7 Marketing Strategies That Win With Today's Customers

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Over my years of experience mentoring entrepreneurs and small business owners, I have noticed that customers are paying less and less attention to traditional outbound marketing channels, in favor of more participative initiatives, including interactive social media events and sharing feedback with friends and peers. You need to capitalize on this trend to get advocates today.

I believe this is being driven by instant worldwide communication via the Internet, and a growing sense of longing to be part of a special community, or even an influencer to enhance your value to others. Examples of this new type of marketing include Nike's "Just Do It" campaign to share personal fitness journeys, and Lego Ideas, allowing fans to submit their own Lego set designs.

Some marketing experts see this trend as an evolution from changing your marketing role from searching or hunting for new customers, to farming the ones who already see and like what you have to offer. In any case, here are my recommendations for practical ways to get you started in this new direction:

1. Create a business purpose storyline and showcase it. Highlight your product or service with a customer-relatable story, preferably around a higher cause, such as saving the environment or helping the disadvantaged. This allows customers to remember your brand and encourage advocacy to their community of followers and friends.

2. Launch multiple experiments to learn what works. Take advantage of the wide range of marketing alternatives, including social media, direct contact, and traditional channels, to see quickly what gets traction, and follow up to learn from failures. Potential customer advocates are quick to provide feedback via smartphone and new technologies today.

4. Lead with a minimum viable product (MVP) and iterate. Long development cycles for marketing initiatives seeking perfection only risk being overrun by competitors, and don't keep up with current customer demand for innovative change. Reserve a portion of your marketing budget for incremental updates as you learn from early customer feedback.