Marketers are always looking for the next hot technique to get in front of prospective customers, which is why there is a continual shift of ad budgets to all things digital.
Unfortunately, many marketers are a still a bit behind in fully understanding how to take advantage of today's digital environment to maximize revenues.
First, marketers need to do away with the notion of "getting in front of customers" because it's so easy for prospects to go around marketing messages that block or interrupt their path to satisfaction.
Second, marketers need to adopt the relationship techniques used by business development people who learn about -- and experience -- the problems of those who they want to help (i.e., sell to).
This means collaborating with prospective customers.
While writing our books on one-to-one Web marketing (in 1998 and 2001) we felt so strongly that collaboration would become a key marketing strategy that we devoted an entire chapter to online collaboration for marketing.
Today, businesses are using "2.0" online tools to collaborate, communicate, and relate to customers, employees, and suppliers like never before.
Any marketer who doesn't have a complete "2.0" strategy will miss opportunities to increase both revenue and profitability -- and allow competitors to move ahead.
