Remember The Circus?
I saw the movie The Greatest Showman last week. It stars Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, the famed visionary and marketing genius behind the Barnum and Bailey Circus. I loved this movie among other things because of all the marketing references and activities used by Barnum as he grew his new business. Some of these marketing tactics are still employed nowadays and some not anymore.  So where do you invest your digital marketing dollars?
I would say the difference between marketing then and now is how audiences are sought after. Barnum captured the attention of people on the street with printed propaganda. Nowadays we look to capture people’s attention in a digital world. On mobile phones, tablets, laptops. Yet 200 years later, Barnum’s entrepreneurial spirit and creativity remain the true driving force behind any marketing success.
The Evolution of Marketing
The vehicle might have changed, but the principle remains the same: to target and reach the right audience. Here are 5 places where companies are investing their marketing dollars in an effort to reach their audiences:
1-Social Media Marketing
The ability to find anyone anywhere is why marketers across industries are investing so much in SMM. Let’s take Facebook for example -the 800-pound gorilla. Companies are allocating about 30-40% of their total annual media spend budgets toward Facebook. Business decision makers are keen Facebook users. Businesses are using all of Facebook’s tools especially Messenger to communicate at a global level. With 5 million businesses actively using paid advertising on Facebook, a whopping 95.8 percent of social media marketers say Facebook delivers the best ROI among all social networks (Hootsuite).
Offer: Want to learn more about Facebook Marketing? Ask me about our new “1 Month – NO Contract” Facebook service plan.  Schedule a call on my Calendar here this week.
2-Content Marketing
It continues to surprise me how many businesses do not have a content marketing strategy in place. Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less (Content Marketing Institute). Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Storytelling, Native Advertising, Livestreaming are all a thing of the now. “Livestreaming fosters the closest interaction possible to a real-life conversation where consumers can ask questions and receive responses from brand ambassadors directly in real-time”, says ProSense Founder and CEO Stanislav Glukhoedov (Entrepreneur).
3-Mobile Marketing
Mobile devices account for more than 60% of all digital minutes globally. In early 2018 mobile use accounts for more than 50% of searches, 80% of Facebook advertising, and 100% of ad spend growth. Plus 90% of mobile media time is spent in apps and a more astounding 92 percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others (HubSpot)
4-Marketing Technology (martech)
I went to the Digital Summit Conference Series in Los Angeles earlier this month and saw an IBM Watson Marketing presentation that blew my mind. In fact, I was completely taken aback by the amount of data driven technologies out there. Many of the sponsors had a new product or brand I had never heard of. According to Gardner, martech continues to quickly grow to claim over a third of all marketing budgets. Yep, I’m referring to Salesforce, Constant Contact, MailChimp, Marketo, Infusionsoft, and everything in-between.
5-The Customer Experience
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” ~ Jeff Bezos.
84% of organizations working to improve the Customer Experience report an increase in revenue (CustomersThink). Most of you know I had the privilege for the last 10 years to be the CMO for a TOP Customer Experience Consulting Company. Our success in advising clients on CX strategy was remarkable, but it was our team, and how we delivered an experience, that made the biggest impact on our bottom line. It was about the relationships we forged, and the clients we retained year over year. Acquiring a new customer costs around 6X more than keeping an existing one (Thinkjar).
The Greatest Showman
Barnum appears before the Queen of England. He is in company of his apprentice Carlyle. During this function he asks Carlyle to introduce him to Jenny Lind a singer:
Jenny Lind: You are the American. I believe I might have heard of you.
P.T. Barnum: Oh well, If you’ve heard of me all the way over here, I must have been doing something right.
Jenny Lind: That, or something very wrong.
P.T. Barnum: In the world of publicity there is hardly any difference.
Jenny Lind: I believe those are the words of a scoundrel, Mr. Barnum.
P.T. Barnum: A showman, Miss Lind, just a showman. The best on my side of the Atlantic.