I just read this great post on Copyblogger on why having an imaginary friend (or at least a picture of someone who would be typical of your audience) in mind when you write makes your content better.
Buyer personas aren't new but the act of visualising a specific individual is helpful and a step not everyone takes. I think the concept goes further than just copywriting; we ought to take our imaginary friend everywhere with us.
Your ideal customer should be there when you shape new products, make changes to your payment or service policies, choose your new locations or any other decision that could impact them and their loyalty to your brand.
Showing posts with label customer advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label customer advocacy. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Are you exerting your influence?
Like most marketers, I love a good graph and look forward to Marketing Sherpa's B2B marketing chart of the week (yes, I am that cool).
This week's chart highlighted the fact that only a third of respondents are using blogger and influencer relations as a tactic in their social media marketing. Why people, why?
Well, I know why. It isn't easy. It takes effort, tact, decorum and there's no guaranteed ROI on your courting of these rare and beautiful creatures.
However when you talk about your product and service online, you are at best self promoting and most likely boring and interrupting to the conversations happening on the platform of choice.
When your industry guru recommends using your product/service to the masses, you've hit the jackpot because they're going to get listened to. You, as Marketing Manager of Company X are not.
We have to spend more time on this guys, this is the new PR and for those prepared to go the extra mile, the benefits may get you somewhere money can't.
This week's chart highlighted the fact that only a third of respondents are using blogger and influencer relations as a tactic in their social media marketing. Why people, why?
Well, I know why. It isn't easy. It takes effort, tact, decorum and there's no guaranteed ROI on your courting of these rare and beautiful creatures.
However when you talk about your product and service online, you are at best self promoting and most likely boring and interrupting to the conversations happening on the platform of choice.
When your industry guru recommends using your product/service to the masses, you've hit the jackpot because they're going to get listened to. You, as Marketing Manager of Company X are not.
We have to spend more time on this guys, this is the new PR and for those prepared to go the extra mile, the benefits may get you somewhere money can't.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
How bad reviews bite harder
A friend sent me an article this morning which he thought might interest me, detailing a poor review of a technology conference. The article itself (published yesterday morning) was amusingly written and highlighted everything that is commonly wrong with a lot of poorly executed conferences, it made me smile.
Then I looked at the Twitter and Facebook share buttons on the side and winced a little on behalf of the organisers, upon reading it, 55 of The Telegraph's techie readers had decided to share it with all their friends and followers...who turned out to be 80,000 odd people.
The lesson here is clear not just for event organisers but all product and service providers, it is even more important than ever not to upset your influencers - they just got hold of the world's biggest megaphone and when they shout, your customers listen!
Then I looked at the Twitter and Facebook share buttons on the side and winced a little on behalf of the organisers, upon reading it, 55 of The Telegraph's techie readers had decided to share it with all their friends and followers...who turned out to be 80,000 odd people.
The lesson here is clear not just for event organisers but all product and service providers, it is even more important than ever not to upset your influencers - they just got hold of the world's biggest megaphone and when they shout, your customers listen!
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
The Plan Is Broken
Continuing in the vein of addressing common problems with fitting our old mentality and systems to the new marketing landscape, I got thinking about how we actually write a plan. How do you accurately plan and record all the individual interactions and conversations that make up the interactive or social part of the modern marketing plan? I mean you can't "schedule" taking part in a conversation can you?! Or can you?
You can if you initiate it! One of my newest team members was searching for information to use for a paper he wanted to write around his event but he couldn't find anything weighty enough on a particular subtopic. He posted a question to the relevant LinkedIn community and within an hour received 9 helpful responses.
Aside from finishing his paper more easily, he started a conversation with 9 people passionate enough about the subject matter to invest time in helping someone in their community learn. He "planned" to send them a copy of the finished content to say thanks. A couple of them asked about the event. A relationship was born and providing he continues to nurture it through "planned" interactions, he has created a handful of potential customers and advocates who were previously unaware of us and how we serve the needs of our market.
To a certain extent we have to roll with the punches in this new environment and accept that a lot of what we do will be reactive and we'll have to record it after the fact. Which raises a question I have often heard asked, do we need to record it? After all its just one short exchange with maybe one other person right? Wrong.
It is more important than ever to record these interactions because they are far more personal than the 10,000 piece direct mail shot of yesterday. Recipients of old-style communications for the most part knew they were mass volume and impersonal. Participants in our new marketing are just that, they are not passive and they are talking to you. Not a big faceless company, you personally. And they expect to be remembered.
Don't believe me? You must have met someone at some point (maybe at a party or other social gathering) who on second meeting can't remember the first and introduces themselves again. Maybe you were offended, maybe you just thought them a little stupid, but I guarantee you didn't think "wow this is someone I want to get know better and spend more time with".
So we shouldn't be looking at how to fit the new marketing into the plan, but how we can totally change the fundamentals of what we consider essential to a "plan" to fit with the new marketing. The plan is broken and there is no glue in the world that is going to put it back together again.
You can if you initiate it! One of my newest team members was searching for information to use for a paper he wanted to write around his event but he couldn't find anything weighty enough on a particular subtopic. He posted a question to the relevant LinkedIn community and within an hour received 9 helpful responses.
Aside from finishing his paper more easily, he started a conversation with 9 people passionate enough about the subject matter to invest time in helping someone in their community learn. He "planned" to send them a copy of the finished content to say thanks. A couple of them asked about the event. A relationship was born and providing he continues to nurture it through "planned" interactions, he has created a handful of potential customers and advocates who were previously unaware of us and how we serve the needs of our market.
To a certain extent we have to roll with the punches in this new environment and accept that a lot of what we do will be reactive and we'll have to record it after the fact. Which raises a question I have often heard asked, do we need to record it? After all its just one short exchange with maybe one other person right? Wrong.
It is more important than ever to record these interactions because they are far more personal than the 10,000 piece direct mail shot of yesterday. Recipients of old-style communications for the most part knew they were mass volume and impersonal. Participants in our new marketing are just that, they are not passive and they are talking to you. Not a big faceless company, you personally. And they expect to be remembered.
Don't believe me? You must have met someone at some point (maybe at a party or other social gathering) who on second meeting can't remember the first and introduces themselves again. Maybe you were offended, maybe you just thought them a little stupid, but I guarantee you didn't think "wow this is someone I want to get know better and spend more time with".
So we shouldn't be looking at how to fit the new marketing into the plan, but how we can totally change the fundamentals of what we consider essential to a "plan" to fit with the new marketing. The plan is broken and there is no glue in the world that is going to put it back together again.
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