What will the post-advertising apocalypse look like for marketers?
Not as scary as you may think. Advertising is not dead. It’s just changing.
And with or without advertising, here’s how you can survive.
The Marketing Rebellion
First, I have to give a shoutout to my friend and podcast Co-host, Mark Schaefer. If you haven’t yet read his book, The Marketing Rebellion, you need to get on that. Like, STAT.
Furthermore, here’s a video that went along with the book and gives you a little insight as to why we’re going to be facing a post-advertising apocalypse.
A few insights Mark gives into the post-advertising apocalypse:
- Advertising is dying
- Two-thirds of your marketing is happening without you
- 80% of customers mistrust advertising
Secondly, further research shows that advertising:
- The average digital ad is viewed for just 1.7 seconds
- Consumers see anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements each day
- Roughly 25.8% of internet users are blocking advertising on their connected devices
It’s no wonder an advertising apocalypse is coming!
3 Ways To Survive In A Post-Advertising Apocalypse
1) Truth in (simple) advertising.
For starters, advertising’s influence is shrinking because the story doesn’t match the service (or product). We’ve put so much emphasis on storytelling that we forgot to differentiate.
What problem does your service/product actually solve? How about advertising that??
If what you want to advertise doesn’t offer a solution to your targeted audience’s problem, go back to the drawing board.
My honest advice? Quit telling stories, start solving problems. (at least with your advertising! leave the stories for your blogs or some other communication channel)
2) Aim for Earned Media.
When your content gets shared on social media, that’s earned media. Earned media is validation that your audience likes your content.
It’s the holy grail of marketing measurements.
And yet, marketers and advertisers seem to forget about Earned Media when it comes to ads. This is easy to say but harder to do: make great content. Bad content is noise. Good content gains earned media.
Most worthy, if you’re to survive the post-advertising apocalypse, you need to start paying special attention to this metric.
3) Maintain (your) Reputation Management.
Surely, you’ve checked out reviews before making a purchase. That’s literally what most of we consumers do.
As a result, products with no or bad reviews plant seeds of doubt and those with good reviews result in purchases.
Manage your reputation to ensure your ratings and reviews back up your advertising claims.
Customer Care Is KING
Lastly, customer care is one of the biggest ways to survive the post-advertising apocalypse.
Why? Just take a look at the 3-item list above. Every single one of those items can be solved or helped through customer care.
- Need help with how your product solves problems? Use customer stories through social listening.
- Looking for Earned Media to help plan better future content? Look to customer care stats on shared posts and convos.
- Need more ratings and reviews? Uncover advocates through customer care and start a campaign.
In contrast, many big brands are still severely lacking in empathy and excellent customer service. I doubt they’ll do well in the post-advertising apocalypse.
Advertising Isn’t Dead!
Most importantly, advertising isn’t going anywhere. We still have many clients who are seeing huge successes with their advertising campaigns.
Similarly, intelligent tools like AI will help marketers become better advertisers.
As a result, the marketers who are always striving for a customer-centric marketing approach will keep winning.
Admittedly, there are lots of ways advertising can go wrong. But, if you keep the above in mind, you’ll be on the right path.
Are you planning for a post-advertising apocalypse? Why or why not?
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