thefunnel

Where are the exciting marketing opportunities in the future? Let’s look at some trends.

• Social Media is here to stay and no longer just an experiment. For many B-2-C companies’ Social Media is already driving more traffic than search! What is the next Face Book? The short history of social media has already shown that no matter what, applications have a limited life, so what’s next?
• Wireless and Mobile Applications. Wireless everywhere and embedded computing are driving the “always connected” concept, and mobile handsets (phones) are just scratching the surface. The applications for convergence or voice, data and video through the mobile internet are endless. What is the next killer app? In the past content has always been the king, but will the trend continue?
• Semantic web and geo targeting. You’re already part of this, whether you like it or not, and it’s going to get a lot more advanced.
• Privacy related concerns are a real issue, particularly in the world of “collaborative” social media sites, where it’s sometimes unclear who really has access to your data.
• Open source, interoperability, both on the system and the application side. Just like we mash up content, we will now start to mash up whole systems and applications. Time to market is the key.
• Cloud computing and SaaS (software as a service). Why invest in your own infrastructure when global systems are already available? But, what about security?
• Emotional branding. A concept that was written about already many years ago, but not well understood. Well, it’s happening today in social media – is your company part of it?

Seems like Yes is always the answer, and for pure play on-line companies it’s the obviously true, but is this really the case for B-2-B technology companies? After all, companies don’t exist to have a Web presence, and if the Web is only used as a marketing or sales tool to communicate value (even if it includes e-commerce) then by definition it falls into the category tactical marketing. The various decisions in the Web space or outbound marketing space may strategic in nature, and the Web is probably the best productivity enhancement tool ever, but to the overall business it’s still only a tactic to achieve the revenue, customer service and satisfaction targets, and a tactic is always considered a cost rather than a value builder. So, is there a point for a B-2-B technology business when the Web moves from being tactical and strategic?

Marketing plans sometimes mix up the differences between mission, vision, goal, objective, strategy, strategic intent and tactics. Strategy in particular seems to be problematic.
In its simplest form, a strategy articulates how you’ll achieve your objectives and how your distinct tactics are connected. So for example if your objectives (SMART) are to lose your weight by 10 pounds and run a marathon by September 1^st, your core strategies might be exercise and diet. Simple enough, but it doesn’t really give you enough details to understand if the chosen strategies are even realistic (suitable, acceptable, feasible) to begin with, and exactly how you’ll go about implementing these. Therefore, instead of thinking of strategy as a “fixed thing”, it should be thought as more like a process. If we accept that strategy is a process then we can identify the following phases of a good strategy. Research, segmentation, targeting, competitive analysis, positioning, goal setting, strategy selection, communication of goals, agreement on implementation, performance monitoring, gap analysis, alternative strategies selection, actions and strategy revision. Tightly connected to strategies are core competencies and critical success factors (CSF). Core competencies can be understood as the competencies available in support of a chosen strategy and the CSF’s are the critical few competencies that must be in place to even have a chance for success. There are many types of strategies but in current literature sources it’s often quoted that the key to a successful marketing strategy is focusing, positioning and differentiation, with the objective of focusing organization resources on the opportunities providing the greatest return. The key to a great marketing strategy is often innovation. The more innovative your strategy is, the better the chances are that it will provide you with a short or longer term competitive advantage.