Marketers, it’s time to stop focusing on the tactics.
Ok, maybe don’t completely stop.
Stick with me. One email or one blog post or one press release is not going to win you the world. Sure, every step is something when you’re building your marketing. But, when you focus too much on tactical steps, you risk losing sight of the most important thing: your customer.
Your customers and prospects are not going to remember, much less applaud, one email, one blog post or one press release.
Will they even see it?
Customers will remember you if you can establish a brand. Create an enjoyable experience for them. Share a clear message with them – one that explains the emotional tie to the problem you solve.
In today’s sales cycle, prospects may visit your website or engage with your company numerous times before even considering buying your product or solution. They should have – and they expect to have – the same experience at each and every one of those touch points. Oh, and that experience should be a good one: designed specifically for your target buyer, easy and memorable.
This same experience should continue when you win those prospects as customers. This is your job as a marketer.
We, as marketers, are not consistently nailing this. It’s not easy. If it were, we’d stop reading complaints on Twitter about customer experiences and customer service.
Where do you start?
Don’t forget about people. Stop thinking traffic, leads, users. Your customers are human. They have demanding lives and don’t want your product or service making life more difficult.
Now go back to your brand experience – how do you improve your customers’ lives? It may be a small thing. That’s OK. Kyle Lacy, head of marketing at OpenView, has a great presentation about why experiences can make or break a company.
Then, shift your focus internally. You need to break down the silos between sales, marketing and customer service to create a seamless experience for customers. Gartner’s Kirsten Newbold-Knipp puts it well: “True marketing maturity means building teams and processes that transcend channel and strategies that, when orchestrated in concert, deliver a consistent, compelling and customized experience wherever our customers may be.”
Now you can go back to the tactics. Armed with a better understanding of your customers and prospects – as people – you can refocus your efforts in a meaningful way that pays off.
This post originally appeared on the Metis Communications PR & Marketing Strategy blog.
