My new article on Entrepreneur.com discusses how the world of marketing has changed from being reliant on interruption to engagement.
Following is an excerpt from the article, which you can read in its entirety here.
“With the growth of social media, marketers have learned that simply interrupting the online conversation doesn’t always lead to sales, nor does it lead to positive word-of-mouth marketing. Now the goal of marketing is engagement. Consumers want to know, what are you going to tell them after you interrupt them? Marketers have discovered that there is tremendous value in building brands and relationships through long-term social media strategy vs. short-term direct-marketing tactics on social websites.”
What do you think? Is interruption marketing dead? Leave a comment and share your opinion.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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Interrupt Marketing is absolutely dead. The new generation of shoppers and media-consumers doesn’t react to traditional advertising — online or offline — and finds any interruption as a personal insult by a slimey marketer. That’s assuming you can pin down these new hyper-consumers. We bob and weave, no longer plopped in front of the CBS evening news, and reading Time Magazine.
Since marketing these days is about connections, the solution is to become a sponsor or partner, not merely an advertiser. With advertising, eyeballs are purchased; with sponsorship, an introduction is made. Clearly, one is a better option.
Prescott, as always, I agree with you — and I love the way you say it. 🙂