As you will have seen, if you’re a regular follower here, I was in the US last month, catching up with a few partners and clients. We discussed their marketing priorities for 2015 and what they still needed to accomplish to meet their annual targets and objectives.
At the beginning of last year I wrote a popular post you might have seen, on the marketing essentials for 2014 and how marketers could meet the needs of the new, more demanding customer. Eighteen months on, a lot has changed. That is why I decided to review my last post and update it here, with some suggested actions.
Also, June is the ideal time to review annual plans, and decide what needs to be stopped, started or changed in the coming six months, before the vacation period is upon us.
Social Media versus Email
Last year we saw a lot of articles discussing whether, with social media’s popularity, digital (email) marketing wasn’t losing its importance. One such post in AdWeek made a useful comparison of the pros and cons of each, and came to the conclusion that we need both. As was the case for almost every new media, it appears that digital marketing is an addition and not a replacement for other forms of marketing.
However, your CEO is still not that interested in how many Facebook Likes you’ve managed to get, or how many retweets your Twitter messages got. And he still wants to know, as we all should, what the impact of social media is on the business. Some standard numbers, as mentioned in “10 Social Media Measurement Best Practices” on the SalesForce website, can help, but engagement and listening remain better metrics for customer understanding, as stated in this Business Insider post. What everyone does agree, however, is that every campaign must have objectives and metrics to gauge their efficacy; do yours? (>>Tweet this<<)
ACTION: If you are not completely satisfied with your current measures, take a look at these two articles mentioned above for inspiration, then review and refine them.
Blogging isn’t Enough
When blogging started out, we all thought that customers would appreciate all this free information. However, there is now far too much to read, and we must also keep in mind that reading doesn’t appeal to everyone. Therefore, we should try to offer more variety in our content. That means adding Podcasts, Instagrams, Webinars, Pins and other forms of content, to complement our blog posts. This post on PRNewsWire listed 77 types of content, to feed your audience!
One of the latest technical additions in the mobile area is the smartwatch, which has forced those who have been slow to adapt to adaptive content, to catch up. This can only be a good thing, since mobile passed desktop for online access in the USA in 2014, and other countries are not far behind.
The good news is that we no longer have to produce all the content ourselves, since we can count on curation and customers themselves, to provide some of it. However, that does mean that our own content must be of the highest standards possible. With so much content available today, customers will quickly leave if we are not providing the best quality content to keep their interest. (>>Tweet this<<)
ACTION: Make sure you are not sacrificing quality for quantity of output. Find new ways to invite your customers to engage more and even provide content for you to publish.
Virtual Storytelling
Telling stories remains the most liked form of content, whether in articles, videos, podcasts or other audio content. Good storytelling will keep your customers coming back for more, which is the first step on the road to trust, consideration, purchase and loyalty.
According to a recent article in Wired, in the not-too-distant future, we won’t just be listening and watching stories, we will be standing in the middle of them. They will involve new technologies which allow us to experience the story, with panoramic vision, smells, and probably an occasional feeling of vertigo or motion sickness.
Virtual reality will also enter the retail environment, enabling shoppers to see how products they might buy could be used, or how they would look in their homes, office or even on themselves. It also enables retailers to hold less stock and still offer maximum choice to customers. (>>Tweet this<<)
ACTION: Find new ways to tell stories throughout the purchase cycle, by using 3D catalogues online, or providing more interactive and engaging in-store environments. These provide customers with the experience of your product before it’s purchased, and helps you tell a better story of all the possible ways that it can be integrated into their lives for increased satisfaction.
Customer Experience as a Priority
As a result of both social media and the greater transparency now offered by many organisations, customers expect a rapid response to every question, comment or issue they might have. Disatisfaction is shared widely and rapidly with the world online, rather than with just a few friends and family as in the past. Customer ratings are being published not just for hotels, restaurants and online purchases, but also for all types of experiences that the customer has had.
Some companies such as Amazon, Zappos, Yelp and Angie’s List have built their companies on customer satisfaction, as much as the products and services they sell. They even specifically mention this in their vision and mission statements:
- Amazon: Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
- Zappos: The mission statement of Zappos.com, is referred to by its employees as their “WOW Philosophy,” is to provide the best customer service possible.
- Yelp: Connecting people with great local businesses.
- Angie’s List: Our mission is to help the best consumers find the best service providers and promote happy transactions.
ACTION: Review where customer service excellence sits in terms of company priorities; if it is not one of the top three, it’s time it was. (>>Tweet this<<)
These were just four of the topics I discussed with my US partners and clients. Have a look at your own plans and see whether you are not just playing it safe, by adapting what you did last year. The same media, the same content style, the same stories told in the same way; that just won’t work today.
There’s still time to make 2015 the year of exponential growth and change for your company. Let me know in the comments below what you think and what you plan to change in your own plans this year.
This post used images from Denyse’s latest book Winning Customer Centricity, which is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and in all good bookstores. If you are not yet a C³C Member, sign up (for free) in the C3C Members area, where we frequently offer discount codes for the book, and where you can also download many of its useful templates.
