Home

I don’t watch TV anymore, I stream NetFlix. In my car, I don’t listen to the radio. I sing along to Pandora. And the newspaper? What’s that?

The numbers don’t lie- mass media, PR, advertising, and other traditional “one-way” staples are losing relevance and impact.  Only 18% of TV ad campaigns generate positive ROI.  56% of people avoid buying products from companies they think advertise too much on TV.  TV ad cost have increased 256% in the last decade, a 100% increase in TV ad spending is needed to increase sales 1-2% and it takes 117 prime time spots to reach 80% of the TV audience.

Social Media has just begun to rock our worlds.  Best practices for brands in Social Media seem to change quarterly.  Indie rockers can make $11K in two hours.  Multi-million-dollar marketing budgets can be undermined by simple consumer-generated videos.

Bing, Yahoo and Google recently made changes to the way their search engines index the real-time web, and status updates and tweets are rapidly finding their way into top search results.  Consumers searching for brands and campaigns will see results that include blogged and tweeted criticisms alongside official brand sites.

So what does it all mean for marketers?

Well, unless your marketing budget can overcome the actual experience consumers have (and share with friends, followers and Google), it no longer matters what you say.  In 2010, your brand will be defined by what you do and who you are.  Your product is service, and it’s manufactured with the customer present.

These developments will bring changes of biblical proportions for marketers.  Marketers are too often seen as specialists and tacticians talking about the “Four Ps” (product, place, price, and promotion) rather than strategists who help CEOs lead organization-wide initiatives that have strategic, cross-functional, and bottom-line impact.  Other functions have been better at rallying around transforming initiatives such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and reengineering led by operations; Economic Value Added (EVA) and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) guided by finance; and the Balanced Scorecard driven by accounting.

In 2010, marketing needs to work cross-functionally and create real value around the skillset.  We need to focus on dialogue- with clients, prospects and the people we work with.  We need to differentiate our products and services, find the niches where we’re relevant and become a respected authority.  We need to spread the word of our success and show our colleagues, customers and employees the impact of our work.  To paraphrase John Rockefeller, next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.  Here are some ideas that can help get your marketing organization in the right mindset for 2010.

Combine strategies for PR and Social Media
Effective public relations build awareness and intent among your target audiences. Today, you can create and publish your own media. You can engage more of your targets directly, with and without the need for an agency or media intermediary. With that in mind, combine PR and social media into a single cohesive strategy.  Leverage social media for beta testing and feedback.  Leverage the big PR blast for the formal announcement.  Build measurement tools to find the right mix.

Renew focus on Referenceable Customers
The more you can mobilize your customers to help tell your story for you, the less you have to do it yourself.  Are your best customers singing your praises to their own networks and communities? Are you using them as reference accounts for your best new prospects? Are their testimonials prominent on your Web site, and in a variety of formats – print, audio, video?  Customers are far more credible than you are with your prospects. Give them reasons (and an occasional reminder) to talk about you.

Crown Content King
If your content is relevant to the prospect, it can be more effective than giveaways, discounts and other offers that have an incremental cost each and every time a new prospect walks in the door.  This strategy works for online, retail and virtually any business. Think about what your customers need – not stuff, but information. Think of ways you can produce information that’s valuable to your prospect and unique to your brand.

Communitize
Join an online discussion forum, Facebook fan page, or a LinkedIn Group and start talking with community members.  Don’t sell. Talk about their needs, their issues. Answer their questions. Become a trusted expert and adviser, build credibility, then watch those same prospects start asking you what you do, and how you can help them.  This does take time to build and foster.  Be patient and consistent.

Deliver
The best marketing is always a great product. It fills a clear customer need, does to in a remarkable way, and compels customers to tell others about it.  Be proactive and accountable to your customers.  Ensure their voices are heard every day to affect how the product or service is created, serviced and improved upon over time.  Change a policy, introduce a new feature, do something unexpected.  Small things that delight your customer can have a bigger impact on impacting, mobilizing and converting new customers than a whole slew of paid advertising.

Marketing, it’s been a good run.  2010 is the year the power shifts.  Customers have a voice and they will use it. Some are using it as a weapon, so be careful.  It’s a tricky transition but one I truly feel marketing professionals need to make to stay relevant.

Feel free to share this content via the social network of your preference.  If you want to get updates on TMM postings, be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed.