How Technology Has Driven the Evolution of Marketing

Throughout the modern history of marketing and selling, technology has continually driven the evolution of best practices. The lesson is clear. Evolve or become irrelevant.

From the late 1800s to 1948 marketing was defined by the "Golden Age of Direct Response Marketing."

During this era the recognized best practices of marketing were defined by the following attributes:

• Headlines identified the pain points of prospects
• Ads educated the buyer and built a business case
• Ads often offered a low risk next step
• Ads were considered tireless little salespeople, contained a lot of text and favored content over slogans and sparsly worded creative approaches
• Print advertisements were the dominant form of marketing
• Radio advertising was characterized by long and educational commercials up to 2 minutes in length
• Marketing and advertising are considered scientific processes, results are measured and return on investment demanded

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From 1948 to the 1990's the advent of television ushered in a new era, the "Golden Age of Big Brands." During this era marketing best practices came to be characterized by the following attributes

• Advertising became all about short and creative slogans
• TV Advertising quickly became expensive leaving only the Big Brands to compete
• Creativity and impression (C-n-I) marketing becomes that the defacto standard
• Business schools, based upon the success of big brands such as Coke and Proctor & Gamble begin to teach Madison Avenue's C-n-I approach as "best practice"
• The idea that marketing and advertising should do more than just create awareness is lost
• Marketing evolves (or devolves!) from being a results driven, measurable science to an art form. Madison Avenue starts giving one another awards for the best slogans, jingles and most memorable campaigns.
• The idea that you cannot discretely measure the results of marketing and advertising becomes the mantra of Madison Avenue

The late 1980s usher in the Age of Voice Mail, forever diminishing the telephone as an effective marketing and prospecting tool.

• People first began using technology as a protective shield or cocoon against salespeople
• Cold calling begins its death spiral, dialing for dollars goes on life-support
• The age of simple selling, when salespeople ruled the world comes to an end
• Later, Caller I.D adds yet another layer of protection against salespeople
• The age of the customer is born. The balance of power in the buyer-seller relationship shifts from the seller to the buyer NEVER to return again.

In 2000 a recent upstart called Google secures its place at the top of the search engine pile and the supreme reign of Google begins.

• 67% of all search traffic goes through Google
• The "AdSense" advertising platform becomes the largest advertising medium in the world
• 65% of all business-to-business transactions start with web research
• Print media is officially on life support
• The "yellow book" is officially on life support
• Online advertising spend begins steadily increasing while all other media spending begins a steady decline

In 2003 and beyond marketing enters the age of e-mail and Web 2.0. 

Rapid shifts in how consumers gather information and make purchasing decisions change the marketing landscape again. Futurists and trend prognosticators predict that the Internet will continue to displace all other mediums as the source of information and entertainment...television is put on notice.

• Prospects are now fully wrapped in a protective cocoon of technology
• e-mail replaces the telephone as the primary means of business communication
• The balance of power swings further towards the customer as Google and other search engines index information on virtually every subject.

In 2010 the dawn of Web 4.0 is upon us. The major search engines continually refine, customize and individualize results. Social networking promises to further increase the power of the customer.

• Google promises an ever more customized and accurate search experience.
• Mixed "universal" search results present news, "traditional content", photos, video and Web 2.0 social sites together
• Upstart Bing continues to refine its algorithm to deliver the most relevant results possible
• Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, StumbleUpon, Digg and dozens of other Web 2.0 sites all compete for share of mind in the ever increasing number of hours spent online.

Tough Questions to Ask Yourself

How evolved is your marketing?

Is your marketing putting you at risk of becoming irrelevant?

Are you pouring more effort into failing, dinosaur marketing and prospecting methods like cold-calling and getting ever diminishing returns?

Isn't it time you learned how to automate your marketing and lead generation process so that your specialty business can thrive, not just survive?

It's time to take action and get plugged into the MarketingProfits4.0 approach.

Absorb everything. Then request your copy of "How to Never Waste Another Dime on Crappy Marketing" at the top of this page.