New year’s resolutions, giving up something for Lent (if you’re into that), exercising like crazy to get that beach body for summer: human beings have a slew of things they do to try to rethink themselves, their habits, and approach to life depending on the time of year.
We’re already more than half way through the year, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the perfect time for marketers to do a gut check on how they’re operating.
I recently attended an interview our Group Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Karen Steele, did with theCUBE, on marketing in the Engagement Economy. Karen gave dozens of great insights that you can check out in the video below. I’ve distilled them into three key questions that marketers can ask themselves to make powerful changes to their marketing today or any time during the year.
Read on, marketer, and go live your best marketing life.
Engagement Is about Experiences
At the core of the shift from marketing to engagement is the idea that people want to be engaged with, not marketed to. So, how do you engage? You engage by creating experiences that will not only be memorable but will surprise and delight your customers.
A critical element of this is the Art of Storytelling, one of the three A’s of the Engagement Economy. Marketers need to be able to tell a story that resonates with customers and reaches them where, when, and how they’d like.
Every marketer should put themselves in their customer’s, and prospective customer’s, shoes and ask themselves, What is the experience I am delivering today? If you wouldn’t be wowed by it, chances are your customer wouldn’t be either.
Tech + Marketing
People still scoff at the concept that marketing automation and authenticity go hand-in-hand. Yes, marketing automation sounds process oriented and machine-like, but we’ll never depart from the fact that marketing, at its core, is about human beings and relationships. Today’s technology will help facilitate these relationships.
Take a look at the technology you’re using today and ask yourself, Is this helping me form relationships or hindering them? If the answer is the latter, it’s time for some new tools.
Advocacy Drives the Greatest Value
Leads, clicks, conversions, pipeline—all of these are terms marketers today are vastly familiar with. However, this doesn’t detract from the idea that a marketer’s primary role is to connect with a brand’s audience and build a relationship. These relationships are what brands can leverage to build advocates who will ultimately help them grow revenue for their business.
So, ask yourself: what metrics are you using to measure success today, and how do you currently measure the strength of your advocate relationships? As we progress in the Engagement Economy, it’s advocacy that will be a critical success metric for not only marketers but businesses as a whole.
Want to Learn More?
Here’s the full video, and be sure to come back for more insights from the next video in our Engagement Economy video series with theCUBE.
And, as always, we want to hear from you! Tell me in the comments what you’re currently doing to live your best marketing life.