A Strong, Simple Message

One of the most effective strategies for cutting through the message clutter is to have consistency of message.  Convincing non-marketing leaders of the need for consistency of message can be one of the hardest things to do as a marketer.

To be effective your message must be clear, concise and repeated frequently. In a mass media strategy, that means replaying the same ad on the same media over and over and over again. In a new media strategy, while message repetition has a place, message consistency becomes more important. Your message will be displayed differently and probably less frequently on different media. Done well, it could be MANY different media.  So if someone sees your message on a banner ad, a magazine ad, a retweet, in a radio story and on your blog, there had better be the same message elements running through each of those, or you have lost out on a golden opportunity to drive home your key message.

One of the scariest things about social media for most marketers is loss of control of the message.  The conversation of social media is much more difficult to manage than the monologues of mass media.  One of the exciting things about social media for most marketers is that you can interact and engage customers and potential customers directly.

There are some things you can do to help make sure your message is heard:

• Select a strong, simple message and use it consistently and constantly in everything you do.  
• Make sure your message is heard and understood and used by all internal audiences because internal audiences carry your message out into social media.  Make sure they are carrying the message you want them to!
• Make sure your strong, simple message is translated effectively into tweets and posts and blogs, so that wherever and however a prospect or customer is interacting with you, she is getting that same strong, simple message.  This can mean changes in length of message, language of message and format of message.  It should not mean a change of the core theme of the message.
• Use that strong, simple message over and over and over again.  About the time you are getting so sick and tired of that strong, simple message that you can't stand seeing it anymore is about the time that your audiences are starting to notice it.  Continue to use it.  Fight with your boss and your bosses boss when they insist on a new message.  They will be glad that you did in the long run!
• Resist the urge to complicate things with additional messages, sub messages, tangential messages or anything like that.  Companies that have been most successful in marketing and messaging in both traditional AND social media have presented a strong, simple message and stuck with it.
• Make sure your message means something to the audiences that matter to you.  If your strong, simple message is in jargon or uses terminology that is unknown or unfamiliar to your audiences, it is NOT a strong, simple message to that audience.
• I do want to be clear.  A strong, simple message is not necessarily a simplistic message.  "Acme Industries is good" does not qualify as a strong message.  Your message should identify your organization.  It should emphasize or highlight some reason prospective customers should consider becoming customers. This means it should emphasize or highlight a solution to a problem commonly shared by prospects.

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The Bigotry of Mass Marketing

When marketers use mass marketing tools like national television ads they market to the majority.  They have an excuse for not representing "minority" groups like people of color, gays, non-Christians or even women in their advertising.

As marketing becomes more customized; as mass customization becomes more and more common and cost effective; it seems to me that this bigotry of mass marketing no longer stands up.  Marketers no longer have a viable excuse for not reaching out to the various demographic groups that make up their base of customers and potential customers with specific and tailored messages.

Thinking about how to effectively customize your marketing message to the different groups of constituencies in your market is a greater challenge of the new marketing paradigm than figuring out whether to start a Facebook fan page or have your CEO write a blog.

Certainly, there are many issues that marketers must consider when reaching out to a specific group versus marketing to the masses.  For starters, it is harder to find a genuine voice when communicating with segments within the total market.  The literature is filled with advertising missteps by advertisers that simply translated their mass market messages to another language to somewhat disastrous results.  Chevrolet, for instance, learned the hard way when they tried to market their popular Chevy Nova in Latin America that "No Va" in Spanish meant "No go." That is not a very good branding message for a car!

I think that many marketers find it difficult to reach out to subgroups without coming across as pandering and disingenuous.  The problem usually is the result of marketers trying to take short cuts.  A company that truly understands its customers and understands what their needs and interests are, will understand how their products and services meets those needs and interests.  From that point it is a short distance to a marketing message that works within that market!

A company that is still stuck with "mass marketing mind" tends to think of all its customers as the same.  Cultural, gender and lifestyle issues aren't factored into marketing messages because they aren't considered at all.

I guess, in the long run, the message is that social media seems like its cheap, easy and fast.  It seems like a great antidote to shrinking marketing budgets and tighter markets.  But one of the true powers of Internet based media is its ability to customize mass messages almost down to the person.  And customizing mass messages isn't fast, easy or cheap.  It takes knowledge and understanding of the many facets of your market.  It takes the resolve to get to know and understand your market to a degree and a level of detail you've never done before.  It takes a firm, unshakable desire to move away from the ineffective bigotry of mass marketing.

Babies and Bathwater

There is an old saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."

My interpretation of this saying is that as you are getting rid of things you don't want, or no longer need (in this case the bathwater), be careful that you don't also get rid of something valuable (i.e. the baby).

In our current media and communication milieu, many companies are throwing out the bathwater of their traditional PR plans.  With tools like Twitter and Facebook, the thinking often goes, who needs newspapers (or radio or TV)?  With websites and e-newsletters and video conferencing, who would ever again pay to place a print ad or struggle to get their message into 30 seconds with music?

But here's the thing:  very similar things were said about newspapers and magazines more than 100 years ago when commercial radio became popular and the same thing about radio (and newspapers and magazines) when television joined the media fracas.  And newspapers and magazines and radio are still around and by most accounts, doing OK.

More importantly, those "traditional media" are still delivering visibility and audiences for those advertisers who use them wisely.

You see, I think new media tends to be additive, not replacing, in nature.  Each new media adds something new to the customer experience, but most don't really replace the old.  And even if it does replace those experiences for some, there are still many many many people who cling to their newspapers or radio programs with strength and conviction.

Traditional media also evolves.  Radio stations we have today are remarkably different than the first radio networks, but no less vibrant or vital of a media.  

So, when you are thinking of throwing "traditional media" out the window with that bathwater, you really need to calculate if you really can do without all of those customers who don't have access to new media, who don't care to have access, or that want access, but can't figure out how to use it, so they don't.

A Brave New World

One of the greatest challenges of any marketing effort is to cut through the clutter of every day life and get the right message to the right prospects so that they have a chance to consider whether they care about a product or service.

In the "good ol' days" marketers could cut through the clutter by making larger media buys than anyone else. These days, with "mass market" outlets reaching less of the masses than they used to, more and more marketers are turning toward "the new media" to promote their products and services. The problem is that most of these marketers, and many of the "new media," haven't quite figured out how to turn the various Web 2.0 (or 3.0 or 4.0) venues into effective and efficient marketing options. At least if you think of them in terms of the traditional mass media.

No website is going to consistently deliver the share of national eyeballs that the major networks were able to serve up in previous decades. BUT...what the new media (and I am now officially dropping the quotes from that phrase) is excellent at, if used properly, is creating word of mouth, excitement (positive and negative) and buzz.

This requires a different kind of message. A different kind of strategy. A different kind of marketing. We are entering a brave new world of marketing. Some companies will understand that and adapt. Some will understand that and rebel. Some will not notice and will go on doing what they have been successful doing in the past. The first two types of companies will survive and have a good chance of thriving. The third type of company, in 20-30 years will be nothing more than a good story.