If you are like many, the first time you heard the phrase “post digital” you probably felt a legitimate level of confusion. After all, digital marketing hasn’t gone anywhere. On the contrary, digital marketing is alive and well and seemingly poised for permanence.
But actually, that is what “post digital” means. Today, digital media is so much a part of daily life that imagining life without it is like imagining life without television or pay-at-the-pump gas stations.
So how you can harness the full power of post-digital marketing to really build your brand and deliver your message moment to moment? That is the topic this post tackles.
Mobile Marketing Via Micro-Moments
The good news about living and working in a post-digital culture is that your prospects and customers are literally always reachable, because they keep their devices close by 24/7 (recent surveys state that the average user will touch their smart device anywhere from 2,167 to 5,427 times per day).
This means that, as a marketer, your responsibility has shifted from the when to the how – how do you reach them to anticipate their needs and make the connection? The most common smart device actions are touches, typing, swipes, clicks and taps, and each action potentially offers a chance for micro-moment connection.
Google calls this marketing with micro-moments, with micro-moments being those precious minutes when your ideal customer picks up their device to perform some action.
Smart search functions, one-click ordering, mobile reminders, symbol-based communication, proactive digital assistants and other similar tools are some of the best examples of how companies use micro-moments to boost marketing results.
Transparency Is Required to Build Trust
With live video streaming via a new wave of online platforms and mobile apps poised to be the next big everything, the days of creating a carefully polished, big budget presentations to launch a new product or personality are pretty much gone for good.
In their place, today’s marketers are faced with a slew of challenges related to real time, raw-as-it-gets and totally transparent messages generated by real people to reach real people. Today’s customers no longer trust advertising or marketing unless it no longer even vaguely resembles either.
While this sounds easy enough, it can be far more challenging to pull off. Customers don’t want to hear from you, the marketer. They want to hear from their peers, social influencers they trust and ground-zero test users before they make decisions on what to buy or where to buy it.
And when you do decide to design a professionally produced ad campaign, in most cases the quirkiest offering gets the customers’ attention.
Create the Protection to Promote in Real Time
Real-time, real people, micro-moment marketing is exciting, no doubt about it. But it can also be risky. From personal safety and security breaches to unwelcome sideshow copycats and live-on-camera oopses, you need to be sure your brand and your business is prepared for the unexpected that marketing in a live setting can inevitably generate.
This is particularly important for startups and small businesses, who have fewer reserves to fall back on in the case of liability litigation. In some cases, one lawsuit is all it would take to force a small business to close its doors.
In this litigious society, the Small Business Administration (SBA) strongly advises against assuming you don’t need insurance or that you will never be sued.
The SBA also encourages all startups and small businesses to take out a general liability insurance policy to protect themselves against possible claims/lawsuits and even provides a helpful five-step guide for insuring a small business.
These are not easy concepts to grasp and master. But the good news is, making the shift to micro-moment, transparent, real-time advertising and marketing really does work to build customer connection, trust and – most importantly – sales!
