Marketing = Quality over Quantity

Size is crucial for many things in life – but not for marketing.

What’s the first thing that comes into your head when you hear marketing? For many, their response is advertising. There’s no denying that advertising and marketing have similarities and will often be found operating under the same department. But the truth is, marketing means so much more than simply advertising. Marketing begins with the baby steps of any product or service. Who is this designed for? For whom will this be of service?

Quality > Quantity

Let’s say you’re trying to sell a new sports car. Your recently produced TV advert sees a well-dressed, 30-something year old man with flowing hair driving this car along the Cote d’Azur. Let’s also say your budget limits you to two distribution options.

The first option will show it on over 100 channels, but only once per channel.

The second option will only show this ad on 20 channels, but on multiple occasions over multiple days.

Sure, more people will see your ad if it’s on over 100 channels. But do you think four-year-old Lucy is going to stop watching SpongeBob and think “man, I wonder if my credit score will get me a loan for that car?”

Having an in-depth knowledge of your target audience is essential for the success of any business. You could create a life-altering piece of tech, but unless the right people know about it – which is up to you and you alone – it will never succeed.

The point being? It’s not about the size of the audience, but who’s in it.

The Future of Audience Engagement

As the very nature of marketing consists of engaging with an audience, it’s clear as to why the world’s leading marketing brains are focussing resources on social media; because that’s where people are.

Social media marketing is a great asset for any business to have, and Dublin Tech Summit keynote speaker Francis Trapp has worked in marketing for much of his career. Mr. Trapp now runs his own digital marketing agency – Brandnew IO – which has a strong focus on the world of social media.

Merely announcing your presence doesn’t cut it anymore. “As reach alone is becoming a far less important metric, the proposition of these engagement-driving influencers is looking even better for brands looking to connect with their audiences.”

One strategy in particular that digital marketing companies use are influencers, who are often celebrities or figures on social media and have numerous amounts of followers. What Brandnew IO and other like minded agencies do is connect clients with influencers. Influencers then promote the given brand with their fan base, and, if selected properly, give the brand a friendly introduction to their audience.

If you were selling your new range of football boots, the influencer would more than likely be a footballer. This way, you know for a fact that the vast majority of the influencer’s audience will be football enthusiasts, many of whom will play the sport.

If you show these people the boots, and they don’t know who you are, they’re not going to listen to you – a big problem for startups in particular. But if they see someone they look up to endorsing a sport they participate in, the potential for audience engagement flourishes.

Targeting your Audience

In a similar pattern of marketing’s evolution in the digital space, the past year has seen a trend in social media platforms introducing a live stream feature. What began with apps such as Periscope, the ability for users to broadcast live video content to an infinite number of viewers has been quickly adopted by the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. What’s even more interesting about the new ability is that users who are connected with someone who is live streaming are notified of their connection’s activities almost instantly.

You can probably see the importance of this as a feature to anyone who’s trying to widen their audience.

Krishne De, a marketing expert who specialised in social media marketing, is a keen believing in the benefits live-streaming can have for businesses. “Organisations are using these connect in real time with customers and to share breaking news, events and even alongside press announcements.”

Krishne De will also be speaking alongside Francis Trapp at this year’s DTS.

As the importance of marketing continues to grow, the role of marketers to seek new ideas and innovations becomes increasingly important to both businesses and consumers alike. But as always, the purpose of marketing is to maintain a strong reputation within your target audience, no matter how big or small.

DTS tickets are available now. Click here to secure yours.

Evan O’Gorman