The Non-Obvious Insights Blog. Non-Obvious Insights
The Non-Obvious Insights Blog.

Dedicated To Helping Readers
Be More Interesting
Since 2004.

As Featured In:

The Real Secret of Relevance in Marketing

Good marketing comes in two forms, not one.  There is marketing that is relevant, appears at the right time to the right people and is likely to influence actions.  This is the kind of marketing that everyone in the industry strives for.  It’s what we think is good.  The problem is, it misses the one element that is perhaps the most important … timing.  You can reach the exact right customer about the exact right product and have the exact right creative delivery.  But if they are not seeking the type of information you provide, or in the midst of some other activity, your efforts fall on deaf ears.  Even keyword marketing, which many would propose could never be irrelevant or badly timed if a customer has to physically click the ad, can be ineffective if the information you drive someone to is not consistent with their point in their own purchase cycle.  For example, you will never convert a customer to purchase if they are only at a point of researching options – but they may very well click your keyword ad anyway. 

The real question is, assuming you are able to create relevant marketing, how do you ensure that your efforts are most likely to be acted upon?  The real secret, I believe, comes from going one step further than relevance.  It comes from understanding that point your customer is in their own cycle and timing delivery of the message that is most likely to influence them based on what you can understand from the type of information they may be seeking.  This is Mindset Marketing.  It involves knowing what type of information is most likely to influence your target audience and delivering that information at the right moment.  If the mantra for real estate is all about the location, the new mantra for marketing should be all about the timing.

4 thoughts on “The Real Secret of Relevance in Marketing”

  1. Real Estate is all about location, like Albuquerque Real Estate I also always thought that marketing was always all about timing. If you marketed for flights to Iraq pre-September 2001 you could be sucessful, however, post-September 2001 one could have some problems.

    Reply
  2. Timing is one component certainly. But isn’t the higher order bit that you are speaking about something in a way that the audience immediately recognizes as the very same thought they’ve had themselves?

    Reply
  3. Struggling with identifying that moment of relevance is an interesting thought. In my own online business, I work at making my marketing efforts relevant in topic and content, but can now see that identifying the the buying cycle and addressing each point may yield better results.

    Thank you.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter. Non-Obvious Insights
Layer 97
The Non-Obvious Insights Newsletter
Layer 118

Skip the obvious and anticipate the future with our weekly newsletter. Join over 25,000 subscribers and start receiving the stories (and insights) you’ve been missing.

Newsletter Subscribe

All Books

#1 WSJ & USA Today Bestselling Author

Rohit is the author of 10 books on trends, the future of business, building a more human brand with storytelling and how to create a more diverse and inclusive world.

Contact

Have a Question or Inquiry?

Just fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours!

Contact

About You

What Are You Contacting Us About*:

Your Message