What does it mean to be a Modern Marketer?

Most of us remember the days when digital was in its infancy. Television, Radio, Billboards, Direct Mail and Newspapers were the primary way in which we as marketers reached our target markets, as they boasted significant audience share.

As media sales reps back in the early 2000s, we called this "time spent." We were coached to remind our advertisers that a consumer spent an average of 44 minutes reading the Sunday newspaper. Those were the days when a full-page, full-color ad in the Sunday paper could cost an advertiser $6k or more. In many ways, things were simpler. Options were limited, market share was concentrated with a few media industry giants and they held the keys to the audience kingdom. Can you imagine a world where there are no clicks, only impressions?

I remember sitting in strategic planning sessions with newspaper executives who would implore us to ponder the threats of then looming tech giants Craigslist and eBay who were nibbling away at classified ads market share - "How do we compete with free?" they lamented.

Fast forward to today. Two key players in particular have developed high reach, lower cost self-service platforms that have served to democratize audience access.

Those two players are Google and Facebook. They collectively account for nearly 60% of digital ad spend. You read that right - 60%.

While they are digital "elders" compared to their younger, hipper counterparts at Snap Inc. and TikTok, Google has revolutionized our access to immediately solve problems and gain answers in real time to questions both trivial and significant. Their content is free to consumers and is supported by an AI-driven ad support system that drives valuable visibility and leads to businesses of all sizes and types. In ways, Google became the new yellow pages, although I would argue much of the ad spend that has evaporated from traditional media players is now being spent on Google and Facebook.

Source: Statista

Enter Facebook. What I find the most fascinating about the Facebook business model is how it made all of us creators. Instead of waiting for the TV, radio, or newspaper to spoon feed us their selection of the day's most important news and information, we began creating our own. And it was far more interesting and engaging than anything that editorial team could ever concoct.

What I love about the Facebook and Google success stories is that they have empowered business owners. Their technology does support self-service. While not all business owners use it to its full extent, this has improved audience access and lowered ad costs, provided greater targeting capabilities and analytics to guide us in making wiser, data-informed marketing decisions.

So what does all of this have to do with being a Modern Marketer?

Many of the tools now available to use by way of Google, Facebook and others allow use to behave more like Modern Marketers. Because of the improved technology, we can afford to experiment more, test multiple messaging strategies and are afforded the data that allows us to fine-tune our strategies over time.

Create captivating Content ❤️

Source: Mabus

Don't Write to a Crowd. Write to an Individual.

When we are creating content, which is arguably one of the most important priorities in marketing, we must recognize that the broader the audience, the more broad our messaging becomes. That is, content specificity follows the granularity of our audience segment. That is why the Super Bowl features all branding messaging - they are targeting the masses.

Conversely, when we are targeting "curious clients" or bottom-funnel, in-market prospects, the language use becomes more feature-oriented and copy-heavy. These prospects are ready to make a decision and need the details.

A final bit of advice for the Modern Marketer in all of us:

🟡 Create content that seeks to solve a problem. It takes the pressure off it being perfect.

🟡 Create multiple content versions and test them with small budgets.

🟡 Find joy in the data.

Modern Marketing