Conversational marketing is becoming more important as technology allows consumers to avoid traditional marketing messages. Marketing has stratified with consumers able to cut out ads, but technology has also brought consumers back to conversing with each other about brands. For marketing to be effective now, brands must participate in the conversations already happening about them among consumers, rather than using one-way marketing messages that can be ignored.

1. Why Conversational Marketing Matters:Engagement in the Age of Stratification Deane Barker Content Management Practice Director Blend Interactive

2. Blend Interactive EPiServer Partner since 2008 2009 North American Partner of the Year

3. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA

4. Image by S.K. Photography

5. Image by Dean Franklin

6. @gadgetopia

7. Why this topic? Conversational marketing is becoming more and more important to customers. EPiServer has a great story to tell.

8. A Cultural Disclaimer

9. What is conversational marketing? Un-marketing Marketing through dialogue rather than monologue Marketing which allows the prospect to talk back Participating in a conversation about your industry, brand, or customer’s interest

12. Harmony Tweets Very soft sell Targeted an interest of their pool of prospective customers Encouraged the community to talk amongst themselves Connected to other communication channels Involved other organizations

13. Why has marketing become conversational? Marketing has stratified and technology is making it easier to cut out. Technology has brought us back to the classic marketplace where consumers converse with each other.

14. Big Point #1 Marketing has stratified and technology is making it easier to cut out.

15. Integrated Advertising

16. The Commercial Break

17. Marketing Stratification

18. Stratification Image by Matt Mechtley

19. Stratification

20. Stratification

21. Zenith Space Commander Image by Jim Rees

22. The VCR

23. Tivo / DVR

24. RSS

27. AdBlock Plus

30. Traditional Model

31. Traditional Model

32. Integrated Model

33. Integrated Advertising

34. Marketing has stratified Technology has made it easier to cut out Marketing has started to integrate back into content

35. The $1Million Question In a world where consumers can pick the marketing they’re exposed to, why would they pick yours?

36. Big Point #2 Technology has brought us back to the classic marketplace where consumers converse with each other.

37. The Cluetrain Manifesto

38. “Markets are conversations”

43. Marketing isn’t changing. Rather, it’s changing back.

44. The relative isolation of the consumer has ended.

45. Consumers trust other consumer recommendations 78% of the time 82% of customers who read reviews from other customers claim they were affected by those reviews Eight out of 10 customers trust brands more if they offer customer reviews.

46. What is a brand?

47. “The experiential aspect [of a brand] consists of the sum of all points of contact with the brand…” Wikipedia, “Brand”

48. The conversation is a “point of contact” you cannot control.

49. A conversation is happening right now about your brand. The only question: are you in on it?

51. The Saga of Jeremy Hermanns

52. The Saga of Jeremy Hermanns

53. The Saga of Jeremy Hermanns

54. Conversation FAIL.

55. Conversations about your brand are happening whether or not you’re involved. There is value in participating in these conversations. There is also considerable peril. There’s even more value in initiating, hosting, and branding these conversations.

56. Case Studies

66. Thank You http://gadgetopia.com http://blendinteractive.com deane@blendinteractive.com @gadgetopia