Marketing in the “Too Much Information Age”

Wouldn’t you love your customers to ‘stick’ to your website and tell others that it’s a truly valuable source of information? Don’t you think you would like the ability to retain a large base of loyal, cash-paying consumers? Well, have I got some juicy information for you…

It has never ceased to bewilder me, the flurry of information on the Internet. Sure it’s the ‘Information Age’, but are we really learning anything? I feel that there is so much information out there that it is almost impossible to sift through it all. Stephen Jukuri, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal put it very sweetly – “We’ve reached the too-much-information age, but we really haven’t reached the communication age.” Not many marketers realize this, but this phenomenon has profound and far-reaching effects for many of their businesses. Without further ado, lets go and learn something!

What’s behind the Too Much Information [TMI] age?

Consumers are time poor.
Remember the good old days as a kid, when you didn’t have a care in the world? Well, it’s not going to be like that anymore – In the new world of ubiquitous connectivity and the boom of the TMI age, we have to cut out unnecessary and unimportant information. Perhaps if we were all capable of crawling the Internet like Google’s server farms, then we MIGHT be OK.

All the players in the industry are forcing it.
Suppliers are selling information dirt cheap, consumers are demanding more, information is easier to disseminate, competitors are aplenty and new entrants to your industry come on a daily basis! So, do you really think your hogwash will cut through these seemingly impenetrable forces?

Businesses often disperse too much information.
Some companies provide their customers with too much information. In a losing battle to retain more customers, some companies provide so much information that they devalue their product offerings and brand! Think about it for a tick… if you are sell products about real estate, and you send out an extremely regular newsletter with lots of tips then doesn’t that devalue your products? Well this is a tricky question to answer, but yes and no.

If you provide your customers with so much information that they can make do without buying your product, then they won’t buy it! The same goes with providing too little – if you don’t provide them with enough evidence to rationalize their buying your product, then you can also wave them farewell.

Information is losing its value.
If you’re like me, then you have spent a lot of time figuring out all the types of business models on the Internet. I’d also take a stab, that you have come across what we call Adsense sites. These are sites which sell advertising by providing information written by ghost writers, and they rely on the highly targeted CPC AdWords Ads, to make a quick buck. Unfortunately, there are so many of these sites out there these days, it is devaluing the information provided by paid-for products and services – Yep, that’s you. Unless these AdSense sites are sending you targeted, paying traffic, then you’re losing the battle.

As a matter of fact, there is so much information in the world today, that universities are beginning a new strain of research into knowledge management. I’m actually reading a book on it at the moment and highly recommend you check it out also – Creating the discipline of Knowledge Management: The Latest in University Research (aff).

Who does it affect?

Believe it or not – Any company which sells information or has a web presence.

How to leverage this trend to create hordes of devout customers.

Don’t give away all of your finest secrets in one go.
The moment your customers perceive your newsletters or website content to offer stale information, they’re going to jump the boat for spanking new information. Try to give away a mix of commonly known ideas and some ideas of your own which help to differentiate you from your competitors. Whilst the common ideas allow your readers to gain trust and an understanding in the topic area, the new ideas give your information a different spin on that of others’ ideas.

Create an aura of authority and diverse topical knowledge.
If you don’t project an image which suggests you are an authority on a particular subject, then your information will have less impact on your customers. For example, if Google wrote a book about how search engines work, you would automatically assume that it is written by someone who knows what they’re on about. As small business owners, however, we don’t have the privilege of having a brand recall as high as Google’s but… we can make sure that in our newsletters we create and maintain a powerful and knowledgeable image. One of my favourite books on developing such an image has to be Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power (aff). It’s a fantastic read but you should use certain points at your digression, as it takes a rather Machiavellian approach.

Remind yourself of your purpose.
You’re providing information for a reason, so if you stray too far from your purpose and begin pumping out un-relevant information, then you’ll heighten your chances of losing readership and cash-paying customers. If you’re writing newsletters for your website then your purpose might also be to develop long-term customer relationships by giving them special incentives, talking to them in first person, allowing dialogue between your customers and yourself. If you sell information and you don’t have a newsletter then I have to say that you’re wasting your time – Studies show that most people, depending on the product, require as many as eight separate contacts with the brand in order to make a purchase.

Make your information valuable.
People love a clear article on how to do something. Just sell them an idea and they will respect the information more. Although, if you’re not careful, you can over-sell the product and people won’t believe you, or when they buy the product, they’ll be dissatisfied and leave. Once again, Robert Greene shares invaluable insight on creating a perception of this.

Leverage other media and methods of promotion.
Provide your information at seminars. Post your customers an ‘information pack’ via snail mail. Host a teleconference. Send out some CD’s. Send people postcards! Get some Publicity. Offer some coupons. Host an informing game on your website. Do something different and stand out from the crowd. People will see you – I guarantee it.

Learn how to communicate more effectively.
If you have never tried before, have a go at doing some creative writing, with metaphors, similes and other literary devices. Read more of whatever you’re interested in, perhaps that means getting a book and learning how to cook.

Make your writing vivid and realistic.
Another trick I like to keep in mind, is that some people process information differently. People can process information in several main ways:

• Kinesthetic – Through physical feelings, like touch and sensation.
• Visual – Through pictures and images.
• Auditory – Through sounds.
• Gustatory – Through taste and smell.

Depending on the type of person which they are, the message will be better understood, through different senses. To give you an example I’ll describe a beautiful car in three different senses:

• The Porsche 911 Turbo will give you an exhilarating kick, yet it glides along the road like no other car.
• The Porsche 911 Turbo’s sleek and sexy interiors are masked by its soothing body design.
• The Porsche 911 Turbo purrs like a panther on the prowl, as it tames the sounds of the beasts in the mountains it drives.

OK, I’ve never driven a Porsche myself but you get the idea. You can give many different images through vivid descriptions and your writing will come to life in your consumers’ minds. Did you ever think of vividly describing what your customers might benefit from when they experience your product? Well, give it a go…

By communicating more effectively and efficiently with your market, both you and your customers will benefit. I hope you all enjoyed this article as much as I did writing it for you. Feel free to leave me a comment – I really do appreciate your feedback. Until next time…

Best of Luck Branding,
Robert Kingston.