By Eric Nykamp CEO of Raange, Inc., Guest Columnist

Communications has changed since I built my first business, TAARGA, a Confirmation Marketing platform, back in 2007. Back then, marketing was still dominated by traditional channels like TV, radio and physical ads, when the number of potential viewers was the key metric. No way to track who the campaign touched, or engagement levels. The deal was all done by a handshake, wherein you trust that the broker would hit your agreed upon audience and metrics.

One of my clients at the time was focused on ad acquisition on a well-known “professional networking platform,” which compared to today’s standards, offered a terrible experience for advertisers - you couldn’t track conversions! You would hit send and in less than a week receive an email saying the impressions goal was met…. That was it. We paid tens of thousands of dollars for a couple of hundred thousand impressions.

Old habits die hard

Today, mobile has become the holy grail of marketing because of its promise of bidirectional engagement, guaranteed open rates and personalization.

However, I still see brands pushing the same message across multiple channels, throwing words and offers at a wall to see what sticks. This whole scorched earth approach to marketing is terrible for business and most importantly for the consumer.

You know what I’m talking about, the agency that convinced a company to spend $500,000 to plaster every communications channel in Southern Ontario to target female millennials. With hopes of a 3-5% conversion rate.

Do we ever stop to think of the other 95%? Isn’t it our responsibility to make sure customers have a good experience when interacting with our brand?

Think of the young male millennial that receives an advertisement for women's hygiene products because of his taste in music on Youtube.

We just write it off as a means to an end.

How do you differentiate from the noise?

We need a new vision for advertising and marketing. We CAN send consumers the right message. At the right time. On their prefered channel. Messages unique to the person and based on selected and validated interests, preferences, not predictive or assumptive algorithms.

Instead of sending a single offer to your database of 500,000 consumers, wouldn’t it make more sense to collect additional data on those same consumers by simply asking a few questions, and then narrowing down that same database to a list of 25,000 consumers who want that particular product. Isn’t that marketing?

Now think of the budget you would save, and the 10X increase in conversions on campaigns. You could unlock resources currently wasted on the other 95%, and invest it in additional priorities, or campaigns for which you otherwise wouldn’t have had the budget.

Once identified and analyzed, you could even share a message with these consumers when they’re walking past your store - the right message to the right audience at the right time. Beautiful.

Communications is still broken between retailers, brands and consumers, and it’s hurting brick-and-mortar businesses the most.

This is a problem we’re going to solve.

Eric Nykamp is CEO of Raange, Inc., Founder at Mamoth-Group, TAARGA, RAANGE and Mamoth-Labs! Internet Strategist, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Investor, Husband, Father, Insomniac.

My goal is to elevate traditional brick & mortar retailers to quickly and easily transition to the latest marketing concepts and communication channels, so as to rebuild trusted dialogue with past, present, and future customers.

Email Me at: Contact_Me@raange.com

Text Me at: (514) 613-3324 with Keyword ‘Pissed’

My Blog: Retail Innovation News

Raange: www.raange.com

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: July 18, 2017