Buyer Self Education Makes Marketers Obsolete
Written by Jack Knollson | 08 December 2009
In February 2009, Laura Ramos and Oliver Young of Forrester made waves publishing a study that says technology buyers use social media to help them pick solutions. In other words, buyers are reading web-published commentaries from friends and peers on what to buy and what to avoid. This is a trend toward buyer self education and a departure from buyer dependency on marketing communications.
Earlier, in the fall of 2008, Laura began blogging about social media technologies that would make marketers less important. Sales, Support, and Product groups are brought closer to the end user by these new technologies. The marketing middleman has been disintermediated. I don't really believe the headline of this post, but I think that Laura and I have the same basic message: Marketers need to change or be left behind.
Three ways to change:
Be Fast and Fluid - Traditional marketers frequently slide back to their rigid print habits of the past. They spend weeks on a single piece and update it only once per year. They use puffery and powerful statements never expecting a comment or feedback. They shy away from analytical measures, trapped in the old reality that "marketing is difficult to track." These behaviors will be grounds for termination - one way or another.
The changed marketer will communicate more iteratively, posting or updating electronic content daily. Marketing messages will solicit feedback and marketers will know more about their products so that they can have intelligent conversations. The new marketer will use statistical data to understand prospect behavior, interests, and to predict (and then measure) R.O.I.
Focus on the Web - Buyers want to be finders. They want to discover the best solutions by searching for them in the Web's public record. They want to read blogs and forums, ask friends and objective third parties about products. They also want to talk to marketers online and read the solution providers' websites.
They are less likely to read carefully-selected testimonials and more likely to read comments and feedback from other buyers or customers. The changed marketer will spend less time on fancy print brochures and the majority of every day in conversations on the Web.
Go To Their Digital Turf - Where are your potential prospects gathering on the Web? That's where you need to be. Join the conversation. Conversation in the new King and it often takes a "Subject Matter Expert" to participate at a respectable level.
Some marketers are already obsolete. They know how to write (or to edit what the Product Managers say), but they lack first-hand knowledge of products and solutions. Companies should assign their marketers to use what they sell on a daily basis.
The new technologies have raised the bar on marketing communications. I like it. What do you think?