Right now, we are working on a survey for a client that is all about assessing the perceptions that the target audience has of this particular company. What we’ve uncovered has been fascinating and, yet, completely obvious.

Humans want other humans to treat them as people. Individuals. With unique thoughts and experiences. Marketers who realize this will be light years ahead of those who still rely on traditional marketing strategies of advertising and communication.

It’s not what you’re trying to say. It’s not what industry you’re trying to reach. It’s who you are trying to build a relationship with that really matters.

And that’s not easy. Especially in this world of immediate, and inexpensive, communication where everything comes attached to a metric. What’s our CTR? Did our CPC increase this week? Those numbers mater still but what’s more important is who clicked on your site, why they clicked on your site and how they felt while browsing your site.

Relationship building is key. So even when those metrics decrease once in a while, your customer or client knows they can trust you to do what’s best for them. This is a long term investment that requires long term thinking. But don’t we all want to be around for a long time?