To the contemporary marketer, velocity and volume have become two of the leading variables for measuring apparent success.
Deliver a large enough quantity of content at a quicker rate than your competition, and across a wider array of channels, and your victory is all but assured… Isn’t it?
You’d be forgiven for adopting an air of cynicism.
Many of us will have grown up hearing the apocryphal story of the tortoise and the hare as children, but modern technology has given today’s society – millennials and centennials in particular – an almost insatiable need for speed. The hare’s natural haste is no longer deemed sufficient, and it now boasts the additional advantage of a turbo-powered jetpack, making it less likely to lose its proverbial contest than ever.
In marketing, as in other endeavours, the age-old problem persists: speed is exciting but can also kill.
Relationships aren’t formed after an impulsive swipe to the right, but they can be destroyed by one. In our industry, the seemingly never-ending boom of technological advancement shows no sign of slowing, but that doesn’t mean that we ourselves shouldn’t.
If marketers take after the tortoise, not the hare, they might discover that by choosing to do less “marketing” and focusing more of their energy on patient engagement, they could transform their fortunes.
Ask yourself: On what are lasting relationships of any kind built?
These foundational pillars that connect company to consumer don’t do so solely based on which firm released the most content or were quickest to market. Each individual consumer relationship has its own gestation period, and consistency, reliability and relevance will beat speed and volume every time.
Indeed, marketers in the professions are arguably better equipped to deal with what is a slow yet rewarding contest than their counterparts in other sectors; a bigger challenge you face is a refusal to be seduced by the opportunity of haste that technology provides.
At Vuture, we specialise in helping marketing teams build strong professional relationships and increase engagement, often by counselling our clients to focus less on marketing volume and more on making genuine digital connections with real-world chemistry.
By David Brady, September 2017