Four lessons on being a ‘Connected Marketer’

media update’s Aisling McCarthy attended the IAB Digital Den event at MultiChoice City, hosted by Paul Berney, on 16 May.

Paul Berney, author of “The Connected Marketer” welcomed the audience to a presentation about the future of marketing in the age of connectivity.

Berney began by stating that people are now living in a constant state of connectedness. Although they might not always be “shoppers” or “voters”, they are always able to connect to the internet – be it via phone or computer.

He continued saying that connectivity is a ubiquitous concern, as everywhere we go we look for Wi-Fi and signal. However, he stated that for marketers the technology that allows people to connect is less important than the acknowledgement that consumers are always in the state of being connected.

Once marketers recognise that you live in a connected world, you can match your brand to fit a connected audience. In order to do this, Berney said marketers must master four things:

1. Understand the individual
2. Enable people to do what they want
3. Remove barriers
4. Find ways to be of service

In order to do this, Berney suggested that brands should first figure out which of the three major categories they fit into:

WANTS – Includes things that are fun or entertaining for people.

SHOULDS – Includes things people feel obligated to do, like get fit or learn more.

FRICTION – Includes ways to help avoid risk, cut costs or lessen annoyances.

“How many of you downloaded Angry Birds or CandyCrush when they came out? But how many of you still have them? None of you? But I bet every single one of you have a banking app on your phone…” said Berney, highlighting the fact that friction brands tend to have the longest brand presence.

Once a brand knows where they fit in, they should enable consumers to do what they want by tailoring marketing language to suit consumers. Using the words that consumers will search for online can make it easier for them to identify with your product.

From there, he said that brands should ensure they remove any barriers that might stop consumers from using their product or brand.
“Successful brands help people make progress without getting in their way,” he said.

Brands like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple have set the bar when it comes to the ‘connected experience’ because they make it easy for you to use their products. For brands to succeed, Berney said they would have to make things easier for consumers, as “convenience decides everything”.

Finally, he said that finding ways to be of service to consumers is the best way to ensure loyalty. Largely, people want personalised service, and brands have to deliver things to people the way they want it. To do this, he said that it is time brands move away from segmenting audiences into race, gender and location, and move towards bespoke persona targeting.

“Personalisation is the new loyalty.” Berney said.

Good brands are the ones that recognise, remember, adapt to, reward, protect and respect consumers.

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Berney said that for success in personalised marketing, brands have to embrace the power of artificial intelligence. Find out how it can be used to help your brand in our article, Three reasons why AI is a marketer’s best friend.