The Year's Main Marketing Messages

In an era of hundreds of channels, social media and message overload, targeting the general public is futile unless you have the budget of Coca-Cola. It's also ineffective. People expect a more personalized experience when they interact with a brand, including yours.

That's where micromarketing comes in — which happens to be the name of a new book by Greg Verdino ("MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small," McGraw-Hill). The idea is that we need many small, targeted acts of outreach from people reaching out to their own circles of influence. Those many small acts can lead to big movements. The result of the growth in micromarketing is a big power shift. Mass communication has been supplanted by masses of 
communicators.

So don't think "spray and pray" — think "concentrate and inundate." Build small, passionate, committed groups of supporters with the power to spread the word in various communities rather than focusing on one big, faceless prospect file.

3. Monologues don't work; conversations do. Trust in marketers has given way to trust in each other. Mass communication has given way to masses of communicators. So people are listening to each other and talking to each other and forming their own communities. You're just another party in communication with everyone else. You can't simply be a marketer with a message. You need to be a marketer committed to conversation.

Remember when you were taught to "control your message"? If you're not over 40 like yours truly, take my word for it: Message control was the name of the marketing game. So was treating marketing like a monologue. I was taught, just say everything you want to say, the way you want to say it, and then people will take action.

News flash: We're not in control. We can put whatever we want on our websites, but that doesn't mean anyone's listening. Not only that, our audiences are free to trash us to their 900 friends on Facebook. So don't dwell on what you can't command. Embrace the fact that in this new world, marketers and fundraisers are only half of a relationship with a prospect, supporter or donor. Our role is not to talk at people but to engage with them, listen to them, and build a rapport and relationship around what mutually matters.