Okay so maybe you can’t run the world like Beyoncé but you can definitely be influential like her. In the marketplace it’s possible to be able to influence people who look up to you and trust you. If you can tell a relevant story, it’s possible to have a whole community behind your respected opinion. There are, however, obstacles to overcome before getting your story heard in the market place.
1. We live in a multi-screen economy: According to Michael Brito, author of Your Brand: The Next Media Company, “9 out of 10 people have more than one device for consuming content and even more media.” Content means information such as tweets, notifications and status updates. Media is the device that feeds you your notifications, social networks and other information.
My point is, we use multiple devices. This is an obstacle in itself because not only do you have to engage an iPhone user, you also have to get the attention of a Mac user, television user, and other device users.
Example of Multi-Device Use: Beyoncé wakes up, looking “Flawless” and checks her iPhone for Instagram and Twitter notifications. Then she goes on her MAC to search for relevant news on what the media has to say about her latest, On the Run Tour. Additionally she will turn on the television to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip and other news. She might also go on her iPad to check her e-mails. She uses multiple devices; just like we do.
How does this relate to you? Well in order to connect with multiple device users, it’s important to create content that’ll be the same for each device/media. This includes websites, photos, videos, and etc. According to Brito a few years ago we didn’t have to worry about formatting content a certain way. Today it’s crucial that all content fits different resolutions in order to fit different screens on devices. It’s also key that a brand tells their story the same way on all social media sites.
Example of Consistent Marketing Story: Beyoncé tells her fans on Instagram, Twitter, Blog, Website that she is touring. She tells the same story to her audience. She is consistent with what she is promoting. This is what every other brand needs to be doing too.
2. CADD (Customer Attention Deficit Disorder) Is Among Us
Now before getting excited about entering the marketing world, it’s important to know that a majority of customers have CADD. CADD stands for Customer Attention Deficit Disorder. Yes it’s a real thing. According to Brito this means that customers have more than one device at a time because they multitask. Customers are constantly doing more than one thing at a time, which creates a bunch of noise. This noise affects markets because it’s hard to get messages across to audience members. Personally I own four devices therefore, my full attention is never on one certain device. In order to break through the noise and capture a customer’s attention you need to share content that is relevant.
3. Relevance Is the Key to Content Consumption
“Customers want relevance…we all want relevance,” said Brito. Don’t you agree? People want the latest news, gossip, entertainment, and information. They don’t want news from months or even years ago unless it’s relevant to them today. In order to prepare relevant information for a customer you must understand what customers are interested in.
There are tools today that can help you get information about customers. Brito provided sites in his book about the tools that can be used such are Demographics Pro, Simply Measured, Wisdom App, and Keyhole.co.
It’s crucial to give customers relevance because if you don’t your enemies competitors will.
4. The Customer Journey Is Dynamic
It’s harder to reach customers today; there is no denying that. You, the next guy and I are all surrounded by multiple devices and noise from different marketers. With that being said it is proven that people need to see and hear things three to five times before it grabs their attention. Not only is repetition key when trying to get a relevant message to your customers, also keep the information friendly for all devices that people are using.
5. Customers are Influential
Now back to influence. Have you ever made a decision based on someone else’s opinion or feedback about something?
Beyoncé’s Influence: People who love Beyoncé know her Pepsi commercial. In that commercial she markets the product and how much she loves it. Her opinion about the product gets millions of people to go try it. Why? Because they value her opinion and trust it.
Ordinary Person’s Influence: As I mentioned earlier you don’t have to be a celebrity to be influential. Customers can be influential all the time and Yelp is one of those instances where customers can be. Whether a comment is good or bad about something on Yelp it will influence others when looking up that specific place. I’ve personally been on Yelp just to get people’s advice on restaurants because who wants to go to a crappy place? Not me. I have also been the person that influences others because I’ve written Yelp reviews. Customers often influence each other; it just goes unnoticed most of the time.
I’ll leave you with this. What is your marketing brand doing to be different in order to influence customers?
Ashley Hernandez 