A Social Media Go-To Market Strategy...

April 2, 2008

Ok, so let's say you are a brand manager at P&G or a product manager at Microsoft...

Or let's say you are a sales executive at a professional services firm...

And let's say that you believe 100% that traditional marketing is dead and that social marketing is the way to go.

But let's also say that you have a quota to hit. After all, if you don't sell stuff, you're not going to be in business long...

So, what do you do?

Good question.

At the end of the day, marketing yourself, your product, services comes down to doing a discrete set of activities, measuring them, refining them, and tracking them towards revenue.

I'm wondering if we can draw parallels between some of the traditional activities and the social media marketing activities? Not an all inclusive list

Traditional Social Media
Buy a list Mine the social network
Direct Mail Blog
Advertise Syndicate
Broadcast Listen
Message discipline Experience discipline
Let's break them down quickly one by one.
 
Buy a list vs. Mine the Social Network
People who don't know you, trust you, and haven't asked to hear from you vs. those who do, have, and appreciate it. Where do you think you'll make more headway?
 
Direct Mail vs. Blog
Comes down to the difference between interruption and permission. In the former, the group doesn't necessarily want to hear from you (or at best 3% do). In the latter, everyone has explicitly said to YOU that they are willing to hear from you. This can change of course and you can burn the right, but for now, you have it.

As I've said before, the RSS subscription is the highest compliment you can give a blogger (maybe that's why I always ask for it-ego boost, you know). These are people who WANT you in your lives. 
 
How many of you WANT direct mail in your life?
 
Advertise vs. Syndicate
In advertising, you are spending a lot of money to be where you think your audience might be. In syndicating yourself (see Go Where They Are), you are making it easy for your network to participate in a conversation wherever they might be, in the location of their choice and at the time of their choosing...and oh yeah, it's free.
 
Broadcast vs. Listen
If there were one thing I would tell people about the age of Marketing 2.0, it's that the primary role of marketing is to  Listento Your Customers via Social Media (no matter where the conversation is taking place). I know it's obvious that marketers should listen, but the habit that has been in place for so long has been talking at customers not with them.
 
Message Discipline vs. Experience Discipline
Most marketing organizations spend a lot of time on "message discipline." In a world where a corporation can control the message, that's great. In a world where you are more powerful than Microsoft, it's impossible. Add in the fact that you're facing a world of The Long Tail of Branding, you may as well embrace it.
 
And the "it" you should embrace is...the customer experience. Focus on giving your customers, partners, prospects, suppliers, and vendors an experience that  they will remember and which is consistent (or better yet above) their expectations...then, you will be in a strong position.
 
Where to?
As Lewis Green wrote the other day,
we already know we have to embrace Social Media. What we need to know is how.
Looking forward to your thoughts on my contribution to the discussion...



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Comments

Maisha said on 4.02.2008 at 6:31 PM

I believe in both, the traditional and social media marketing activties. I think as marketers we have to address the customer demographic. My guess is, if your decision maker is 40 and up (and not officially in the IT industry) than he/she may understand the more traditional forms of marketing. I would bet cold calling works better than sending a blog asking you to connect.

However, tomorrow's decision maker may include social marketing as one of its buy or no buy decision. Does this company have a way for me to address my concerns without having to "talk"? Is there a community that I can join where I can see if anyone has the same issues as me? Perhaps, a "yes" here is the difference between a buy or no buy decision.

My $.02!

Jeremy Epstein said on 4.02.2008 at 9:24 PM

Maisha,

A fair point indeed and that goes to the question of using smart data/data mining (see www.jer979.com/.../supercruncher-a )

I think post said "assume that nothing works," but in general you are on to something. The question is, "if you are willing to cold call someone to interrupt them with a solicitation about your product/service, how confident are you that they will be happy to hear from you?"

If they are annoyed by the interruption and you're playing the numbers game, are you really buidling your brand and permission asset?

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