DAN DUNLOP EXPLAINS THE DAYS OF SIMPLE STORYTELLING ARE GONE FOR GOOD
Marketing expert Dan Dunlop is not a fan of his industry’s conventional tools, i.e., the radio jingle, the television spot, the mail circular. In a general session address at RYAN Associates’ 29th Annual Conference in October, Mr. Dunlop said most of the time in marketing we’re just spewing crap. “It’s narcissistic. It’s all about us,” he said. Worse yet, it doesn’t work.
The marketplace has transformed, he said. Today’s consumer is plugged into multiple devices and exercise enormous control over where and how they get information: podcasts, streaming
radio, blogs, newspaper websites, Twitter feed, Facebook, and Instagram. The options seem just about endless and attention is highly fragmented. To connect with consumers, marketers must reorient
their strategies, smarten up to new behaviors, or be left behind.
What does smartening up mean? According to Mr. Dunlop, it means seeing marketing as a community-building endeavor, finding ways to offer value to your target audience, and listening to them as opposed to persuading them to hear your message. “When you’re marketing today, you want to provide value, you want to ask ‘What problem am I solving for [my target audience]?’ I know it’s hard to step out of your day-to-day life and ask these kinds of questions, but it’s really important,” Mr. Dunlop said.
As a principal at Jennings (http:// jenningshealthcaremarketing.com/), a healthcare marketing firm based in North Carolina, (with clients such as Signature Healthcare, Tufts Medical Center and WorldCare International) Mr. Dunlop has been on the frontline of marketing’s new era for some time. He’s watched closely as social media transformed the communication landscape, turning marketing’s tried and true tools into ineffective relics.
Now, instead of delivering a message, dialogue and sharing are key. As marketers in a new era, ask yourself” “how can I bring people together? Mr. Dunlop suggested. Think about
providing platforms on which your customers can interact and talk about their experiences with your program. When consumers read feedback from your customers on a social media site like Facebook or LinkedIn, they will be more likely to accept it as authentic.
As an example of providing value to clients, Mr. Dunlop told conference attendees about the blog he created for healthcare executives. Because staying on top of all the trade information is often too time-consuming for busy healthcare executives, Mr. Dunlop’s blog provides summaries of important healthcare articles—as a service. In the process, he’s telling clients, “I know you’re busy. Let me be a resource for you.”
The marketer’s role is evolving, to be sure. Today, half of your job should be focused on creating spaces for online interaction, facilitating conversation, and responding to client and consumer comments. “You want to be generous, not selfish. Be gracious. Thank people for commenting.” Some of the places where such communities can be built include Ning, Twitter, blogs on your own website, and Facebook. Your website doesn’t have to be just an online brochure, he said. It can be interactive. You can create a blog and post three times a week, including videos. You can provide ways for readers to comment and offer feedback.
“Think of yourself as a community builder,’’ Mr. Dunlop said. ‘‘If you do, you’re going to be successful.”
