A New Marketing

Hold on there, I’m not suggesting that you ignore the old lesson of “think before you act”. It’s just that Greg Verdino’s post got me thinking about strategy and tactics. Now let me explain.

Many of you who read this blog, are also bloggers yourselves. You have Facebook profiles. You Digg, Twitter, Stumble, and Tag. As marketers, especially internet or other new media marketers, being ahead of the curve is not just something to be proud of, it’s almost essential. Marketing is responsible for managing a lot of perception and interaction, making it vital to know what the next big thing will be.

The problem comes when we start focusing so much on what’s next, we forget what’s now. It may seem obvious, but the part of your market you really want to reach is the big part in the middle of the bell curve. Not the laggards, and not the early adopters. So while you might think it’s a great idea to start using Twitter to connect with your customers, most of them won’t get it…unless your customers are social media mavens.

And that’s the second problem. You have to focus on what’s Now, but you have to figure out where Now is for your customers on the great continuum. Now might be one place for industrial buyers of steel girders. Now might be somewhere ahead for a business consulting firm. And Now is probably way ahead for emerging web technologies.

The second problem can be figured out relatively easily, at least in relation to the first one. To find out what’s Now for your market, you just have to make sure you really know your market. Don’t just study and guess, but really become part of it. Figure out how they use media, how they think, how they make decisions, and how they decide what matters to them.

The first one is a little trickier. You have to make sure that you’re catering to the majority, but you also have to know where the majority is heading. Think of it as an inch-worm. The most important part is figuring out where the middle is bunched up, but sure enough that middle is going to move, and to succeed you have to be able to move with it.