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After commenting on a few deeper topics lately, I thought I’d get back to my bread-and-butter this week.  So my topic will only be as deep as the subject of marketing communications allows!

 

I’m seeing the faintest beginnings of a positive marketing trend  in the mortgage and settlement services industry.  It’s not a revolutionary concept—other industries have been doing this for years—but it’s finally catching on in our corner of the economy.

 

I’m talking about content marketing.  Wikkipedia offers an excellent definition right here.  One who offers content marketing brings something of value (besides the opportunity to buy one’s product) to the person receiving the marketing.  So instead of a feature-benefit e-mail screaming “buy now,” a prospect receives an e-newsletter with real, relevant news stories that conveniently and subtly make the segue to the need fulfilled by the solution being marketed.  Good white papers (and there are plenty of bad ones that offer little more than a pitch), discussion forums, webinars and podcasts are all great examples of marketing that people may read even if they’re not interested in your product.

 

Provided they’re done well, and deliver real value.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  There is still most definitely a place for the hard pitch, even in marketing.  But I’m starting to believe this belongs more and more in the collateral, rather than the first contact or first impression marketing.   Customers and prospects are much savvier, much more cynical and much, much more inundated with marketing messaging than ever before.  As a result, we don’t have the time or the patience to carefully consider and scrutinize each cold pitch we get.  And it only gets worse if the marketer hasn’t assembled a good marketing list.  The only thing more irritating than getting a pitch you didn’t ask for is getting a pitch you didn’t ask for, for a product you have no use for!  The “interruption” marketing technique is quickly falling to the wayside, the product of a bygone era.

 

I’ve read in several places, and agree with the assessment, that more and more consumers (regardless of whether it’s B2B or B2C) prefer not to be approached by businesses hawking their wares—especially when the “ware” is not customized to the prospect’s specific needs.  Instead, they prefer to seek out those businesses only at the moment convenient to said consumers, when they find a need and desire to purchase a solution.  Once upon a time, when mail and phone were the only way to research solutions, it made sense to make it easier on prospects by putting one’s product in front of them via mailing ads, catalogs, commercials, and so on.  Not so anymore.  It just takes a mouse click or two to find a few potential products to fit one’s need.  Prospects don’t (or shouldn’t—have you updated your Web site lately?) need your mailers anymore to find out about you!

 

It can be difficult for businesses to just sit back and play a more subtle and sophisticated waiting game when it comes to marketing.  Times are not easy.  The mortgage and title industry is one where hard-charging usually makes the difference in separating from the competition.  But we also have to remember the old sales rule: put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.  Do they really want hard-core pitching, carpet-bomb advertising and the like?  Or do they want something of value from their contact with you?  Do they want a nice, easy way to find out about your product at a time convenient to them?

 

Kudos to the businesses in the industry which have sensed this and are catching on.

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