The prefix meta- is used to mean about its own category. For example, under the umbrella of business intelligence you often hear the term “metadata” which means data concerning data. For purposes of this short post, “metastrategy” could be described as an overarching marketing strategy determining which media strategies to use during various phases of the consumer purchasing process (strategy concerning strategy). As your customers move through the purchasing process, multiple media channels have the potential to impact their buying decision and shopping experience. This makes an integrated marketing strategy more important than ever.
There is strategic marketing importance in each phase of the consumer buying process in today’s competitive economy. In the Berry Network Social-Ready Assessment we asked respondents: “What level of priority does your company currently assign to social media marketing?” Less than 40% of our respondents rated the priority of their social media marketing initiatives as neutral or low. Interestingly; nearly 100% of those respondents are SMB’s with revenues less than $100 million. Does that mean small businesses are anti-social? I don’t think so; but many are putting off their strategic marketing planning process since nearly all of the neutral and low responders also stated that “they haven’t addressed social media related to corporate strategy on either a formal or informal basis.” Not having a strategy is a dangerous place to be. In fact, in the Forrester report “Benchmarking Social Marketing Plans For 2011” analyst Sean Corcoran states:
“Any company not creating a long-term strategy, setting budgets, allocating resources, or setting policy is already falling behind. Interactive marketers should follow the companies that were brave in social media marketing and implement now rather than wait and learn the hard way.”
The current combination of declining customer satisfaction levels and economic concerns is creating the perfect customer experience storm. In this type of business climate those companies that focus on an integrated consumer purchasing process will be the ones that come out on top. That means a relentless and coordinated approach to strategic marketing across all media channels has never been more important.
