Beware the Chicken Little Syndrome
By Sharon A.M. MacLea
1. Go mobile or go home
Six years ago, in 2008, I kept running into the new Apostles of Social Media who wailed that traditional media was dead. Oddly, these were the same people who knocked on my door the loudest looking for coverage in my print magazine.
Turned out that social media was only a piece of the pie. Networking online works best alongside SEO, community groups, web analytics, pay-per-click, email marketing, lead generation (read sales pages) and good ‘ol face-to-face special events.
Yes, mobile is here to stay and we know that over 91% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone; more than half are smart phones. Half again of smart-phone owners say their primary internet source is their phone. That means less than 25% of all mobile users usually look up stuff on the internet. So, it’ a good idea to be aware of the trend.
The volume is not enough to rip up your marketing strategies in favour of mobile. Your customers still watch TV and make phone calls…they’ve fallen in love with their tablets and still like working on their desktops. It makes better sense to ask your customers which type of screen they prefer to use. And then make sure you’re available for whichever device or style of conversation they prefer. It might even be the phone.
Beware the Chicken Little Syndrome
2. Marketing makes money
Sadly, we cannot yet prove this to be true. At least, it’s not easy to prove—unless sales, IT and marketing can all work together nicely in the same sandbox. Marketers do want to be held accountable for setting the stage when it comes to achieving top-line results for business. It might be easier for small business to tie these three actions together but it gets more difficult in big business where the separate services work in silos.
Why the turf protection? My theory is that IT ruled the online world for too long and felt marketers were nothing more than the “arts and crafters” of business. Nothing could be further from the truth. A good marketer begins with a strategy that is anchored by objectives—including financial.
Don’t get me started on big data, either. Who but research geeks working in government space agencies even understand the term?
As HubSpot found in the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, the biggest challenge ranked by marketers has been proving ROI. The report also notes that only one-third of businesses have a formal agreement between sales and marketing to deliver leads and customers.
The other key factor is tracking audiences across channels, sometimes with software systems that don’t talk to each other. HubSpot advises IT needs to increase its support for marketing
3. Print is dead
I’ve been listening to this one since the last decade. Yes, I did sell my magazine in 2010 to move into online communications but, as a long-time print publisher, please let me tell you that print is alive and well. Can you hear the whirl of print presses? They’re going at top speed.
Direct response marketing is picking up steam again. So, is the idea of sending post cards in the mail to a select few from your customer list. Here again, HubSpot asked the question: Do you think Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos got it wrong when he purchased the Washington Post?
Nope. Print’s not dead.
