The New Marketing Contract and Why Context is the Future of Marketing

We live in a time of great technology evolution and revolution. Innovation is not only upon us; it affects, even disrupts, us as marketers and as consumers of other businesses. Your customers are more connected than ever before and they’re always on. The number of touchpoints between businesses and customers has exploded. Technology is everywhere and something new is always on the horizon. Wearables. Smart watches. The Internet of Things. Everything is changing.

Indeed, today’s consumers are more empowered than any other generation to engage with brands on their own terms. They have higher expectations for the experiences delivered by their favorite brands. As a result, marketing is no longer what it used to be.

In order to maintain engagement with this new breed of connected consumers, brands need to leverage real-time contextual data to better understand, engage and deliver value at the moment of interaction. People just want to feel like brands get them. To do so requires technology to enliven the “audience” and shift from trying to convert eyeballs, clicks and conversions to investing in context to earn attention, make engagement relevant and value-added and build relationships that matter.

It’s time for businesses to establish a new marketing contract with customers

Digital marketing is at a crossroads, and it’s the brands that understand the role of context in delivering customer value that will excel in this new era of connectivity. Context creates a return on all things that add value to you and your customers. It’s mutually beneficial at every step. Context sets in motion an entirely new value cycle that with investment only expands in reach and relevance.

With all the data streams available today and technology to understand and act on it, marketers have no excuse for keeping up with the status quo. And, they need to because connected customers expect a new marketing contract.

What’s the new marketing contract? I partnered with StrongView, a leading provider of contextual marketing solutions, to specifically answer that question in detail. The result is a 13-page ebook that explores the market conditions, consumer behaviors and emerging technologies that are enabling brands to better engage customers with contextually relevant messages.

Additionally, we review…

Why today’s connected consumers expect inspired brand engagements.

How technology plus empathy create contextually relevant communications.

A step-by-step breakdown of real-world contextual brand engagements that help inspire new, contextually-driven strategies.

It’s available for free here (email gate).

Indeed, a new marketing contract is needed to capture the attention of your connected customers. You must earn it. And, once you have their attention, you must promise to do something meaningful and personal with it. Context is at the center of new engagement. It is the new minimum required for them to, in turn, engage with you.