We are now in the Age of Relevance. Yet so many marketers are blasting sales messages, without realising it is causing their audience to switch off or tune out. Attention is scarce; prospects are information rich, and time poor.

1. INTEREST
ABANDONMENT.
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2. The good news is that many companies already have the
assets in place to change the way this happens.
For the past several years the focus on generating
‘content marketing strategies’ has increased significantly.
The idea of one’s own media is not novel anymore,it’s a
requirement. However, the focus has primarily been on
content creation and curation.
The next evolution of content marketing is to apply the
similar focus on technology and automation that we’ve
seen in the paid media space. Technology is emerging
that can utilize the knowledge of how people consume
content in order to optimize what type of content, when
and through which channel to serve it next.
Done well, with an understanding of what drives the most
efficient journey for an individual consumer, amazing
results can happen in the middle of that purchase funnel/
journey/pretzel.
A lot of marketers, in the face of diminishing returns from
increasing paid media spends, are wondering where the
next incremental performance increase is going to come
from.
If you’re going to maintain that potential customer’s
interest - it won’t be through paid media or offer
retargeting, it will come from brand’s own media efforts
that intersect between customer interest and brand
offering in a timely, non-shouty and interesting fashion.
If you would like to learn more about idio and Content
Intelligence, please visit www.idioplatform.com or
contact info@idioplatform.com to book a demo.
CONTENT MARKETING: MAINTAINING INTEREST IN THE MIDDLE
When a prospect steps up and says ‘I’m interested’ this
typically means, ‘tell me more. Not ‘make me an offer’.
The more consideration going into that purchase means
they really want you to tell them more, not be shouted at.
Perversely then, investment in retargeting that constantly
shouts ‘Buy, buy, buy!’ has gone through the roof.
The underlying idea of retargeting is that when a person
lands on a site and clicks around that they are ‘in the
purchase moment’. If they don’t make a purchase but
leave, this qualifies them to deserve being chased down.
This is how things work in real world isn’t it? You browse
in Oddbins and in the event you have to leave, it would
not be unreasonable for the cashier to follow you for
weeks after you’ve lost interest saying, “Buy this ‘Banner
Ad du vin’- it’s only £8.99’ over and over again.
There have been some nice successes from retargeting
but it has its problems and many potential customers will
ultimately go on to buy from a competitor…all the efforts
to drag them back are too late. You’ve lost their interest.
Marketing professionals still manage decisions about
where to focus. But there is some bias going on.
Much of the marketer’s time and resources are aimed at
the very top and bottom of the funnel. This has created
a gap, one which costs firms a lot in terms of money and
lost opportunity.
The middle of the funnel or the journey is where most
prospective customers are lost.Potential customers enter
the journey by saying “Hey, I’m interested...tell me more”,
yet most acquisition strategies keep pushing them to just
buy.
‘Here is an offer’ is the usual next response to some
anonymous web visit. Go to just about any company’s
web page, click around and then exit.
Watch what comes next…a steady barrage of display ads,
interstitials and emails offering you deals if you’d only
come back. This is retargeting. A lot of money is spent on
it but, unfortunately, a majority of that spend is either too
early or too late.
In fact so much has been said about it that many feel it
has been exhausted to death. In its wake, a smorgasbord
of geometric configurations have been posited: cylinder,
concentric circles, orbits, spindles, dodecahedrons (ok, I
added that one).
Type ‘purchase process’ into Google Images and
scroll away: everything from crazy path diagrams, the
old funnel, cartoons and one that suggests it’s now a
pretzel! Personally, I prefer the poetic variety such as the
‘consumer journey’.
It suggests a Tolkien-esque epic requiring consumers to
circumvent mythical creatures and fiery environs.
Whether it’s a funnel, a journey or a cycle the one thing
that is generally the same is that it has a recognized
objective beginning and end. One of the chief goals of
any marketer is to create awareness of their product or
service to keep people interested through to purchase.
Now, the 21st century has brought us some amazing
innovations and marketing practice has seen its fair share.
Ad networks, real-time bidding systems, automated
work flow systems, CRM, content management, email
management and on and on.
At this rate you’d think the marketing department had
been replaced by a single computer (or more specifically
in the case of an ad agency, a MacBook air.) But it hasn’t.
YOU’RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG PART
OF THE FUNNEL.
RETARGETING IS USUALLY TOO EARLY
OR TOO LATE.
A lot has been said about the purchase funnel.
www.idioplatform.com