Hello Readers,
I have been in the marketing field for more than 5 years now.
The marketing landscape has changed from a focus on traditional marketing to focus on digital marketing.
People think that there are two types of marketing - the old traditional way of marketing (TV, Radio, Newspaper and Magazines)
...and then there is the new way of digital marketing (Display Ads, Search Ads, Social Media, YouTube and so on).
Since consumers have started using personal digital devices like laptops, mobiles and tablets, the focus is shifting towards digital marketing.
But, are these the only two types of marketing?
Kind of yes... if you take into consideration the medium on which it is served.
But as a marketer, you should not be concerned about the medium.
See, the medium can be anything.
First it was print.
Then it was radio.
Then it was TV.
Then it was the internet.
Then it was the apps.
Tomorrow something else might be the medium.
So I believe that as marketers, we should not be concerned about the medium in which the message is served.
We should be concerned about what is served, to whom it is served.. Not where it is served.
When people differentiate marketing only by "Where" and "How" it is served, I believe we are limiting ourselves.
The medium doesn't matter at all.
What matters is:
- Who am I communicating with
- What I am communicating
- Why am I communicating.
Not where or how I am communicating.
So now based on these new questions, what do I think are the two ways to do marketing?
One is: Surface Marketing
The other one (more powerful one) is: Deep Marketing
Surface marketing is what you see everywhere around you.
Surface marketing tries to get your attention through interruption.
When you are watching IPL match on TV, you are being interrupted with an ad.
When you are watching YouTube, you are interrupted with an ad.
When you are reading a newspaper or magazine, you are interrupted with an ad.
When you are listening to radio, you are interrupted with an ad.
When you are browsing websites online, you are interrupted with an ad.
When you are driving on the road, you are interrupted with a hoarding.
This is interruption. Forced attention.
It's like one old school friend, that you do not really like much, who comes and talks to you in a party and you cannot ignore him.
Or it's like your grandma lamenting about something that you know you cannot convince her otherwise so you just hear her out.
You tolerate for a while. Low quality attention.
Such is the low quality attention that surface marketing achieves.
No one wants to give forced attention. And no one should want such type of attention on themselves.
All the interruptions that you see above, are surface level marketing. The medium doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it is a digital medium or a traditional medium.
Surface level marketing has a lot of problems.
With surface marketing...
- Trust is not built using ads
- People cannot recall a brand through ads because now there are too many brands trying to get people to recall. If 100s of brands keep running ads right in front of your face, you will ignore all of them. Won't remember any of them. Everyone is screaming for attention.
- Surface level marketing communicates "What" is the product. It doesn't communicate "Why" the customer needs the product. Why you made the product in the first place. You cannot educate a customer using interruption ads.
- The attention that surface marketing gets from people is poor quality attention.People are not really looking forward to pay quality attention to these ads.
So if surface marketing has so many problems, what is the other method? The better method?
The other type of marketing is "Deep Marketing".
What I am doing right now, is Deep Marketing :)
If you have read this article until this point, then I am going to pat myself on the back because I got your undivided high quality attention for almost 5-10 minutes so far, and you are not complaining.
And I believe you will probably give me your attention for another 10 minutes so that I can tell you about Deep Marketing - the better way to do marketing in today's age.
Deep marketing is different from surface marketing in many ways.
With Deep Marketing you can...
- Connect with you customers on a deeper level
- Get high quality attention using high quality content (like I am doing right now)
- Trust is built from the attention.
- The trust can be leveraged into convincing customers to do a transaction.
Deep marketing is done from a personal brand, not a lifeless brand with a logo. (I am talking to you right now.
So where we do marketing has changed from traditional medium to digital medium. But that's not as important as people think.
What's important is - whether we are able to move to Deep marketing, from surface marketing.
Because in this day and age, it is impossible to build a brand with surface marketing.
No matter how much ad budget you have, you cannot build a brand but throwing your brand name, logo and slogan in every surface medium possible. People are just going to ignore you.
The only way to build trust and generate revenue through transactions is to do deep marketing.
How can you do Deep Marketing?
Step 1: You are going to get people's attention using high quality content. Content marketing is the key here. Without good quality content, people are not going to pay attention to you. And the content has to be created by a human, personal brand. Not from a logo.
Step 2: You understand the requirements of your audience and create content - to help them, without expecting anything in return. With a genuine interest of helping people, not expecting a transaction in return.
Step 3: You are going to leverage this high quality attention, to build trust. (You have spent more than 15 minutes paying attention to me now, doesn't that make you trust me more? :)
Step 4: You can leverage the built trust to request your customers to do a transaction with you. And you are going to explain how your product / service is going to help your customer. (So yeah, I will be selling you my digital marketing course, because I have your trust, and my course is going to help you, and I will tell you how it will help in the future mails).
C.A.T.T. - Content, Attention, Trust, Transaction
Big brands spend so much money on surface ads to get your attention.
But have you ever paid more than 2 seconds of attention to any of these ads? Do you even want to pay attention to them?
I have got your attention for almost 20 minutes now, and I did not spend anything like a big brand would. Haven't I already proved that Deep Marketing is better than surface marketing?
You are paying attention to me, because I care.
I care to share an idea about how marketing has changed, not in medium, but in the way we communicate.
I want to genuinely help change the world from boring surface level ineffective marketing, to meaningful deep marketing.
You are paying attention to me, because I am a personal brand.
A human.
A person sitting behind this side of the screen.
Typing it out, while I am a bit hungry and thirsty.
And I am not interrupting the flow of this article. And I want to finish saying what I started to say.
It's personal.
It's deep.
We get to know each other better.
And that's Deep Marketing.
Deep marketing is not just for people who want to be bloggers.
Even bigger brands can start doing deep marketing.
Any product or service can be sold using deep marketing.
Deep marketing works for e-commerce, real estate, salons, education companies and pretty much any business.
For one of our e-commerce clients - we are helping them communicate the story behind the store. It connects with customers.
Our client is having an e-commerce site for pickles. It has been their family business and her whole family works at the factory.
All the pickles are age old recipes passed down through generations and they make it with high quality ingredients. This is a story that needs to be sold, but the CEO of this company. People pay high quality attention to it, because it's inspiring.
For our real estate client, we communicate the brand values of the company - written by the founder of the company, directly to end customers.
The communication talks about the history, satisfied customers, the quality of the products, the features and benefits - and how it is going to help the end customer.
Deep marketing involves understanding your end customers so well, that you know them like a friend, their needs, desires, fears and aspirations. That's when the communication is effective.
Think about what you can achieve, by connecting deeply with your customers, through honest stories, and getting their trust and attention.
These are the people who would talk about your brand and spread your brand. And the branding from word-of-mouth will be a 1000 times more effective than surface marketing.
So will you change how you do marketing?
Will you do deep marketing?
Reply and let me know because I want to hear your opinion on this.
Cheers
Thanks for reading this blog!
Sachin
Thanks for reading this blog!
Sachin