and more or less one way communication with our customers and prospects.
Flash forward to 2009. PCs are not only on every desk but a BlackBerry is in every pocket. Or maybe an iPhone. There is no such thing as really being out of the office or away from your desk. Pretty much everything is online, virtual, soft copy, in the cloud and moving at the speed of light. So what's a marketing old timer to do??
My initial temptation was to just keep on keeping on with what had always worked in the past. It was straight-forward, everyone knew the rules and if it's not broken, why fix it - right? Then slowly it dawned on me - things had really changed. Not just a little. Things had really changed a lot. And it was up to me to learn everything I could about the new world of marketing and communications if I was serious about helping my firm be successful in reaching out to the market.
So what have I learned so far? I have learned that there are an infinite number of ways to reach people and often those ways do not follow a straight line. I have learned that people are actively looking for new ideas and new solutions so we need to get ourselves out there in the broadest ways possible so they can find our new ideas and new solutions. I have learned that creative initiatives go much farther, much faster in an online, connected world. I have learned that everything I thought I knew about marketing has changed in significant ways and I need to change as well.
We have started down the road of what is often called "Marketing 2.0" but what I think of as simply how marketing is done in 2009. We are trying, we are experimenting, we are adjusting, we are trying again. We have come away with some initial observations like content syndication works really well for us. And that people seem to respond to emails with embedded video much more than plain old emails. And that the more robust and meaty your content, the more you can slice and dice it and use it in different forms, in different ways, all over the world to tell your story.
We have also learned that "Marketing 2.0" needs to be built on the strong foundations of "Marketing 1.0". You still need impressive solutions that meet real customer problems. You still need clear and concise information on the benefits of your solution that speak to the customer in terms they can relate to. You still need loyal clients who love you and are willing to speak about that experience publicly. You still need great customer service so your customers feel like they don't want to live without you. There are no shortcuts to building that strong foundation and that is as old as time. But what has changed is the pace at which you can tell that story, the range of people who can hear it and the nearly infinite ways it can be told.
So that's where we are right now. Stay tuned for more on my experiences in this brave new world of marketing.