Interruptive Marketing? Just hit the MUTE button

October 29, 2009 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
Here's how I watch TV: I click the "guide" button on the remote, scroll through the channels to see what I want to watch and stop on one channel. Then, I click "guide" again to find a secondary show to switch to while my first-choice show is on a commercial break. Sometimes I have a 3rd "backup" show to watch if the secondary show is also on a commercial break. So, if I'm the average consumer in the 25-35 year-old age bracket, then I'm probably not the only one who goes out of their way to avoid advertisements.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying traditional, Outbound Marketing (i.e. TV ads, direct mail, radio ads, magazine ads, etc.) isn't effective; it's just that today's younger consumers have changed the way they buy goods and services. Not only can they search for anything in the world (including your business), they can also connect and talk to other people who have experienced your product or service, whether it's good or bad.

Many businesses who are new to Inbound Marketing (i.e. E-mail, Social Networking, etc.) expect that they'll be able to sign up for Facebook and magically see customers come flooding in. Obviously, it doesn't work like that. Inbound Marketing is more about brand reinforcement and requires much time and creativity to be effective. In fact, creativity has always been the most crucial part of marketing and is the defining factor between a successful campaign and an unsuccessful one.

There are three things to understand before jumping in:

1. There are new tools for marketing your business.
   
   • Website: The 24/7 access is unparalleled and has replaced things like catalogs and phonebooks.
   • Email Marketing: It's cheaper and easier to measure than direct mail.
   • SEO: Your business is not about what you do, but what your audience thinks you do.
   • Online Video: It's cheaper and easier to measure than TV spots.
   • Social Media: It's all about word-of-mouth, except that it's text-on-screen.
2. Find your target and define your niche.
   The shotgun approach of marketing is a thing of the past. Not only is it extremely expensive, but it's practically impossible to measure. Besides, you can't be everything to everyone. Many of the tools listed above can help you find the right target audience, but you still need to be creative in your approach. That's why you need to understand your unique niche in the market.
3. Create more chances to hit the jackpot.
   Unique content creation (blogging, video content, etc.) is the pillar of Inbound Marketing and there are many reasons for this:
   
   • Blogging helps SEO: This helps your website build a larger footprint by targeting keywords and making new content for Google to crawl. Hopefully people will find your content interesting enough to link and forward it to their contacts.
   • Mo' content, mo' traffic: Well, as long as it's good content.
   • Your business should have a face. Creating content that's more personalized can emotionally connect with your visitors.

So, keep exercising your creative brain to find better ways to market to your audience, without interrupting their daily lives. Create something that they can't ignore. Some ideas may succeed and some won't. But because of the analytics tools available, we can become better at creating more successful campaigns and know our customer well.