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Traditional Mass Marketing versus Social Media Communication

Image Describing Social Network Site use by Online Retailers courtesy of Social Media Optimization

Many companies spend a huge percentage of their resources and use a great deal of manpower in order to catch consumers’ attention. The task of a company’s marketing department has been centered on an attempt to speak to public consumers. Two of the main marketing trends that they commonly use are advertising and public relations. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study in 2006, marketers have spent more than $400 billion on advertising; much of it was paid out for television commercials.

Mass marketing methods ended up shouting at consumers rather than really talking to them and knowing what they needed. The core was repetition and the emphasis was focused on the number of people shouted out and how many times the shout was delivered. In short, the mass mattered most. Public relations, on the other hand, aimed at free media exposures. PR firms boost up their clients’ deals and accomplishments, hoping that these facts would get noticed by influential media groups. These trends are fast becoming obsolete and are draining company expenses. Moreover, the percentage of consumers who respond to these trends are becoming fewer over the years. We’ll see why shouting is no longer that effective in the marketing funnel.

Consumers in the Funnel

Marketing can be viewed as a funnel. Consumers are initially driven at the bigger end of the funnel. At this stage, the public is made aware of a certain product or service, mostly through advertising. Consumers would proceed through stages such as considering the product or service, going for their preference and acting on to become buyers. Consumers shift from merely being prospects to become buyers as they reach the smaller end of the funnel.

Since traditional marketing steers consumers at the big end, companies spend a vast amount of time and effort to get them to become buyers. But the reality is you’ll be lucky if you get half of the crowd of the people who heard your advertisements. With so many products that are trying to get peoples’ attention, shouting isn’t as effective as it used to be and shouting hardly works at the middle of the funnel either. That is why marketers do not have that much control over the middle stages. Unlike before, marketers lead and dictate the path that many consumers take. People are now seeing a new dynamic trend through social media tools.

This is where the present trend of groundswell sets in. People learn from each other when they become aware of a new product. The influence of social marketing media tools becomes most evident in the middle of the funnel, because more consumers are now engaged in social technologies such as conversations in blogs, discussion forums, and social networks. A survey showed that majority of online buyers trusted recommendations from friends or acquaintances and even online reviews by strangers. On the contrary, trust in consumer ads is declining.

The Marketing Funnel and You
Once you get to analyze the marketing funnel, you would see that the value of your prospect increases as he goes through the funnel. You can use social media tools like blogs, videos and social networks to increase your prospects’ interest, educate them or give them more information about your product brand. This would eventually lead you to respond to various comments from your consumers. Responding and getting into these conversations may require work, but doing so greatly influences people in the middle of the funnel. These can include not only consumers who make a comment but also those who read the comment. Looking at the funnel, you would know how easy it is to understand ways you can value your existing customers, how well you are going to utilize your social media tools and how you would treat your consumers differently.
Reaching the Reachable Crowd

According to Seth Godin, author of the New Marketing book, Meatball Sundae, marketing can be divided into two eras. The first was an era where marketers were able to reach the unreachable. Ads were used by companies to get people’s attention, even those not really interested with their products. Public relations were used to reach people who weren’t seeking for their companies. There were exceptions, however, like the Yellow Pages and the classified ads, where people can look for companies or services that they specifically need or want. But generally, the win for marketers was to make as many consumers aware of a certain product or service. According to Godin, we see this with publicists who put a book in front of people who don’t need it, in television shows where ideas are put in front of people who weren’t looking for them and in mass marketing ads where people are not really interested about them. While it all seemed impressive and big, Godin indicated that we are seeing this trend dying.

And still many marketers are bent on traditional marketing methods- venturing to get ideas to reach the unreachable. But, nowadays, this model is being replaced and as Godin pointed out, the web has been bad at reaching the unreachable. Because of competition, the growth of many websites, consumers’ busy schedules and increasing needs, the unreachable has become unreachable indeed.

With social media communication, only the reachable target is truly reached. It is easy for many companies to have ideas and create products not knowing how to reach the people that these products are serving. According to Godin, instead of yelling at consumers to get their attention, companies can start making products, services and stories that appeal to the reachable crowd and do their best to build on their consumer group, not by yelling but by serving them.

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