(Drowning In The) Sea of Information
Are you of an age where you had to look up information in encyclopedias? (Maybe you had slide rules, logarithmic tables and learnt how to solve equations only with formulas as well!) I loved history in school. I found studying the various “ages” and transitions fascinating. From ‘Lords & Serfs’ through to the Industrial Revolution, the development of culture and rapid changes in the world remain a constant through history. Currently we are going through the digital revolution - sometimes called the information revolution. How are you and your business adapting to this?
We live in an era where you can look up almost anything you want. Information is all around us. Estimates put our daily exposure to marketing messages alone at around 10000 per day. There are thousands of free courses online, videos by the billions, photos by the hundreds of billions and messages sent in the trillions. With all this information a business needs to understand that “more is not more”. You need to add value and make it easy for people to find you. People who are able to bring together and/or condense information (Like Ted.com and people doing book summaries for example) and organisations that make searching and finding information have huge market share because of the value they add. (and, obviously, for organisations like Google, huge responsibility as they ‘choose’ what information you see)
Information is, however, only as good as the action one takes as a result of having that information.
What are your sources of information? How much of the media you consume is for pleasure in comparison to learning and growth? How do you manage the deluge of information and communication in your professional and personal life?
Reflecting on how you consume information is a great starting point to consider what channels to market your business could consider. Take time this week to see which businesses manage to cut through the noise to reach you. What can you learn from this? How can you apply these learnings to your marketing message? A great starting point is to think about who you are best set up to serve. Or thought of another way - who is your ideal target client?
Are they likely to prefer video to blogs? Do they want case studies or testimonials or technical information? Do they want it in regular bite sized information or a longer format? Do they tend to watch videos with or without sound (most people watching on their phone watch without sound - hence having text they can read is important). We found that our weekly 3 minute “Learning BITES” video clips are our most successful form of marketing over the last 6 years.
Every business has differences in its offering and client base. Likewise every business is the same in respect that they are trying to get attention in a noisy marketplace. The only way to be heard in the sea of information is to speak directly to your client with a message that adds value through a channel your client uses. When was the last time you checked your marketing was working?
