Marketing used to be a sermon. Now it’s a dialog.

Many if not most organizations have “a” marketing message, so they spray and pray. “Here’s everything you should know, everybody. Call us soon. Please?”

Not surprisingly, this is a recipe for mediocrity. A one-size-fits-all marketing message is a desperate device of the clueless brand throwing stuff at the wall. Add to that the reality that nobody wants to be “sold to” – avoiding your sales pitch is the national pastime. A brand narrative that seems like it’s addressed to a vague Everyone can easily be ignored – versus a more individualized and targeted Message to Me.

You and I may be curious about buying the same considered purchase (cruise vacation, accounting services, jet fighter) but have completely different reasons, budgets, knowledge and timeline. We are not the target. We are two targets. The more marketers can gain insight into us as individuals, they more likely they’ll be to close the sale. (For more on insight, read my book Insight Swap.)

Even worse, the content marketing vehicle of choice is often the humble pdf. This represents spray and pray, too, since you gain zero insight from sending pdfs. You may know how many downloads there were, but you get no feedback: you can’t know if anybody, anybody, anybody read even one single page.

When we set you up with marketing automation, you’ll accumulate insight into the human beings in your pipeline. Who read what page, who forwarded your email to others in her company, who revisited that important page on your website. Who ignored Offer A, but is thinking about Offer B or invitation C.

You’ll launch timely and appropriate messages, automatically, based on user behavior. Set up workflows that can start campaigns directed to audience segments that have filled out a form, or watched your video all the way through, or otherwise met the Rulesets we create with and for you.

The ultimate segmentation? Know exactly what an individual lead knows, wants and expects.

Have enough insight to create a segment of one.

Getting to that point means you’re ready for MA104: Time to serve coffee to your Sales team.