Specialization and the future of marketing

Published December 16, 2013 at 7:58 am

Consumers today are inundated with more messaging than ever before. In order to stand out in a crowded field, it’s no longer enough to simply announce your intentions and hope that people respond. You have to create an experience, and if it doesn’t speak to a person that you’re trying to reach, it’s not going to resonate, and you won’t convert.

Joe Saracino, CMO at Erwin Penland, offers up some salient advice on the use of technology to reach these goals.

“Data has gotten richer and easier to use. Technology continues to advance at light speed. And customer behavior is shifting maybe more than every before. The point: Keep up. You have to…The best marketers are the ones that know they have to keep up and work at it.”

At the end of the day, effective marketing is about fostering a connection between a company and a potential customer. What are you offering, and why should they listen to what you have to say?

So what does this mean for your business?

It means that you have to use every tool at your disposal to engage your audience. Localized marketing isn’t just a quirky strategy for select groups: it’s quickly becoming the future of business to consumer connections.

Say you were deciding between two products. Which would be more likely to choose? One that is able to speak directly about its role in your life, or one where you have to fill in those gaps yourself? Ultimately, the more readily a person can see themselves using something, they more willing they are to purchase it.

And as a marketer, it’s your role to tell a story that makes it easy.