Getting down to the point, marketing is all about connecting with would-be buyers to establish credibility/affinity while walking along side them through the purchase cycle. Buyers are seeking professionals who can first and foremost support them by understanding their internal needs and later, bring solutions that match, which they will then be ready to purchase. There’s a massive amount of Mind Combat going on there. That’s what marketing is about. However, based on the accelerated use of QR Codes, YouTube, the Cloud, Pay Per Clicks, Microsoft Tags, Hash Tags, Social Networks, Websites, Micro Sites, SMS Texting, pURL, Mobile Apps, Hashtags and other technologies, you would think it was all about Technology Combat. It isn’t.
Lost in the Nirvana of technology, a company can totally miss connecting to buyers. Of course technology tools are quite useful, but marketing is most effective when it takes advantage of proven human purchase behavior. Yet many companies fall captive to implementing new marketing technologies and at the same time are losing opportunities to transmit the true value difference they offer. Listen, it’s not the cool and unique, nor the barrage of communication technology that makes a difference in reaching the buyer; it’s the message differentiation that aligns with the buyer. The latter allows technology to be effective.
A Marketing Lesson, Brought to You by the Klingons
Do you remember the Star Trek series? One of the enemies that Captains Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard often encountered were Klingons. They possessed a technology called “cloaking” that allowed their ship to become invisible. Cloaking is the antithesis of what your business wants. Without moving in the buyer’s purchase flow and without a differentiated marketing message to engage him, you are ostensibly invisible.
The Klingons wanted to be invisible. You don’t.
It’s a fact: technology alone doesn’t get you on the buyer’s radar screen, your message alignment and familiarity with the buyer does. When that kind of marketing is operational it makes technology work, it’s not the other way around. Your prospective buyer is seeking his outcome—what makes his issues go away.
But the onslaught of daily messages has increased from 1,200 a day to some 3,000 a day or more. You can see why I use the phrase, Mind Combat! In this cacophony, you need more than technology applications. In fact, I am going to knock you off balance here by making this claim:
Technology can become your opponent and in fact make you invisible.
I know, you don’t buy that. King Ferdinand didn’t buy Columbus either, at first! But hold on a minute. The plethora of technology-driven communications overruns buyers with commodity messages which are of no help to them at all.
Undifferentiated marketing messages are ignored buyers.
Obviously it is imperative to use multiple channels and new technology to reach prospective buyers. But do so with a marketing message worth reading.
At the same time: Technology does not make undifferentiated marketing messages attractive to buyers who are seeking solutions. In fact, it can make you more invisible more often.
Consider your own inbox, emails, phone calls, texts and on and on; it’s all technology beating on you for attention. If you are a buyer, you know it isn’t the technology that gets you, it’s the message the technology carries. When marketing messages align with your needs, you give them attention.
The greater the amount of technological assault with undifferentiated messages the more it becomes invisible to targeted buyers.
Technology may reach a buyer but it doesn’t mean it will connect with him. That wastes money, time, and energy.
I love technology, who doesn’t, but without powerful writing that’s compelling and convincing, it’s not going to help build sales opportunities or support the brand.
Al