32 PRINCIPLES OF MODERN MARKETING: PART I

By Nadji Tehrani

The Dawn of New Media Digital Marketing

Today’s marketers face many more options than those of just a decade ago.

Where once there were broadcast, print, direct mail, outdoor and telemarketing, there are now countless digital options. Today’s new media marketing vehicles allow your message to be delivered to your prospect in the medium of their choice at the time they are looking to make a buying decision.

These digital or “New Media” outlets also empower marketers to pinpoint their audience based on the specific Web pages they visit and the specific content they read, resulting in higher ROI and fewer wasted impressions.

Having said the above, I now would like to share with you the new principles of modern marketing based on over 26 years of experience since we launched Telemarketing® magazine, which was originally positioned as “the magazine of electronic marketing” in June of 1982.

1. If you’re not on page one of major search engines, you don’t exist. Sixty-eight percent of people DO NOT click beyond the first page.
In my marketing classes, both at TMC (News - Alert) and at some of our contact center conventions, I used to say that “if you don’t market, you don’t exist.” Today, that principle is no longer complete and true simply because of the advent of digital marketing. We all know that nearly without exception, anyone who wants to learn about any topic, the first order of business is to go one of the leading Internet search engines. We also know that based on considerable research conducted by various organizations, 68 percent of people do not click beyond the first page. It is further understood that, of the remaining 32 percent, nearly half do not go beyond and in fact, look for the first page listings of a related search term. We further know that the higher the ranking of the executive searching on the Web, the less time he or she would have to look for information. Consequently, it is fair to assume that people who serve in a decision making capacity or senior management role hardly have time to go beyond the first page. Based on the above, it should be crystal clear that if you are not on the first page of the leading search engines, in today’s new media and digital marketing age, you don’t exist.

2. Marketing is not a part-time job!
Throughout the last quarter of a century since our pioneering magazine, Telemarketing®, laid the foundation for today’s trillion dollar contact center/CRM and customer care business, and as the owners of the registered trademark for Telemarketing®, we are led to believe that marketing is a 24/7 job and nothing less than that. Indeed, we have seen many entrepreneurial smaller companies wasting their marketing funds by placing and ad or two in a certain magazine and receiving seemingly no business from it. Thereafter, such a company would stop advertising or marketing and claim that advertising or marketing doesn’t work. Worse than that, some ill-advised entrepreneurs and smaller companies have a tendency to cut out all marketing and advertising plans when business slows down. Nothing could be more damaging to an organization than stopping advertising and marketing, which are primarily meant to generate sales leads. It is common knowledge that in a slowing economy, many companies could lose as much as 40 to 50 percent of their current customer base. And, if this lost business is not replaced with new business, which usually comes from new sales leads, then it is only a matter of time before such a company would go out of business!!

3. Warren Buffet’s rule: To succeed in business…build a strong relationship with the media.
Warren Buffet, as the world’s number one billionaire in terms of net worth and business savvy, practices what he preaches. If you have been watching CNBC on a regular basis (as I do and I assume as most business people do) you will have noticed that at the time of this writing, Warren Buffet has been on CNBC on a regular basis for the last several weeks. As a matter of fact, one might say that the only regular commentator on CNBC, besides the anchormen and anchorwomen, is Warren Buffet. By appearing on CNBC with millions of viewers globally, he is not only sharing his experiences with the viewers, but he is also marketing his company Berkshire Hathaway in the most effective way at no cost!!

4. Do not fight with the media…sure, this is common sense but it’s NOT uncommon!
Believe it or not, in spite of the above, I have come across very few ill-advised companies that actually like to pick a fight with the leading media vehicles for practically no reason. Our knowledge of the industry has convinced us that these companies have either already vanished, or it is only a matter of time before they go out of business. One can almost say that if you’re not active in the leading media of your industry, you also don’t exist.

5. To dominate your market, you need to dominate the integrated media.
In a number of these Publisher’s Outlooks going back to the early 1990s, I have been vigorously promoting the concept of integrated marketing. Once again, it seems that we might have been slightly ahead of our time, because the rest of the world has finally just realized that integrated marketing, in today’s business environment, is the only effective way to reach your market. Consequently, some consulting agencies and business publications have only recently started to admit that integrated marketing is the only way to go. To that I would say, “It’s about time.”

As a student of marketing, I also learned that there is no point in conducting any kind of a marketing strategy unless you want to dominate your market. It only makes sense to believe that in order to dominate your market, you must dominate print, events and online media and there is no shortcut to integrated marketing.

I look forward to sharing the rest of the 27 principles in future issues of Customer Interaction Solutions® magazine. CiS

As always, I look forward to your comments. You may e-mail them to me at [email protected].

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