The Rise of Omni-Channel Marketing*
– On Bots, Funnels, Fly-Wheels and Social Media
…And the ONE thing you really need to learn if you want to keep your sanity
Do you ever feel overwhelmed these days by the sheer amount of marketing messages coming your way?
Or, are you at the other end of the spectrum, feeling overwhelmed by the need to keep on sending out ever more and increasingly creative and promising marketing messages about your own products and services, while making sure you can deliver on the promises?
In other words, on what end of the noisy spectrum do you operate?
I know I’m sometimes troubled by both sides of the spectrum. That’s why I wrote this article in the hope it might also give you some nice new perspectives for being able to handle it all. So…
Let’s dive in…
I recently attended a webinar on Bots – what they are, what they do, how you can use them, and how they can automate your lead generation, your sales, and even the follow-up support.
It’s astounding. And for some, perhaps many of us, it can feel like a liberation.
What it also means though, is that many jobs will become obsolete. Many co-creative enterprises will be left to the advancing power of automated solutions. And the communication between buyer and seller becomes a robotic style of conversation marketing instead of a human-to-human social interaction.
- One the one hand, this can be seen as a good thing. It can save us from tedious tasks or from troubled discussions over minutiae. It can also help us in placing our marketing messages virtually everywhere so we’re able to expand our reach and connect with more potential customers or clients. And so it can provide us with that much wanted increase of profits and time freedom at the same time.
- On the other hand, this can also be seen as a bad thing. It can hurt our humanness because more and more interactions will be guided and directed by the programming of the bots. It can also usurp our vital energies because we’re not reciprocally nourished by the intricate web of human connectedness. And it can provide the consumer with a complacency or false sense of entitlement when we get back into interactions with real human beings who do not immediately comply to our requests or questions. Have you ever experienced that? Or perhaps, ask your customer service representative if they’ve experienced such behavior from consumers.
Now, Bots attached to Funnels will amp this even up a notch.
Because from the initial robotic style of conversation marketing, the customer/client’s journey is then further directed into a sales funnel. In the Sales Funnel there can be a video from an actual human being, but still, it’s not real time, it’s still somewhat artificial, since it is pre-recorded and oftentimes according to a script.
Then, after someone has taken the journey from Bot-conversation through the sales funnel, to the delivery and the automated support, the customer can be satisfied. But will they really be happy? Who knows for sure? They probably will. Or at least they think so because they got what they thought they would get.
It indeed depends – on the product, the course, the program, etc.
Yet, since almost all marketing seems to promise ‘heaven on earth’ these days, we also know that for many of us it’s still not here.
And so, people go online again in their never ending search for that happiness they think they can get from buying more stuff, getting more solutions, or from having a clearly laid out process for them that virtually guarantees eternal bliss – you know, that something that makes all problems disappear.
And so, they enter the fly-wheel of ever more products, services, etc. etc. etc.
Then, with all that ‘stuff’ and the wins they got along the way, they go show it off on social media, amidst all the promoted posts, the advertisements of bots and the marketing messages of others!
Oh dear, the madness we’re in…
So, let’s take a pause…
What is just described?
In a nutshell we went through the rise of Omni-Channel Marketing.
This means that we can see how over the past two decades – and especially over the past five or six years – technology has more and more taken over our marketing efforts.
Marketing indeed is everywhere!
It has become an Omni-Channel endeavor.
- This means it is online on all the social media platforms, the websites, the funnels, the apps, the messenger services, the emails, etc.
- This means it is offline via letter post, mailing packages, billboards, signs, brochures, newspapers, etc.
- This means it is via telephone, text, at the front door, in the streets, by word-of-mouth…
And probably via even more channels that not everyone is necessarily aware of.
From a business standpoint this means that you have to find at least one channel that works for you to reach your customers, although it seems increasingly important to at least begin to adopt an omni-channel marketing mindset to a certain extent.
From a customer’s standpoint this means that they become more and more selective, apathetic or burned out, or maybe even aggressive towards marketing messages unless those messages are really dialed in to their specific needs, wants and desires!
And if you’re both a business owner and a customer, you’re even into some deeper complexity here.
So…
What is the ONE thing you really need to learn now if you want to keep your sanity?
It’s learning how to plug in to your authentic human awareness.
This means…
- Not necessarily relying on Bots, Funnels and Fly-Wheels alone.
- Not necessarily feeling the need to post endlessly or increasingly on a multitude of channels.
- Not necessarily having to participate in the constant bombardment of sending and receiving marketing messages.
Instead, taking a step back for a moment from all the busyness, from all the noise of the entire spectrum… Taking an Omni-Channel perspective for a moment, without having to do anything… Just taking some time to think things through without the need to buy or sell anything…
But how to market your products and services then?
The answer to that question is probably the best kept secret no one’s really talking about.
Yet the answer is hidden in this article. And it is everywhere, in plain sight. If you can find it, you can have your Omni-Channel marketing dialed in from the positioning of your authentic human awareness. And that could save you tons of time and money in the long-run.
How? To learn more…
You’re invited to >>consider this<< to get started today with Enhancing Your Awareness.
To Your Omni-Channel Marketing Success!
Sincerely,
Maurits van Sambeek, MA
Author of >>Omnibenevolence<<
PS: The rise of Omni-Channel Marketing is picking up speed these days. Are you well-prepared or already embracing it? To learn more about How to Adopt an Omni-Channel Mindset to begin with, you’re invited to >>consider this<< and get started today with Enhancing Your Awareness.
