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5 New Rules and 5 Proven Principles for Marketing Success

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5 New Rules and 5 Proven Principles for Marketing Success

The web, social media, smart devices, and other advances in technology have given marketers unprecedented ways to deliver their messages and engage with customers.

In this new, technology-driven world of marketing, do the proven principles of marketing strategy still apply? Or are there new rules for marketing success?

As a marketing consultant, I’d answer “yes” to both questions.

Here are five new marketing rules created by the enormous impact of technology, five time-tested marketing principles, and the reasons you need to consider both for a smart marketing strategy.

5 New Marketing Rules Created by Technology

In many critical ways, technology has transformed marketing and customer engagement. Here are five new rules to factor into marketing planning:

  1. Consumers are in control. The days of marketers controlling the message and brand are over. Consumers not only have the ability to select which messages reach them in almost every marketing channel, they also have their own instant megaphones (social media) for influencing how marketers are perceived. This means two things: 1) Marketers must do a better job than ever of creating relevant, attention-getting messaging and 2) every marketer needs a social media strategy.
  2. Consumers are demanding engagement with marketers. Consumers expect relationships with brands and want marketers to recognize and acknowledge them. They also want to share their brand or product experience with a community of like-minded people. That’s why Oreo has over 40 million followers on Facebook. Creating and nurturing consumer relationships and fostering dialogue and engagement have become crucial for marketing success.
  3. Every screen is a marketing platform. TV was once the only screen for delivering advertising messages. Now every screen, from phones to tablets to desktops to TVs to massive stadium scoreboards, is a marketing platform. Even more important, screens are ubiquitous. As more and more people engage with your brand via a screen, you need to be creating marketing campaigns that work in every screen format and using video in your marketing.
  4. Search is the new shopping. There are an estimated 3 billion Google searches every day. No matter what you sell, Google is so influential in how people find your business that a Google strategy has become a vital component of a marketing plan. Google’s new algorithm favoring mobile-responsive sites in mobile searches also underscores how important any-screen/every-screen marketing has become.
  5. Everything can and should be integrated. There are few standalone, single-channel marketing campaigns these days. Thanks to technology, marketing initiatives can (and should) be fully integrated across all platforms.

5 Tried-and-True Marketing Principles that Still Apply

Yet despite the advent of technology, the tried-and-true principles of marketing still apply to the strategies we’re developing for our clients, even when we’re recommending technology-driven marketing approaches:

  1. Emotion drives purchasing. There’s an emotional component of every buying decision. Smart marketers understand the emotional factors behind their customers’ choices and speak to those emotions in messaging and advertising.
  2. Attention is the first job of communication. Capturing the prospect’s attention remains the number one mission of a marketing campaign. This challenge has never been harder. But if the customer doesn’t see or hear your message, the message is wasted.
  3. Listening is the most important marketing skill. You can’t create effective advertising and marketing without truly understanding the customer and the only way to gain that understanding is by perceptive listening. Every marketing strategy should include a way to talk with and listen to customers.
  4. Effective messaging requires a human connection. Even when words aren’t present – which is true in more and more copy-free advertising – the advertiser is still delivering a message to the audience. Messages that connect with people on a human level are the ones people remember.
  5. Data is as powerful as ever. This is something direct marketers have always understood: The more you know about who buys from you and why – the type of insight you can glean from customer data – the better you can target prospects like your best customers. Data also enables you to send laser-targeted, personalized promotions that get attention, sell products, and deepen relationships. Here’s how Saks and Lord & Taylor are doing it.

Do you agree with my five new technology-driven marketing rules and my five proven principles? Which ones would you add?

2 Comments
  • David Hunter

    “Everything can and should be integrated.” YES!!!

    Most business owners only do online marketing because it’s cheap and a lot of times… FREE. They don’t realize a postcard can take someone to a website for a free report. Or, email can direct someone to pick up the phone and call. Etc.-etc.

    Same with Facebook. A lot of business owners talk about the number of “likes” they get, not realizing “likes” doesn’t bring home the bacon. They need to use that to bring clients into their stores!

    August 11, 2015 at 12:48 pm
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