Marketing 1.0 was advertising. TV slots, Billboards, Radio spots and magazine (print) ads. These still have their place, and they're a lot of fun, but the game has changed. Cynicism, the evaporation of trust and changes in our reading and entertainment habits has given rise to a whole new swag of marketing techniques and practices.
Marketing 2.0 is all about trust. Using trust based avenues to reach the unreachable, and to do so in a way that raises the chance of them buying something from you, at some stage. This is more than getting your name out, it is getting your name out attached to something, some form of value or benefit that people want to possess.
Here are the top three marketing avenues available to you today.
1. Sponsored blog posts. Drawing on the trust of leading bloggers to reach their audience. These are great because bloggers will not risk their readership, or their credibility, by referring somebody who is not worth it. So the reviews are honest and allow you to be introduced to a large group of people by a trusted source.
2. Interviews and guest posts. The world is swimming with blogs, news sources and failing publications. In the increasingly commoditized world of news - scarce and stand out content is something to be fought over. You can make yourself this content for your markets. Another form of introduction to a large audience by a trusted source.
3. Permission based marketing avenues such as your own personal blog, your own personal email newsletters and your own channels on YouTube, or even Twitter. I think the most important element here is that the traffic you have, or the followers in the case of Twitter, need to be authentic . Not just the result of some following technique.
4. Referrals, but not as you have ever known them. Referrals are a different creature than they were even two short years ago. Today a Twitter Re-Tweet, if done by the right people, can have far more effect than a month of display ads on Adwords. Your LinkedIn recommendations, if collected from the right people, are a permanent and public trust based asset for you. A record of trust by those others may trust.
The world is changing. You can push against it and continue to employ old world gimmicks like TV spots, SEO advertising and spam-type marketing. Or you can start to really try to leverage the trust that exists out there.
Amway, as I have noted may times on this blog, is built on trust. A network of sales reps all over the world selling to their family, friends, and extended circles of friends.
Amway turned over 7 billion last year. Thats a lot of trust...
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