Changes You Should Know About that Most Marketers Dare Never Mention - Marketing Trends 2017

First, a rivetingly sad yet, frustratingly true story.

My pal has just gone bust.

Such a shame yet I am not surprised.

He’s just had his third baby, bought a large new house and drives a very nice, very slick Mercedes (some special thing with extra numbers and letters).

I also walk past his office every day. I noticed that the lights were off one day. That’s unusual for him. The lights stayed off for one week. The lights remained off for two weeks.

I didn’t like to ask but I happened to bump into him. He told me the whole miserable story. God, it is heartbreaking.

The time, the money, the investors, the losses, the pain, the utter frustration and then the absolute crashing and collapse of dreams into dust only to blow away in the next wind.

He’s looking for a job. The car is going back. The office is shut. His house could be next.

I do feel for him.

Yet.

There is a tiny part of me that says to myself, ‘why didn’t he ask me for a little advice at least?’ He knows me and knows my track record.

Then again here is what I saw from the outside looking in.

He had an office with at least ten staff. The office was fully kitted out with the best of stuff. He had a sales team on the road. He had technicians building online stuff. And most critically – he also had a marketing team in place.

Look at this (is this you?)

His monthly outgoings (estimate) were around £19,500. That means that cash had to be found every month to stay afloat because it was obvious that he was rarely if ever hitting the spot.

How?

This is only possible when you have a high-demand business. High demand – good supply and then the connection between buyer and seller.

Yet despite an amazing website.

Despite his marketing team in place.

Despite following all the usual marketing rules these days – social media etc.!

Despite heavy investment into his technology stacked office.

Today his office is closed and he and his family are facing an uncertain future.

This story is important for you if you demand you marketing to bring in a result.

What is marketing in its most pure form?

Find a demand.

Supply the demand

An exchange takes place – usually of money!

And then put together proven systems that deliver the desired outcome. It really isn’t rocket science so what is going on?

The real problem is marketers are teaching marketing like it is rocket science. If you are anything like me you’ll get lost in those kind of details where every dot has to be dotted and every ‘T’ has to be crossed.

I worked with a company that was spending over £230,000 on their marketing team yet all the team ever did was post on social media, post on LinkedIn and then sit back and measure web stats to see what was working or not working. Once they even had a meeting lasting over 10-hours to discuss the results from Crazy Egg tracking software. The point being nothing was working despite everything they were (or were not doing)

But going back to my pal for a moment.

The real problem from what I have seen a zillion times is believing the infrastructure is enough to make the customers come. You know, ‘build and they will come’ mantra.

But mostly from what I have seen they don’t, they just don’t and I have seen this same scene and drama take place so many times over the past few decades dealing with everyday businesses like yours.

And now I keep hearing and seeing from businesses that their marketing no longer works!

I agree.

It doesn’t.

It won't.

It fails.

Time and time again it fails miserably.

The big problem starts with this.

The mind of buyers has changed. True, humans don’t change yet the manipulation and training of the way a mind receives information does change.

For example, when the web was new it was easy to get anyone’s attention. That is why spammers did so well. Today even spammers struggle to a point they have to send billions of emails (yes billions) to get sales.

Minds have been re-trained by the environment of technology. iPhones, iPads, laptops, TV, Instagram, Facebook and so much more endless torrents of information.

The mind has changed and adapted. You have to present things different - very different to the way you are probably doing right now.

This is what I see and hear from businesses like yours.

I don’t do marketing. (What the hell!!)

Email no longer works – sales are as good as impossible.

We post in LinkedIn.

We post daily on Facebook.

We run Google Adwords.

We’d never advertise in a newspaper.

We tried direct once and got no response.

I leave all the marketing to my marketing team (the guys that do all the above for no results)

Now of course not all marketing teams are bad but here is what I do know.

EVERYONE is doing he above and everyone is fighting for the same amount of attention in a world that has never been noisier – EVER!

Social media marketing mostly doesn’t work due to information overload and choice. Get over it – it isn’t working!

And frankly, if you are doing the same route that everyone else in your area is taking you are going to have to fight like crazy to get results. Do you think your marketing team is fighting like crazy for you?

Big change is coming for your marketing trends 2017!

I started marketing in 1985. In the early days of doing my own marketing, it was pretty easy. Easy because most people didn’t really do a lot of marketing so I was almost like a voice in the wilderness. In the early days of the web, I built lists of 4-50,000 very easily. Today building lists is very difficult.

SEO brought a wave of new SEO saviors that made (and still make) promises of page one yet page one rarely means more sales. They fell away as results rarely appeared and became more and more difficult.

Social media is a re-run of SEO in different clothes. Another new wave of experts (digital agencies) promise LIKES and even deliver likes but it’s been more than apparent for a long time that likes rarely equal sales.

And now the age of attention deficit in marketing.

This is the killer.

You have ONE SECOND to grab attention. You have the scroll of a thumb to stop. You have the despite for new and the overloaded mind to deal with.

Yet…

Even those in the age of collective deficit of information still buy and have never bought more than they are buying today.

How?

Remember this at the start of this article

What is marketing in its most pure form?

Find a demand.

Supply the demand

An exchange takes place – usually of money!

That rarely changes.

What has now changed is this.

You have to be able to

• Target buyers – no more try and hope someone will buy – find them and give them what you want.
• Capture their attention – Mindset images and single words that tell everything.
• Get creative with your marketing and go out into the marketplace to find, uncover, reveal and relate to your buyers in ways you’ve never done before.
• Create sexy, alluring, provocative, new mindset creative ideas that hit the target right where the triggers are.
• Social media probably isn’t working for you and frankly disengaging in a smart way will give you more results than engaging.
• Create anti-social social media that runs against the grain.
• Be aware that the USP is dead and distinction is the new black.
• Of course, there is more that I can discuss with you along with my historical results based on rock-solid strategies.

2017 Marketing Trends and Your Business

I believe that marketing, as you and I know it will no longer exist by 2020. I don’t think that’s a marketing thing from me I think it’s a reality based on trends I’ve seen for years and what is taking place now especially with human integration into technology.

You are going to have to get smart. Most businesses and maybe yours still do what most do and that is take the usual marketing route or no marketing route at all.

Hiring a team can be expensive from the wages and costs angle but even more so for the massive amount of sales lost by sales and marketing teams.

I have seen sales teams of over a dozen consistently bring in as good as zero sales despite them having everything needed to make it happen. Lost sales are a huge factor in business going bust.

Those old ways are dead and won’t be coming back unless the world starts all over again.

Yet 2017 can be a pivotal point for anyone involved in the world of business because this can be a year where your marketing takes a leap of acres beyond your closest competition and it can also be a year where you take your business into a whole new level.

Sadly my pal never got that. I’m still a little surprised he never asked for my advice. I could have helped him that’s for sure. Maybe it was too late. I’m not sure but either way you have the opportunity to avoid that outcome.

Now all you have to ask yourself is this.

Does my marketing bring in the results I want it to bring in?

If you said NO ask yourself this.

What am I going to do about it?

I have yet to consult and advise a business where I haven’t been able to solve their problem. Despite the fact we have never spoken I am sure your business is exactly the same.

Don’t sit around and hope things will change – the changes are they won't.

2017 will be a pivotal year for anyone in business.

I show you at least 14 of the most powerful ways to kick-start your conversions, results and systems so fast you’d never believe it.

You know where I am.

Call me now

TEXT: 07793069486

TELE: 0161 928 8328

Peace

Alan Forrest Smith