More than Digital: Connecting with People
It’s Time to Transform Marketing into People Connecting.
How and when you connect with existing and potential customers is not about just sending constant emails out.
Why inundate people with your content? It’s common for brands, as it is for people, to want to talk about themselves. We’ve all had interesting and fascinating people in our lives but we’ve also encountered individuals who don’t know where to draw a line and they keep going on and on without regard to who’s really listening – if anyone. These are the people and the brands we tune out.
These brands need to shift their approach, stop talking about themselves, and understand who is really paying attention to their brand and why.
The Brand Strategy Equation.
Building a brand strategy allows a company to focus on the key people they are speaking with and discover what matters to them. By building a cohesive brand strategy that looks at competitors, the media online, and what’s actually being heard by your customers and potential customers you can build a conversation that adds value and engagement not bombard them with boring content.
The key to a good brand strategy is really knowing three key things:
1 – What makes your brand and product offering unique? – This is from the customer’s perspective. That is they are looking at tons of options to purchase, why choose you? Reputation, price reliability, unique localization – these may all factor into their choice.
2 – What’s the core brand promise? – This may seem trivial however it’s essential to understand who the brand is for. Why is it unique in its offering? What is it committed to?
3 – Who are your customers and what drives them? –This is critical in understanding their world. Building a voice that resonates with these customers in their way.
Personas: The People in Your Brand World.
Who are you talking to? Who are you aiming to engage with?
A focus on who and why is everything. Knowing the range of buyers, and qualified interested prospects is essential. In working on large housing developments, branding and marketing the buildings, and launching marketing programs we have to know how to attract the residents. Knowing that the core customers are Millenials tells us everything in terms of how to engage with them.
Clearly defining the core messages with the right creative makes all the difference in making that connection because you are speaking to the right audience in “their voice”. You may have one or two personas or there may be 5 or 6 all with different roles and interests in products or services. The more you can customize this connection and make it relevant only builds more trust.
The Digital Ecosystem: Building Pathways to Connecting with Right Customer
This is the key to engagement and connecting with people. Whether a B2B industry or company or consumer products or services you have to know what has value and matters to them. You can’t assume anything about what matters that is why developing core customer personas and doing your research on what they are interested in and why they buy is essential.
This is where surveys and preference-focused offers can be of great value in gaining insights on customers. You are creating a reason to be and become a thought leader with your engagement. And with the right digital platform, you can learn about your customers and what has value for them in their world.
Staying Engaged with the Right People, The Right Way
Building a platform of engagement that allows you to gain knowledge about your existing and potential customers, tenants or users is the goal. Value comes from knowing who your audience is and connecting with them as people, with relevant and valued information that educates and builds trust with them over time as you become a valued brand.