Blogging is distracting me from the view
An alarmist headline on a blog posting designed to attract readers or a statement based in fact? “Marketing is Dead” is the headline on a HBR blog posting by Bill Lee of Lee Consulting Group and although he raises some good points, marketing is far from dead and I believe it may be entering a golden era.
Marketers over the past decade have faced challenges on many fronts especially from declining audience engagement in their advertising messages. Engagement in is being decimated by proliferation of cable channels, the advent of the DVR and the competition for engagement presented by Internet platforms and devices. These well established trends are here to stay and will continue to gain momentum as the consumer increasingly engages on platforms other than the television. Generally, consumers are now not turning on the TV to get their information about the products and services that they desire, want or need but they are engaging online with trusted sites, friends, apps, games and trusted opinion leaders. At no time in history has there been a bigger opportunity for Marketers who really understand the value there product or services offers to build a relationship with an audience and lead them to purchase.
Online and social channels offer the opportunity to tell your brand and sales story and leverage influencers and community marketing like never before. Marketers now have the opportunity to get powerful video messaging directly to well-defined audiences in an environment where the prospect is receptive and actively shopping. And it’s now just 30 second brand or promotional video. Digital channels give us the opportunity to tell a story about our brand and customize video messages to the interests of the prospect.
I’m more inclined to think that “Sales is Dead” as opposed to marketing. Consumers are doing their buying research online, the hidden sales cycle by Abeerdeen Group illustrates this phenomena. Buy the time consumers engage with a sales person they know the product that fits their needs and the price they expect to pay. This significantly reduces the value of a sales person. Marketing should have the overall vision to attract and nurture a prospect through the sales cycle and to rally the right resources to engage audience s through social channels.
The next 20 years should be the golden era of marketing if marketers rise to the challenge of utilizing the power of these new platforms to truly engage with audiences and lead them through the purchase funnel with customized communications designed to entice them. Digital marketing, unlike more traditional forms, has the ability to be quantifiable. I have no doubt that Marketers who leverage these digital channels to generate consistently positive and accountable ROI will elevate the marketing function and establish a new golden era for the role.
