From 2008 to 2012, daily newspaper circulation dropped 26.6 percent in the United Kingdom and 14.9 percent in the United States.2
Twenty-nine percent of TV viewing is time-shifted thanks to DVRs, VOD, and Web-streaming platforms (and 41 percent of recorded shows go unwatched).3
By 2020, the average consumer will own 50 Internet-enabled devices.4
In Bruce’s industry, once all-powerful, taste-making radio stations now stand as homogeneous shells of corporate efficiency where fewer owners play fewer artists to fewer listeners. Record stores are on life support, sustained by a few die-hard music enthusiasts, vinyl addicts, and the resale market for CDs. As for the music-buying experience, it has shifted from tactile and personal to virtual and impulsive. Practically overnight, the biggest artists went from selling entire albums to pushing MP3 singles for 99 cents a pop.
This is why The Boss is worried. The Internet, mobility, and social media have drastically altered a formerly stable and profitable means of manufacture, distribution, and promotion. Traditional influencers who propelled his albums to platinum-level sales have lost power. And if Bruce can’t find new, cost-effective ways to reach audiences, his records won’t sell, his concerts won’t sell out, and his cash register won’t ring.
But we know this hasn’t happened. The Boss is doing just fine. His 2012 album, Wrecking Ball, topped the charts—his tenth album to do so. He has amassed an incredibly loyal audience over the course of his 40 years in the music industry, and as times have changed, so have the ways they follow him. Instead of learning about his new album from a radio DJ, they hear about it directly from his website, email, or Twitter account. Or they hear about it from a new tastemaker—a blogger or fellow FAN on Facebook. Whatever the case, The Boss has retained his following because his management understands the absolute necessity of Proprietary Audience Development over the long term.
The Audience Imperative
Proprietary Audience Development is a comprehensive, collaborative, and cross-channel effort to build audiences that your company alone can access. This new marketing practice is built upon a mandate that I call The Audience Imperative:
Use your Paid, Owned, and Earned Media not only to sell in the short term but also to increase the size, engagement, and value of your Proprietary Audiences over the long term.
When you build bigger and better proprietary audiences than your competition, you gain a tremendous advantage in the marketplace. You’re able to drive consumers to your doorstep with the push of a button—while your competitors are left fighting for better ad placements and bidding up keywords. Proprietary audiences allow you to:
1. Reach CUSTOMERS and PROSPECTS at a lower cost.
2. Drive sales in a more on-demand fashion.
3. Treat consumers as individuals instead of faceless masses.
4. Optimize your budget across Paid, Owned, and Earned Media.a
Proprietary Audience Development is a comprehensive, collaborative, and cross-channel effort to build audiences that your company alone can access.
While few could discount these tremendously beneficial outcomes, Proprietary Audience Development is a discipline without a champion in most companies today. In Chapters 3 and 4, we’ll explore the different audiences in greater detail, but for now, take a look at all of the potential proprietary audiences at your disposal:
SEEKERS AMPLIFIERS JOINERS
BROWSERS ADVOCATES CUSTOMERS
LISTENERS ANALYSTS DINERS
PROSPECTS COMMENTERS DONORS
READERS CREATORS EMPLOYEES
SEARCHERS INFLUENCERS FANS
SHOPPERS REPORTERS FOLLOWERS
VIEWERS REVIEWERS PARTNERS
VISITORS SHARERS SUBSCRIBERS
Now ask yourself this: Who manages the acquisition, development, and performance of these audiences in your company? Is it one person? Two? Five? Fifteen?
If your company is like most, your proprietary audiences lie strewn across a variety of different channels, databases, and teams—there’s no primary leader as with advertising, branding, and even content marketing. As a result, your efforts to drive audience engagement through your Paid, Owned, and Earned Media are neither as seamless nor as profitable as they might be. Your messaging is also probably far from optimized since your website, email, mobile, and social databases aren’t fully integrated with one another.
As if this weren’t bad enough, your company runs another huge risk absent a commitment to Proprietary Audience Development. Your audiences—critical business assets that they are—become subject to abuse at the hands of the loudest, most desperate executives, inexperienced newbies, and all manner of well-intentioned colleagues who seek to achieve their personal objectives regardless of the unsubscribes, dislikes, and unfollows they cause. This leads your company (often unknowingly) to sacrifice long-term audience profitability in service to short-term, ill-gotten gains.