Audience

Most companies are still taking one step forward and two steps back in their customer relationships because they don’t understand how to build and engage a long-term online audience. The new job every marketer must learn is “Proprietary Audience Development.” AUDIENCE is a manifesto—a “call to arms”—that every marketer can deliver to their C-Suite in order to permanently put an end to “spammy” digital marketing and social media strategies that may gain a few quick sales but lose a long-term audience.

This powerful mandate challenges all companies to treat their email, mobile, and social audiences like the corporate assets they are. In AUDIENCE, author Jeff Rohrs establishes The Audience Imperative for every company: to use your paid, owned, and earned media to not only sell in the short-term but also increase the size, engagement, and value of proprietary audiences over the long-term. To gain a lasting advantage over your competition, look no further than your email, Facebook, Google, Instagram, mobile app, SMS, Twitter, website, and YouTube, where you can start building audiences that last.

Through research data and case studies, this book details how marketers can gain a competitive advantage with proven strategies, including how to:

• Embrace “Hybrid Marketing” to squeeze more value from “Fossil Fuel Marketing” (i.e., paid media)
• Build “renewable energy sources” (owned email, mobile, and social audiences) that provide long-term competitive advantage
• Create your own Proprietary Audience Development strategy
• Market with the Red Velvet Touch: Serve the individual, honor their preferences, deliver relevant content, surprise them with access, and delight them with your company’s humanity
• Test and evolve your efforts on an ongoing basis

Every company needs audiences to survive. They are the source of new customers and more profitable relationships. It’s time to restructure your marketing efforts to serve your most important asset. Master the art and the science of Proprietary Audience Development.

Foreword Scott Dorsey ix

Introduction: Why AUDIENCE? 1

Part I: The Audience Imperative 5

Chapter 1 Audiences as Assets: Think Like the Boss 7

Chapter 2 The Audience Imperative: Our Hybrid Source of Business Energy 17

Chapter 3 Your Proprietary Audiences: Seekers, Amplifiers & Joiners 26

Chapter 4 The VIP Joiners: Subscribers, Fans & Followers 41

Chapter 5 Beyond Don Draper: Paid, Owned & Earned Media 56

Chapter 6 Increase What Matters: Size, Engagement & Value 70

Chapter 7 A Larger Font: Our Long-Term Responsibilities 91

Part II: The Audience Channels 101

Chapter 8 Website: Marketing’s Magnetic Center 103

Chapter 9 Email: The Bedrock Audience 109

Chapter 10 Facebook: Making it Personal 114

Chapter 11 Twitter: Real-Time Characters 121

Chapter 12 Blogs: A Website by Another Name 127

Chapter 13 Mobile Apps: Audiences on the Go 133

Chapter 14 LinkedIn: The Professional Audience 139

Chapter 15 YouTube: Internet Built the Video Star 144

Chapter 16 Google+: The Great Unknown 149

Chapter 17 Pinterest: A Collection of Beautiful Followers 153

Chapter 18 SMS: Cutting through the Clutter 158

Chapter 19 Instagram: Moving Pictures 163

Chapter 20 Podcasts: Listen Carefully 168

Chapter 21 Other Audience Channels: More? You Want More?!? 172

Part III: The Audience Roadmap 177

Chapter 22 Map & Align: Strategy and Team 179

Chapter 23 Build & Engage: Audiences on Demand 200

Chapter 24 Serve, Honor, Deliver, Surprise & Delight: The Red Velvet Touch 228

Chapter 25 Test & Evolve: What Marketers Can Learn from 5,000 Years of Football 238

Conclusion 247

Notes 249

Acknowledgments 273

Index 275

JEFFREY K. ROHRS is a recovering attorney, life-long Cleveland sports fan/victim, and pied piper of common-sense marketing advice. As VP of Marketing Insights for ExactTarget, a salesforce. com company, he co-created and produces the award-winning SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS Research Series—the world’s first and longest-running examination of consumer relationships with brands through email, mobile, and social channels.

Most companies are still taking one step forward and two steps back in their customer relationships because they don’t understand how to build and engage a long-term online audience. The new job every marketer must learn is “Proprietary Audience Development.” AUDIENCE is a manifesto—a “call to arms”—that every marketer can deliver to their C-Suite in order to permanently put an end to “spammy” digital marketing and social media strategies that may gain a few quick sales but lose a long-term audience.

This powerful mandate challenges all companies to treat their email, mobile, and social audiences like the corporate assets they are. In AUDIENCE, author Jeff Rohrs establishes The Audience Imperative for every company: to use your paid, owned, and earned media to not only sell in the short-term but also increase the size, engagement, and value of proprietary audiences over the long-term. To gain a lasting advantage over your competition, look no further than your email, Facebook, Google, Instagram, mobile app, SMS, Twitter, website, and YouTube, where you can start building audiences that last.

Through research data and case studies, this book details how marketers can gain a competitive advantage with proven strategies, including how to:

• Embrace “Hybrid Marketing” to squeeze more value from “Fossil Fuel Marketing” (i.e., paid media)
• Build “renewable energy sources” (owned email, mobile, and social audiences) that provide long-term competitive advantage
• Create your own Proprietary Audience Development strategy
• Market with the Red Velvet Touch: Serve the individual, honor their preferences, deliver relevant content, surprise them with access, and delight them with your company’s humanity
• Test and evolve your efforts on an ongoing basis

Every company needs audiences to survive. They are the source of new customers and more profitable relationships. It’s time to restructure your marketing efforts to serve your most important asset. Master the art and the science of Proprietary Audience Development.