While preparing my talk at the New Marketing Summit in October 2008, I had the opportunity to speak with several marketing thought leaders about how they see marketing evolving.  I cut down most of the interviews to 5-10 second clips that I combined along with some catchy music and used that during my presentation (you can view the edited video here).  After months of having this on my to-do list, I am finally getting around to releasing the full interviews as part of the launch of this blog.  I will try to launch an interview every couple of weeks over the next few months.

My first interview is with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer over at MarketingProfs.  Profs is one of (if not THE) leading resource for marketers on the web.  Ann is also a terrific person who I enjoy meeting with from time-to-time to catch up with over coffee.  I’m also a big fan of her blog ANNARCHY (which I happen to think is an awesome name for a blog).

The full version of our interview is below.  As I mentioned, Ann and I typically catch-up over coffee at Panera, so please pardon the background noise:

Insights from Ann. Please note, for the purposes of the interview we used the term “New Marketing” to describe social media, new media and the channels and vehicles that define the space:

• Marketers should view new marketing is an opportunity to engage with customers in a way they have never been able to before.
• Old marketing is about broadcasting a product or service and “sitting to wait for the phone to ring”.  New marketing is all about creating a dialog with your market; discussing your product or service with them as opposed to telling them about it.
• B-to-B marketers are struggling with new marketing because they view their customers as “markets” not as “people”.  Instead of viewing your relationship with a customer as a relationship with a “company” or “organization” view it as a relationship with an individual.  Understand that ultimately there is a human on the other end of the phone who will buy and use your product or service.
• It’s important to note that while we did discuss the new technologies available for marketers to facilitate new marketing programs – the technologies are not the driving new marketing programs.  Rather, they are used to support of the overall marketing strategy.

What do you think New Marketing is?  How are you implementing new marketing strategies in your company?

Want to connect with Ann?  Ann is the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs you can email her at ann[dot]handley[at]gmail[dot]com.  Check out her blog here.  You can also find her on Facebook, LinkedIn, but I have found that following her on Twitter is much more fun!