New blog post. Woot! I just came to the realization after writing the latest Gotstyle newsletter tonight that my writing inhibitions get enhanced after a few sips of the cold brew. Which is great, because I generally write at work and I find it very hard to make my best creative material without a situational caffeine high. But seeing as I pretty much toss all reasoning and safe-guards while writing at my own pace and style – why the hell not write a blog post tonight too?
Most of my day today was spent at the DX3 Convention, covering digital marketing, advertising and retailing. Avoiding as many social media talks as I could (since I’ve already spent 3-4 years hearing audio-loops), I stuck to what I’m working on mastering: (proper) digital marketing, SEO, datamining, creative campaigning, mobile, e-commerce, and pretty much everything necessary to take your company to the next level once your tweets reach its pinnacle.
One word that kept coming up in a few of the sessions was the word, “Interrupt“.
While marketing automation was a hot topic at DX3, I caught it during my initial sessions covering loyalty programs then again during making money off mobile apps. Interrupt: something that extends forward and stops you for your attention in order to get something from you. Myself, I deal with interruptions all day. I walk by homeless people asking for change on my way to work. I get text/tweets/calls/emails/push messages all day from people asking something from me. I experience thousands of flashy ads daily that hinder my vision in an attempt to steal just a few seconds of my life. In effect, life is about interruptions. Because, well.. we’re all important in some way, aren’t we?
Then the last seminar said it again – but this time, the speaker being Kelly from Microsoft, said the opposite: Not Interrupt. Oddly enough, in a conference that had much to do about the same, two completely opposite ideas came afloat. How does one marketer claim not to interrupt while the others say interrupt?
I’m currently reading a sweet book. It’s called Evangelist Marketing. It’s a little heavy on the You’re-Doing-Everything-Wrongs, but it does prove a good point: nobody listens to their customers anymore. Nobody thinks from the end user perspective anymore. What does that person want? What does that person need? How can I help improve that person’s life with what I’m offering? What kind of life can my customer have if they use my product/service?
It’s much like Kelly was touching on: nobody’s willing to listen anymore. They just want to interrupt, because that’s basically a numbers game. It’s kind of like that guy at a club who uses the same pickup line at the club: 19 out of 20 girls will shut him down, but he’ll score with that one drunk girl who’s most likely re-evaluating her self worth. Inevitably, he’s not tailoring his message; he’s just taking a megaphone and speaking to people simultaneously. Effectively, we all want to be that guy who just gets attune to that attractive girl at the bar and does it au naturale. You know how they do it? They listen. Kind of like understanding your customer and really connecting with their needs. But of course, that’s hard. So people rarely do it.
Interrupting is great for getting somebody’s attention, I’m not denouncing that. It’s debatable that you could interrupt a person to initiate your tailored message, but that’s not exactly the topic at hand here. It’s the marketers who focus all of their marketing efforts on interrupting.
If you’re a clever marketer, be clever: listen to what your customers want and how you can make their life better with your product/service. Bring a bit of personality, a bit of emotion to the table. Make them really understand the difference you can make in their lives. Tailor your message to do just that.
Want to learn more? I’ll write a more detailed post later. Ran out of beers.
Anyways, thanks for letting me interrupt your day.
