Shift in Marketing

Remember those days when marketing centered around print and TV ad buys? Then technology changed the way companies market to their customers. It allowed companies to target their customer wherever they hang out, particularly where you hang out online. How many of us used to be freaked out when, after having a conversation about a product or looking at buying an item on a website starts being pushed at you on Google, Instagram, or any article you read online? Now, it just seems like business as usual.

Then Covid hit. That cocaine high every single company got while all their customers were trapped inside their homes making purchases. For many struggling companies, it was a gift from the gods. Until the storm began to recede, and many were left with their pants down with debt filled with covenants that many were not able to meet. There will be more roll-ups, restructuring, closing shop, and losses in the near future.

Certainly, AI will become more and more transformative in marketing. Web 3.0 should improve customer relationships by decentralizing the process, or perhaps not. Technology will continue to change the way we do business, period. Yet, I would argue that customers have become immune to how we have marketed to them over the past decade.

Honestly, if I never hear the word CAC, customer acquisition costs, again, I will be very happy. I understood if we spent $100, we get a customer to spend $150 over one year, and the odds of them returning again and again make it worth the company’s while. However, the idea of spending tens of thousands of dollars to build a business by buying eyeballs and pocketbooks never excited me.

I have been talking to marketing experts in the last few weeks. Everyone is being forced to think about new ways to capture a sticky customer. Creating fun, engaging Instagram posts is as worthy as putting print ads where your customer reads, tossing up posters on construction sites, and building a brand from the ground up thoughtfully. There is something about the old school of doing things as people are looking to return to a less frenetic life.

Time will tell.