People are so focused on what AI is doing to marketing that they often miss advances in communications technology.

Live Translation lets your AirPods listen to someone speaking, sends the audio to your iPhone for on‑device AI translation, then plays the translated speech back in your chosen language. You can also talk in your own language and have your iPhone speak or display the translated reply for the other person.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could listen to our customers and those same iPods would translate what our customers are REALLY saying? What if you could talk into your phone, and your system would post the message where your clients are hanging out the minute they log in? That would be nice… creepy but good for business.

Choices

We have many options for reaching our audience or audiences.

Traditional or organic marketing includes phone, text, email, in-person networking, Zoom networking, and in-office, coffee-shop, or other-restaurant meetings.

The top digital platforms, ranked by traffic: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter (x), Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Reddit.

The top social posting tools include: Hootsuite, Buffer, Social Sprout, Later, CoSchedule, SocialBee, Loomly, Metricool, and Planable.

Now that's a lot of choices, but how do you know what to post and where?

The answer is simple… Just ASK!

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Many marketers have an affinity for trying to be everything to everyone, everywhere. At the same time, others focus on just one strategy on one platform, like video on YouTube or Reels on Instagram and TikTok. Who gets better results? It depends on the audience.

Next, you have to choose social media posting tools that match the platforms that you want or need to post to. Some companies want to post everything to everyone, everywhere, while others like the manual method. Or it could be a mix of both.

The problem with focusing on multiple platforms is that you may have to create different formatted content for each.

The main problem you will face is that you can schedule what and when to post, but you have no control over when an algorithm will show it and to whom.

The other problem is that you are relying on the platform and hoping it isn't hyping your analytics results. These free tools are built around advertising, which we will get to later.

Old School

I have found that clients are so focused on AI, social media, and advertising that they forget what we did to get to this point.

Your website is the most essential tool in reaching and convincing customers to buy. Chances are, it's also trying to be everything to everyone, everywhere. Companies have so much information and so many pages that it's hard to navigate. Then they are fighting for attention by focusing on Google search, SEO, and advertising.

The problem is you have no idea how to direct the right person to the right page at the right time.

Email is the only place on the internet where you 100% control what your message is, who you send it to, and when.

And don't forget the power of a phone call, a text, or networking. Each of those is the best opportunity for one-to-one marketing conversations.

I have found that all of that is foundational in the B2b marketing space. The goal of your emails is to get people back to your website, to the right page, seen by the right person, at the right time. Once there, you should direct them to fill out a form, pick up the phone, or text. In other words, turn that interaction into a chance at a one-on-one communication.

The Matrix

The movie The Matrix is like today's marketing environment. Marketing platforms treat users like the blue pill, creating what looks like reality, but it's really farming your attention and clicks to make money.

We want to start with Old School marketing and then enhance it with the red pill: once your audience “wakes up” to how much noise and manipulation is out there, the only campaigns they’ll trust are the ones that show them the uncomfortable, authentic truth about their world.

You may be able to get a short attention span with reels and TikToks, but their goal is to keep you in the matrix. Your goal should be getting them back to your content on your website. Email is a simple way to do just that. Social media can do that too, but may also trigger a reminder to send an email, place a phone call, or make another organic marketing touch.

The Ecosystem

My current advice to clients is to start the year with the basics, then layer on pieces to get traditional, social, and advertising working as a well-oiled marketing machine.

Start with your website. Is it geared toward the audience that you want to reach? Is it talking to customers and prospects and making them both feel welcome, or are you segmenting content to reach one or the other? My suggestion is to try to create content that speaks to both at the same time.

Next, work on your email strategy. Have two solid lists. One that speaks to current and past customers, and one that speaks solely to prospects. You can use the duplicate content to direct them to, but maybe tweak the text to entice each audience differently. Try your best to send thought leadership content as a short, one-message teaser that entices them to click through for deeper insights and information.

Third, use social media (text, graphics, video, and teasers) to do the same thing as email. Although you can't control who sees them when, you have to try to create more generic messages for both audiences.

Finally, if you have a budget and want to advertise, consider choosing the platform that's generating the most interaction on the website, not just the most traffic. You can always use the most engaging content to advertise to prospects, and it can also remind current customers of the ideas and insights you send via email.

Closing Thought

I have two clients who are doing divergent marketing systems to start out the new year.

One is investing in all of the above and trying to make the most of the thought leadership content they are creating. They are adding the weekly email marketing to the posting and advertising they are already doing.

The other is pausing both their email and advertising, which has really helped them become more successful last year. Albeit temporary, it will provide some interesting data.

With Google Analytics, we can see how these changes affect each company's website traffic.

I will be sure to add some of those insights into future posts!

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.