Successfully marketing your business today means you cannot rely on tired, busin
ess as usual techniques and strategies that brought you to where you are.
Somewhere along the way I coined the phrase, “Do not Pong it!”, meaning – do not get bogged down with old stuff people do not remember, and do not use obscure references and examples. Too many prospects simply do not relate to things only important to our personal experience.
The law of primacy tells us we remember the longest what we learn first. Another maxim is that when confronted by adversity we usually employ long remembered tactics to overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, when old dogs use old tricks the outcome is not usually the same as days gone by. Each moment the world changes and existing customers along with prospects are changing at the same pace.
I read somewhere that children with early age exposure to computers and computer games experience a rewiring of brain functions so they learn differently than others not having early age digital experiences.
Atari started it all with Pong, the simple game released in 1972. Well, children born in 1972 are now 40-years-old and at the middle of your target client/customer audience spectrum. Your commercial targets grew with digital experiences that are now a flood of daily apps for smart phones, more home theater devices, and enough automotive bells and whistles to make Henry Ford sing Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Chorus” in admiration.
Do not get me wrong. I am a K-I-S-S practitioner and work hard to simplify everything in my domain. Today that more often means using digital solutions more than old school relics. My CMS is far more valuable than the many thousand business cards cataloged in the large Rolodex that once was the first thing I wanted saved from natural disaster.
Clio winning marketing from years ago simply will not work today because those efforts had only one outlet. When I once used television advertising, I now use all Internet fed digital outlets available to me. No longer am I slave to a television commercial time slot when I can deliver my message directly to email inboxes, YouTube subscriber lists, smart phones, and kiosks, among other destinations.
The rule today is “No matter what your product or service may be, think digitally.” Understanding your customer and delivering your message in the manner the customer wants has not changed, nor will change. That is simply marketing today taking advantage of many different message delivery systems.