Marketing Yesterday and Today

I had a conversation recently with Dr. Laura Sicola, she is a Leadership Communication and Influence Expert. She is also the author of Speaking to Influence: Mastering Your Leadership Voice. During our conversation, she mentioned that one of the foundations of her teaching and coaching method is the 3C’s of “Vocal Executive Presence.” The 3C’s are:

 Command the room, connect with the audience and close the deal.

Within seconds, I matched those same lessons to what we teach in marketing as a full-funnel approach. To give you context, in a full-funnel approach, you have to reach people who have no clue who you are (command the attention of the room); you also need to get people who are familiar with you or the product and service that you offer (connect with the audience). Lastly, you have to reach people who have shown a strong interest in the product or service that you offer(close the deal). I found it so interesting that the same basic concepts we consider for building out marketing funnels are the same practical skill sets needed to be an effective communicator. 

After my conversation with Dr. Laura, I started thinking about marketing methods from the past and how they are almost identical to what we do now in terms of our marketing mindset. Let’s take the phonebook as an example. Historically, it’s alphabetically categorized, so when you flip to the A’s, you will see a very, very large number of businesses that have names that start with A, AA, AAA or any other combination.

So many companies did that to manipulate the system, the same way that marketers now work with the guidelines of algorithms to ensure that their clients have a higher chance of showing up first. Businesses knew that they needed to show up as early as possible within the phone book if they wanted to be found. You did this by being in the A’s or spending the most for the more giant advertisements, like being on the cover, the binder, or full-page ads at the beginning of sections.  

Let’s look at direct mail as another example. Marketers or businesses would select areas they wanted to target based on geography, income, and neighborhood to send out direct mail pieces directly to homes of people they felt would be more inclined to purchase their product or service. That is precisely what advertisers do with Google Adwords or even Facebook advertising. What has changed is the technology, the way consumers look for products and services, and the speed at which those products and services are expected to be rendered. 

The marketing of yesterday has spearheaded newer forms of advertising that are now possible due to the improvements in technology. We can do remarketing, which allows a marketer to skip the top part of the funnel and put their marketing in front of people they already know have an interest in their product or service. 

Today’s improved technology allows us to see who has visited a website or a Facebook page or who has made a purchase from your business before, which allows for more accurate targeting with your advertising. Many consider email marketing an old-school method. 

Still, it continues to be successful for so many businesses because today’s technology has allowed it to evolve and become more and more accurate. Suppose someone has bought your product or received your service before. They are more likely to purchase or ask for assistance again. Today, most businesses have CRMs or other systems in place to capture clients’ email addresses and additional pertinent information so that you aren’t shooting out emails blindly.

The last example I want to share with you is probably the oldest form of marketing and continues to be an enormous lead generator for almost any business in the world. Like every other form of marketing, it has evolved with the inception of social media and the emphasis placed on reviews.

 That is word of mouth. Instead of hearing it from Nancy down the street, you can hear about Joe’s plumbing by simply checking Yelp, Google, or Facebook to see what other people are saying about Joe’s plumbing business. If you like what you read, you are more than likely to make the call to Joe’s plumbing; if you don’t, you will probably move on to the following plumbing company you come across.  

I think it’s essential that no matter what you are marketing, you never forget the basics because they let us get to where we are today. I don’t believe you can be an effective marketer if you don’t know some marketing history. How can you know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve been. It’s also helpful to understand the correlations and connections between your different forms of marketing so that your messaging, targeting, and calls to action are consistent across the board. 

I think this is something you can handle, don’t you?