Somewhere between the global economy hitting the brakes and the explosion of real-time feedback loops on the Internet, the way we traditionally did business was turned on its head.

The top-down model—where elite brands picked what colors would be hot next season, what news was important and what consumers really wanted—has pretty much been blown to bits. In its place now stands a construction project, being built from the bottom up—and by the way, no one knows what the finished product will look like, much less whether it will ever be complete.

The main takeaway is that your customer is more empowered than ever before—and they are busier, more critical and more vocal. Their priorities have changed and they are no longer willing to seek out your company beyond a quick Internet search. So what’s a brand to do?

1. Get out the map

Find out where the conversation is taking place. In our recent post on knowing your audience, we asserted it’s crucial to understand who your audience is. Here’s why: If you don’t know who it is you’re looking for, how in the world are you going to find them? And if you can’t get in front of the right people, the most brilliant offering will fail—not because the design is faulty, but because the audience you’re haphazardly grabbing at doesn’t give a damn.

Would New York's Metropolitian Opera sponsor or advertise during a NASCAR race? Probably not. Their message isn’t relevant to the bulk of NASCAR’s audience. Solution: Do your homework and know precisely where the appropriate place to reach YOUR target customer is.

2.  Make a house call

That’s right. Get old school and make a house call. The "If You Build It, They Will Come" method doesn't work anymore. Go to them. Get in front of your potential customer and artfully make your case. That might mean placed ads in newspapers or on sites like Hulu.com, it might be a blog and presence on Twitter or it might be sponsoring an event that’s a passion point for your audience.

Whatever the case may be, it’s no longer enough to build a brand around a good offering or cause and expect potential customers to figure it out on their own. It’s not that they aren’t smart enough—believe us, they are—it’s just that they’re no longer keen on making time to seek you out amidst jam-packed work-life schedules and massive media overload. If you want to win them over, you have to assimilate your sales process to make an impact where they live.

3. Close The Deal

OK. You’ve done the research, found your target audience and developed a presence where they exist in the world (or the World Wide Web). Now what?

Now…give them that reason to give a damn!

Just as brilliant products fail if they aren’t relevant to the audience or presented in an appropriate location—brilliant strategy will fail without compelling messaging about your offering.

Big Picture: Your messaging needs to make a targeted appeal to the people you’re trying to reach. It needs to influence them to buy in—even if they never knew they needed your offering until right then and there. 

The formula is simple, but precise.

You need to be in the right place, saying the right thing, at the right time.