Search Marketing Blog
‘Connect With’ is the new ‘Pitch To’
Posted by Sean McMahon on 01.29.2010
“Engaging with customers is the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t. Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.”
That is the message delivered by David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian, in a re-affirming article today from eMarketer titled ‘Consumers Demand Engagement’. His resounding point is that even though more and more marketers are shifting dollars away from traditional advertising channels to interactive marketing, it is crucial that today’s new media (i.e., digital community marketing and social media networking) be incorporated into an integrated communication strategy, rather than executed as a stand-alone channel.
“The age of sending out silo campaigns is long gone,” this eMarketer report added. “The only communications tolerated by consumers are those that are appropriate, timely, and relevant—regardless of channel.”
This fact is validated through the following eMarketer graph that reveals that the majority of marketing professionals around the world is expending at least “a fair amount” of effort on integrating community networking and audience engagement strategies, such as Social Media Marketing, into their overall media mix (i.e., moving away from a campaign-centric direct marketing model, to multi-channel customer engagements across all online and off-line platforms).
In today’s hyper-competitive marketing world, just building an impressive Web site, or creating a polished ad campaign, is no longer enough. Savvy marketers are realizing that they need to reach-out to – and stay connected with – their target audience and online community influencers in order to entice customers to their brands, and generate long-term goodwill.
