Shopper marketing professionals realize they only get a couple seconds in the store to make an impact. A couple precious seconds to influence the purchase decision and convert the shopper into a buyer. But simply broadcasting your message to shoppers using Facebook or Twitter or some other social media channel might not be much better. You have to design to be much more intentional than that.
M.I.T. recently published an article entitled “4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community” (which is quite an impressive title for those of us outside the hallowed halls of M.I.T.). It revealed the lifespan of conversational threads was around 5 seconds. That’s people posting “conversational” topics with one another.
Over the course of 24 hours, people on Twitter would have to sort through hundreds if not thousands of posts (depending on how many they are following) to see a specific post from a specific company with Facebook only somewhat better. With so many messaging options – mobile, texting, email, social media, video, VoIP, etc. – consumers will likely begin to adjust to information overload (here’s one study of how they may adjust messaging priorities).
So, what’s a marketer to do? A shotgun broadcast approach won’t work. It’s increasingly more critical for shopper marketers to intentionally design their business to deliver better results. Equally important, they need to maintain a mix of messaging options (depending on their marketing strategy) throughout the path to purchase, along with their traditional marketing tactics, as consumers deal with their own A.D.D. situation. For further information and to learn from the best, be sure to attend the Shopper Insights in Action conference sponsored by IIR USA. There you will find professionals, keynotes and sessions to help you sort through the maze of shopper marketing options so you get your message out effectively and efficiently.
