Marketing 2.0 – What is Really New?

Social networking tools have completely changed B2B marketing strategy!!

I must get 8-10 e-mails, calls, and posts a week on how social networking is completely changing marketing, and with each one an expert offers their services on how they “can help me.” Even the term “Marketing 2.0” screams of a new approach and a paradigm shift.

When it comes to marketing strategy, this is pretty much hype. Solid fundamental marketing has not changed and includes

• Identifying a problem to be solved
• Creating solution with a strong value proposition for your target market
• Developing your positioning relative to competitive solutions
• Crafting the right messaging to your prospects and customers

This has not changed for years, and I do not see it changing any time soon. If you send the wrong message to the right audience, or the right message to the wrong audience you have wasted your efforts, and probably lost credibility with the prospect. In fact with the ease of communicating to prospects with social networking tools, the need for crisp, hard hitting messaging is even more critical in order to cut through all the other clutter.

So what impact do social networking tools have on this? Clearly they can be a huge asset in driving the tactics in support of the above. Specifically, social networking tools can

• Help identify common problems to be solved
• Catalog current options (competition) for solving a problem
• Provide a focused target audience for the messaging

Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. can be excellent tools, but they need to be used as part of your marketing strategy, not take over.