{"id":5286,"date":"2014-01-23T18:17:46","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T18:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=5286"},"modified":"2014-12-20T19:13:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T19:13:29","slug":"the-nine-letter-word-every-marketer-needs-to-remember-at-all-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/the-nine-letter-word-every-marketer-needs-to-remember-at-all-times\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nine Letter Word Every Marketer Needs To Remember At All Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 16th of last year I posted a\u00a0collection of predictions<\/a>\u00a0for the coming year from\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0for the\u00a0marketing<\/a>\u00a0and advertising world. The fearless forecasters I gathered together shared their insights into what they think lies ahead in the coming year and they did so with a twist. They were asked to not only provide a prognostication but to do so with a pop culture reference attached to it.<\/p>\n

It turned out to be a lot of fun and I highly recommend you read it. Not because I wrote it. On the contrary, I recommend you read it for it provides a collection of wisdom from the best and brightest minds today, all in one place.\"number<\/a><\/p>\n

Now the reason I preface my article with all this is due to the fact that my prediction\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0ties in precisely what I want to talk about\u00a0today<\/em>. My foretelling spoke of the need to go back to the beginning, as Inigo Montoya (my pop culture reference) stated so eloquently in the film\u00a0The Princess Bride<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“Collectively we need to go back to the beginning; to a time where people matter most. Living, breathing people who have emotions and feelings and sentiments.”<\/p>\n

That’s an excerpt but you get the idea of where I was going.<\/p>\n

Marketers need to remember that when we speak of consumers – and this applies to both B2c and B2B for sure, we are speaking about human beings first and foremost. We are speaking of people just like you and I who have varying interests, wants and needs that are different, perhaps then the next person.<\/p>\n

All of which leads directly into the\u00a0The Nine Letter Word Every Marketer Needs To Remember At All Times<\/em>: relevance.<\/p>\n

In case any marketers and advertisers forgot, the word\u00a0relevance<\/em>\u00a0is an adjective meaning\u00a0having direct bearing on the matter in hand; pertinent.\u00a0<\/em>In marketing and advertising terms, it means providing your customer, and prospect for that matter, with content that is relevant to them.<\/p>\n

Now I am quite sure there are marketers and advertisers reading this thinking to themselves\u00a0“Ok, perhaps my messages are not all that relevant to a given recipient of said message but, I am delivering to them all the greatest sales we’re having on all our great items.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

To those who are under this belief I offer you this following headline from a recent post on\u00a0MarketingCharts.com<\/a>: “Consumers Don\u2019t Just Ignore Irrelevant Marketing Messages\u2026”<\/p>\n

The headline was in direct reference to the findings of a study conducted by\u00a0Janrain<\/a>. I absolutely love the headline for it should scream to all marketers and advertisers that your customers and prospects are not merely deleting an irrelevant email or ignoring an irrelevant ad.<\/p>\n

Oh no, as you will see they are doing more than that,\u00a0much<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>more than that.<\/p>\n

\"Janrain-Consumer-Response-Mis-Targeted-Marketing-Efforts-Jan2014\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To summarize & other key findings:<\/p>\n