Suddenly, we’re living in a world of vertical niches. It’s a world where, even for large companies, it is no longer cost-effective to try to reach tens of millions of consumers with a single, generic message.
The concept of building a tribe is not only revolutionizing how marketing is performed, but is in concert with the way people interact and communicate on a daily basis. The idea is to build a hub of interactions that becomes the unifying factor for people who are aligned with your message and brand story.
To accomplish this, it’s crucial to consider the stark philosophical differences that differentiate tribe building from traditional, interruption-based marketing techniques. Here’s a look at some key differences.
Wow vs. Average
Today, people don’t talk about average products and services, and they won’t go out of their way to buy them. What people talk about today are “wow” experiences that are remarkable in some small but lasting way. This might include customer service that extends beyond polite platitudes, content that informs, inspires and educates, or the way your receptionist handles incoming calls.
Creating wow is really something that happens in the trenches. It’s what happens when all your team members and departments pull together with a common end-goal: a delighted customer. Most importantly, it’s what motivates your tribe to spread the word – getting them genuinely excited about your offering.
Pull vs. Push
The push marketing of the past has always been costly. Now it has the added charm of being highly ineffective. That’s because it’s getting harder and harder to push masstargeted messages to a increasingly jaded and impatient public.
Today’s pull marketing is all about the art of attracting targeted prospects with relevant messages. As opposed to the long-held tradition of pushing self-centric messages to a mass audience, pull marketing seeks to engage people with messages that are aligned with their specific interests. This is why, for instance, a well-written blog can now do much more for an enterprise than a generic Yellow Pages insertion.