Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans and Followers

Most companies are still taking one step forward and two steps back in their customer relationships because they don’t understand how to build and engage a long-term online audience. The new job every marketer must learn is “Proprietary Audience Development.” AUDIENCE is a manifesto―a “call to arms”―that every marketer can deliver to their C-Suite in order to permanently put an end to “spammy” digital marketing and social media strategies that may gain a few quick sales but lose a long-term audience.

This powerful mandate challenges all companies to treat their email, mobile, and social audiences like the corporate assets they are. In AUDIENCE, author Jeff Rohrs establishes The Audience Imperative for every company: to use your paid, owned, and earned media to not only sell in the short-term but also increase the size, engagement, and value of proprietary audiences over the long-term. To gain a lasting advantage over your competition, look no further than your email, Facebook, Google, Instagram, mobile app, SMS, Twitter, website, and YouTube, where you can start building audiences that last.

Through research data and case studies, this book details how marketers can gain a competitive advantage with proven strategies, including how to:

• Embrace “Hybrid Marketing” to squeeze more value from “Fossil Fuel Marketing” (i.e., paid media)
• Build “renewable energy sources” (owned email, mobile, and social audiences) that provide long-term competitive advantage
• Create your own Proprietary Audience Development strategy
• Market with the Red Velvet Touch: Serve the individual, honor their preferences, deliver relevant content, surprise them with access, and delight them with your company’s humanity
• Test and evolve your efforts on an ongoing basis

Every company needs audiences to survive. They are the source of new customers and more profitable relationships. It’s time to restructure your marketing efforts to serve your most important asset. Master the art and the science of Proprietary Audience Development.

JEFFREY K. ROHRS is a recovering attorney, life-long Cleveland sports fan/victim, and pied piper of common-sense marketing advice. As VP of Marketing Insights for ExactTarget, a salesforce. com company, he co-created and produces the award-winning SUBSCRIBERS, FANS & FOLLOWERS Research Series―the world’s first and longest-running examination of consumer relationships with brands through email, mobile, and social channels.