Who Says Marketing Can’t Be Personal?

Marketing is an art — it is the art of communication.

Good marketing is not achieved easily. It takes place when a business communicates its value to those who are interested in hearing it.

Somewhere along the line, businesses stopped communicating one-to-one with their target audience, and began communicating to the masses. Traditional forms of advertising may have been the cause of this. That may be because mass communication (think about newspaper and magazine advertisements) is an inexpensive way to reach large numbers of people.

But is it wise to communicate this way?

The Internet has shifted the advertising paradigm forever; consumers are now empowered with tools that allow them to learn all that they want to know about a business, its products and services — indeed, even the people that make up that business.

So organizations need to rethink they way they communicate. Talking to the masses is no longer effective. Marketing that is not effective is wasteful. Businesses need to return to one-to-one conversation with their target audience.

Thankfully, the Internet makes it possible to do this too.  Good marketers know how to use online tools such as social media to return to the art of marketing. (Notice that I said “the art of marketing” — this is important.)

This is not to say that a business needs to have a singular dialog with each and every customer and prospect. Tools exist that enable the business to highly segment its target audience so that multiple messages can be delivered simultaneously, each one appealing to a market niche. The result is a marketing message that is respectful of, and very well received by, the particular target audience. Such marketing is effective and efficient — two words that personify “affordable”.

And that should be music to the ears of every business owner!

How to find your own marketing “voice” »