by Vera Romano

In a bid to be more like a storyteller (another thing us marketers are often told to be in these new “we need content” times) let me give it a bash by telling you about my recent light bulb moment.

My boyfriend of 3 years, and whom works for a major international electronics retailer with stores here in SA came home recently telling me about frustrations they were experiencing to get new customers into their stores (yes, fellow marketer we are all in the same boat). In a bid to get more “understanding” and to try, “resolve” the situation they did what all good marketers do… They powwowed. So while he was telling me about this I suddenly realised how at times as a marketer it is worthwhile just to keep things simple and go back to basics.

We are often so bogged down with top line strategies, millions of articles on Twitter and statistics that we forget that our consumers can be simple creatures, so it is worthwhile to revisit those old varsity notes but with experienced minds.

Drip campaigns are an effective way to communicate with our customers but often we forget the basics of talking to people at the right time with the right message. We tend to use the one message “suits all” approach and pray that it means something to someone, and hopefully this will result in a lead/sale. However when we get back to basics and chat to our consumers at the time for where they find themselves in the buying cycle we suddenly find him/her respond to our messages and that they might even share this new information. The ultimate content marketing holy grail!

So in my bid to “get back to basics” in my own approach to marketing here are some basic tips I have been reminded about linking back to the good old AIDA ( Attention , Interest, Decision , Action) buyers decision principle. I hope that it helps to nudge a light bulb moment for you too and gets you, my fellow marketer in arms, back to basics and to plot out those crucial drip campaign strategies.