The Age of Engagement – Internet Marketing Evolution

Following on from last week’s post we’re continuing to uncover some of Roger Hamilton’s insights in to the future of markets, technology and doing business in the age of Web 3.0.

Roger Hamilton is a visionary, futurist and social entrepreneur who connects with Richard Branson, the startup culture in Silicon Valley, and entrepreneurial think-tanks and charities around the globe.

He’s now saying the age of Content Marketing is dead, and we’re now in the Age of Engagement.

The Age of Engagement

Engagement is gold dust. When your customers start creating and sharing content based upon your brand, your impact is magnified exponentially. The cost is minimal, the reach phenomenal. The tricky part? Your job is to give them reasons to be genuinely enthusiastic about your brand. People interact with what they love.

The potential payoffs are both enormous and self-reinforcing. Your customers are far more than a source of income; they’re your greatest well of information about your business. Engage with them effectively, and they’ll become your greatest advocates.

How can you do that? Focus on attraction over action, and enhance the quality of your offerings before you plan on getting bigger. Give customers a reason to engage with you, and reward them when they do.

Internet Marketing (1.0)

This was internet marketing 1.0. You get the idea.

Content Marketing (2.0)

This is Content Marketing 2.0. Offer a ton of value, give away your product , then step people through a ladder of increasing prices for your product. This stuff still works, but there’s a new wave emerging.

Engagement Marketing (3.0)

Content marketing, where You create the content, is being replaced by Engagement marketing, where your Customers create (and share) the content. Roger created a free, 1-minute Genius test shareable on Facebook. It allowed people to identify their business Genius, see which Genius type their friends are, and build fantastic teams based on that knowledge.

It replaced his free e-book and has been shared by thousands of people. What’s your Genius and which circle do you belong to? (You can take the Genius Test here.)

The piece of absolute Gold to take away from this: create a test to identify

1. Where your customers are right now
2. Where they want to be in the future

Then supply them with the means to get there. There is too much information available today. We need direction, Not information. Content marketing simply added to the amount of information already available. With Engagement marketing you provide your customers with the clarity of direction, then supply them with the ability to get there. Couple that with the means to share with their friends and you have created Gold Dust – happy, engaged customers who will spread the word for you.

Oh, and join us at Roger’s ‘Fast Forward Your Business’ event in Brisbane on 21 and 22 March (and he’s also touring the rest of Australia, too!).

Ben will be joining the stage with Roger sharing some of his insight into innovation as an accounting ‘Gamechanger’ too.