JephMaystruck.com

A long, long, time ago advertisers would interrupt people to get their message in front of them.  Commercials interrupting your favorite show, coupons in your mailbox, awkwardly placed billboards, branding of anything and everything, commercials interrupting the top 10 countdown on the radio, telemarketers trying to sell you something, sales people showing up at your door, and video billboards promising even more interruptions than static billboards.

There was no permission established so eventually these were bound to fail once the market was saturated with messages competing for the next chance to interrupt you.

Enter Seth Godin coined term “permission based marketing“.

I need to be friends with you for you to show up in my Facebook newsfeed or to be able to post on my wall.

I need to be following you on Twitter to receive your tweets.

I need to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter to receive it.

I have never been forced to watch a Youtube video, I choose what I want to watch.

I can’t force you to read my blog, it’s your choice.

Notice a trend here?  To communicate with people you must have their permission, no matter what medium you use.  Marketing hasn’t gone anywhere since “social media” took over, it just got smarter.  The winners now will be the ones who understand permission based marketing and come up with the newest innovative way to acquire permission.  It’s the next generation of word-out-mouth.

On the other hand, I hate to hear campaigns talking about “mass-text-messaging” services and mass e-mail marketing.  Just further attempts at interrupting more people to tell them a message they don’t want to hear.

If you want to delve further into the topic pick up this book:

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

“You can be traditional in a non-traditional medium and as well, you can be non-traditional in a traditional medium.”

I heard this for the first time on the Six Pixels of Separation podcast.   Joseph Jaffe said it to Mitch Joel talking about what is currently taking place across all mediums.  I think that statement is very applicable for areas such as Saskatchewan, that have a much slower adoption rate for online technology and media.  Let me explain.

In Saskatchewan companies need to focus on bridging the gap between traditional and new media.  It would be ignorant not to be exploring what you could be doing online as well, to spend your entire budget on internet marketing.  If you can figure out how to be non-traditional in a traditional medium you already have a head start on the competition.  So how could you go about doing this?  Simple.

Begin by knowing that your customers have the most marketing influence in the World, give them the tools to spread your message.  Put your web-site on all printed material, if you’re on Twitter put your username on your business cards and e-mail signature.  Start producing content that your followers would want to consume be it video, pictures, audio, or a blog.  Put that content in one easy place for them to access.  Now finally they have a reason to go to your website.

Refine it.  Get better at it.  Keep improving.  In no time you’ll have a strong online presence that will pair nicely with your communication offline.

The other route that many companies are taking is the default, a traditional message in a non-traditional medium.  These campaigns standout because they just don’t seem to fit, they’re lame and their creators obviously don’t understand the medium.

Using Twitter as a one-way messaging service like a commercial.

Starting a Facebook group for no apparent reason.

Unsolicited mass e-mail marketing.

Anytime you interrupt me to put your message in front of me I probably won’t like it or remember it.  On the flip side, if you have a interesting and innovative way of telling me what you’re about or you start a conversation, I’ll probably listen, if I like what I hear I’ll support you and most likely try to influence others to do the same.

Just because you’re “online” doesn’t give you the right to dictate your message to me, all we hear is the same ol’ bark coming from a different dog.

What impression do you get when you see a company in a new medium using the same traditional messaging?

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

In March of 2010 this was posted to the Nudge blog, explaining why social norms are a proven method to curb binge drinking among teens.  The post features an advertisement from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health attempting to use guilt and shame to convince teens not to drink.  The other example is from the National Institute of Social Norms campaign at Georgetown University.  From this case study you can read about it’s effectiveness.

The same day of the Nudge blog post, Advertising Age published this article on a study done at Northwestern University.  Using guilt or shame can actually influence the intended audience to take part in more of that behavior, says Kellogg marketing professor Nidhi Agrawal;  ”People who are already feeling guilt or shame resort to something called “defensive processing” when confronted with more of either, and tend to disassociate themselves with whatever they are being shown in order to lessen those emotions.”

It didn’t bother me much knowing that the Ministry of Health did that one set of ads, but to my astonishment they are producing more and now short videos too?  The new campaign is titled: “What else got wasted?” Well it appears your marketing budget was.

Just because you “think” it’ll be an effective campaign doesn’t make it true, the proof is in the research and there is plenty out there.

Please, comments are welcome.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites

If you own a small business in Saskatchewan what do you do to market yourself?

If someone gives you advice on an advertising tactic you “should” be doing, ignore it.  In todays marketing world you must define your goal before any thoughts of a tactic are brought up.

Do you buy the big billboards on Ringroad?  Maybe a large ad in the Saturday Leaderpost?  Nah, make a Facebook fan page, everyone’s on Facebook, right? How about a commercial on the Wolf, Regina’s most popular radio station, that oughta bring in some new clientele!  All these tactics I’m sure would work for some organization if executed correctly but that does not mean you should be using them.

Yes social media is growing but in Saskatchewan the adoption rate is much slower. Yes billboards have worked in the past but that does not mean they’ll work for you.

Define your goal first then look at your at your tactical options.  Confused?  Give me a call I can help you clarify.

Engage Post in Social Networks

Hide Sites