I promise you this will be the only longest post ever. I won’t use a lot of industry jargons as the internet is flooded with it. What I would really share, is experience.
For many of you who are wondering about what SMarketing really is, it is “Smart Marketing”. Over time, there is one golden rule that I have learned and implemented, which is, “Know your audience”. This rule is not just applicable to any business field, but you can also apply it to Life. Always do your research before going to an unknown territory to give yourself enough time to strategize on how are you going to approach that opportunity. “Marketing” really lies in the ability to approach that opportunity.
It matters what you know about their needs, it matters how you present yourself to them, it matters what you say to them, it matters what you propose to them, and it matters if you care about them.
This basic principle applies to all the specific fields in business and marketing. (Social media, Events, Product marketing, MarComm, Advertisements, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, Direct and Indirect Marketing, etc.) All of these platforms will fail if they do not identify their audience. It will be like selling your brand new line of winter jackets to a camel.
On a serious note, that happens in real world, when you have enough marketing budget to burn and you try to save time to find a convenient short cut. Since marketing is the only activity with an ambiguous ROI, people can get away by spending millions of dollars without worrying about what value do they get out of these activities of “Spraying and Praying”.
However, the digital age has changed the world now, and marketing itself has been associated to various metrics these days. People have become aware about when they are being pushed for a sale, and they don’t like it. They smell something fishy, they go on the internet to their trusted resources and then make some decisions. Thus, a job of a marketer shall be to facilitate every stage of the buying journey of a consumer.
Always remember, the first rule: “Know your Audience”.
SMarketinGuru 