By Dan Sirk (Account Director)
Most marketing folks have been told that we’re just above used car salesmen when it comes to public perception. Only 13% of consumers think marketing benefits society – that puts us below politicians and bankers – and a Gallup Poll places the ethical standards of advertising professionals among the 5 worst on the list. Yes, just above car salesmen.
Clearly, we have a perception problem.
The issue is, this perception reflects reality. Marketing messages rarely get to the right people at the right time, and instead, prospects end up hearing about a bunch of things they don’t need, just bought, or already have.
Marketers don’t want to mess this stuff up, but we do – largely because the technology hasn’t been available to identify and reach the right potential customers at scale and we fear missing out on any potential opportunity to do business.
The great news is, marketers are finally in a position to start to make this right. We’re going to be able to deliver a unified, personalized, consistent experience across channels and talk to people who actually want to hear about what we’re offering.
This is largely being driven by the maturation of marketing automation software, new media tech that enables better targeting and improvements in cross-device attribution. This technology provides a confidence that we can more successfully target those who actually care about what’s being communicated as opposed to “all takers”.
These days, marketing automation isn’t just about sending triggered emails. These platforms, combined with APIs and other free-standing technology like Kitewheel enable nearly any media to be triggered based on digital body language. Identified prospects for a given product could get a customized view of your website, a remarketing campaign, social posts and email focused on that product of interest, timed for optimal experience and conversion.
Our ability to deliver this experience across devices (desktop, tablet, smartphone) is getting better with probabilistic identification and matured location-based technologies enabling a bridge to the retail space. But, we’ve got a long way to go here – improvements are needed with cross device attribution and connecting other things that give off a signal like TV and wearables, which are just starting to draw focus.
With that said, the rate of progress is such that I’d expect that in a little while the underlying technology will be available to overcome these obstacles… Say, 5 years.
We’ll need about the same amount of time for early adopters to implement the technology, figure out how to use it and become proficient – another 5 years.
Then, it’s the long, slow progression of late-comers figuring things out – 10 more years.
So, 2036 is our year. It’s when most of us will finally meet the customer’s seemingly simple expectations – talk to me when I actually want to hear about what you’re offering. It’s when marketing will finally be a respected profession.
In the meantime, we can continue to leverage the new technology that’s available to put some distance between us and the car salesmen.
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