The marketing department has changed dramatically over the last 10 years or so. Before the Internet and social media, we never felt like we had enough customer information to make informed decisions. Getting the right information was expensive and time consuming. And it always seems like decisions need to be made right now – not 60 days from now. Small businesses have almost always been closer to their customers and seem to make decisions qualitatively based on that relationship – the cost of traditional market research is out of reach for many of them anyway. However, even very small B2C companies have trouble keeping up an ongoing conversation with their customers.
Now it is not that we don’t have enough information. To the contrary, we have so much information coming to us via email, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that it overwhelms our ability read it and respond. Since consumers do most of the talking, they now hold much of the control over what others hear about our company. Outbound advertising and promotions still have a place in your marketing mix, but conversations have taken a much larger roll.
More about that and some solutions tomorrow.
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