Have We Now Forgotten To Market (Damn You Content Overload)?

With the rush to social media platforms, have we forgotten how to market?

One trait that has become more prominent in all of us is impatience. A content overload and attention deficit has meant that people are becoming gatekeepers of what they choose to consume. One of the biggest challenges for companies is the time to be a bit more thoughtful to differentiate themselves from the rest.

Lets Start With A Bit On Native Advertising

With the rise of native advertising on our Facebook news feeds and it’s incorporation even on LinkedIn, it’s growing in prominence. A very quick definition of native advertising are ads that are present in a user’s news feed and are more or less identical to organic content. But is the growth of invitations to download whitepapers, listen to webinars or even lazier a plea to visit a new website, all within the quick curation of information and pressing a button, something we are instantly tuning out of because these are from people and companies that are not relevant to us, or we have no connection with?

With a promise on social media platforms of a ready made audience to target and the belief that if you generate lots of content you will be seen as a credible source, is just not true. With the speed at which we all jump to social as the answer for our marketing focus is a lazy approach to adopt. Lets not forget that the results don’t come back to you after one stab at a Mailchimp mailing, we’ve got to be patient but take advantage of the tools that we now have to target a defined audience.

One of the biggest opportunities of modern times is to have continual access to a targeted audience, whenever we choose, so lets not forget how to market and distribute our message via the most appropriate channels, hey there is even a place for direct marketing when it’s constructed well.

We Need To Become Craftspeople

To be a bit more patient and thoughtful into how we craft and deliver our messages, in any format from a tweet to a branded newspaper can provide huge rewards in differentiation from the competition. From digital to offline, it’s a privilege to publish and have the responsibility to share our views. This is where the evolution of publishing is heading, where complete control is with the individual company who can target a specific audience in more affordable ways than ever, as opposed to relying on rented space and running over to the social platforms to distribute a message (and sell). Lets look at it this way, we don’t have to focus budget on advertising because we can now build our own audience.

The hastily jump to social as the answer for the predominance of our marketing is not the right answer. To distribute and promote to a targeted audience, we have already started to get lazy behind templates and digital personas for how we want the world to see us.

Starting To Round Up

The companies who will reap the rewards will be the ones who look to build a different dialogue from the rest, based on looking to solve problems, rather than to broadcast benefits. Commitment and patience are the two key players in a world that has been focused on interruption and self-promotion.

Lets not get impatient like every other company and become more thoughtful. Be interesting to read your thoughts if you think we’ve jumped on the social rocket whilst forgetting what it means to market?