5 Ways to Get Over Your Grief and Succeed in a Post Advertising World

By Jean Levasseur, Captains of Industry
We’re two days out from the Wake for Advertising, and I’m trying to come to terms with everything. There’s no doubt that advertising is moving onto a better place, but how can I find my way in a post-advertising world? Here are five tips I’ve come up with.

1. Know your customers
   The more you understand the niche audiences who are most interested in your products, the more you can tailor your message to them. With highly relevant, valuable information on your website, your niche audiences will seek you out via the search engines.
   

2. Stop interrupting people
   It’s not the idea of promoting your brand that’s dead; it’s the idea of interrupting people’s entertainment experiences to do it. Your target audience will want to see your message; just not while they’re watching TV.

3. Publish great content
   If you don’t make that information available, then how will customers learn about who you are? The answer is, someone else will tell them. To be more successful in the post-advertising world, be the first to offer web content (white papers, videos, podcasts, blog posts, etc) that’s genuinely useful to just the right people.

4. Engage your audience
   Nobody wants to be talked at, but that’s all that most traditional advertisements do. Give your customers a chance to interact with your messages and to engage in the discussion. And when they do, listen.

5. Let your customers see you
   Whether this means having a street team at a concert, representatives on all of the relevant web boards, or secret treasure hunts through your city, find unique ways to make your customers notice you. After all, there area all kinds of ways to make your brand more visible without interrupting people. Get creative.