Marketing idea: What does your customer experience?

January 26, 2016

The concept of creating a memorable customer experience is nothing new. Companies like Disney, Zappos and Ritz Carlton have become famous for how their customers rave about doing business with them. Who doesn’t know the famous Ritz Carlton line “we are ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen?”

So the concept has been around for a while, but I predict it will take on new importance in 2014 and beyond. The digital fishbowl that every business lives in today makes every nuance of every interaction a potential powder keg. It used to be that focusing on the customer experience was what the big companies did or how the top 10% thought differently than everyone else. But today it’s not a nicety; it’s a necessity.

Here’s why:

Because one slip up can cost you plenty. Your customers possess the ability to skewer you with a single Facebook post or online review. It seems as though people are rather quick on the social media draw when it comes to taking a shot at a business that has done them wrong.

Just this last week, one of my Facebook friends shared a bad restaurant experience. At the beginning, she did not reveal the name of the establishment, but as people told their own stories and started trying to guess where she had been, she finally revealed it. Others started chiming in with their own horror stories about the place.

Guess what – I’m never going to eat there. Small example but it’s happening every day to companies big and small.

You know more, so they expect more. Thanks to all of the digital data we now collect, the databases we can build (whether we do or not), the very public lives people live and how easy it is to be connected to a business through social media, e-newsletters, websites, actual interactions etc.

Whether we’ve been paying attention or not, our customers are telling us more about themselves every day. They like our Facebook page updates or they redeem a certain offer. They choose to attend our business after hours event or they refer a friend. In every one of those actions is data. The question becomes – what are we doing with what we learn?

If we don’t create an amazing experience, someone else will. Let’s say you don’t own a computer and neither do your customers. (I know…fat chance, but go with me here) Unless you have no competition – all of this still pertains to you. You cannot compete if you don’t delight. You may not be at risk for the cyber blasting that review sites and peer networks allow for but you’re still fighting for their business every day.

Someone will figure out a way to make the transaction helpful, easy and/or fun. This affords them two things. First, it gives them the crack in the door to get in with your customer and eventually, steal them away. Second and perhaps even more annoying, it allows them to charge a premium price. So not only will your customers ditch you, but they’ll also pay your competitor more.

I don’t care if your product or service is better. I don’t care if your product or service yields better results. The truth is, people will settle for a good enough product or service if the experience of acquiring it is special enough. You cannot rely on just being better.

Right or wrong — your customer is judging you every step of the way. And deciding if they’re coming back for more based on that interaction.

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Marketing Tip #47: What’s your oops plan?

January 26, 2016

Every business needs to have an oops plan — a pre-determined course of action that allows you to make amends with your customers when something goes wrong.

This isn’t something you can create on the fly — it needs to be something that is rehearsed and ready to take off the shelf at a moment’s notice.  Because even the biggest organizations drop the ball. Even my beloved Disney.

I spent a long weekend at Disney World recently. Disney has a system called Fast Passes that allow guests to pre-register to ride some of their more popular rides.

At the pre-determined time, the guest shows up and goes into an expedited line that gets them on the ride in a fraction of the time that the normal line would take.

At Epcot, the ride in greatest demand right now is called Soarin’ and it’s not unusual for the regular line to have a wait time in excess of 90 minutes. So a Fast Pass to Soarin’ is worth it’s weight in gold since it reduces the wait time to about 15 minutes.

Being a regular Disney goer, I’d secured Fast Passes for the ride. We were in next group to ride when one of the cast members announced that everyone needed to leave the building immediately. When pressed, one of the cast members said there had been a fire alert triggered and although they were sure there was no fire, better safe than sorry.

As we dig into this case study, keep in mind:

• They evacuated everyone in line, both Fast Pass holders and the people who had been patiently waiting for over an hour.
• For most people, a trip to Disney World is a once in a lifetime event. They’ve saved for years and have planned out their days to maximize every moment.
• Most Disney guests only budget one day for each of the major parks, which means if they don’t get to see something that day – they won’t see it at all.
• The people holding the Fast Passes had already used them – they’re only good once so the effort they went to secure them was wasted.

When someone asked if they could re-use their Fast Pass, another cast member told them to visit the information desk outside the attraction and they’d probably be able to help.

Within the three minutes of the evacuation announcement, cast members were lined up every 10 feet (we left the building through an emergency exit that took us into space that guests are not normally allowed) to guide the guests back to Epcot’s public space. So clearly they’d rehearsed the evacuation process. Everything was orderly and safe.

But it had no Disney magic. Here’s what they missed:

No one apologized for the disappointment or inconvenience: When you mess up, more than anything else your customer wants to know that you’re genuinely sorry and understands their disappointment and frustration.

They didn’t proactively tell everyone how to get a make good: Customers know that sometimes things don’t go according to plan. They’re willing to go with the flow, but they want to know how you’re going to make it up to them and that you’ve thought about it before they ask.

The cast members were not well informed: The very people who had to deal with the customer knew the least. They didn’t know how long the ride would be closed or how people could check to see if it was back up. Don’t leave your team in the dark if they have to deliver some bad news to your customer. Make sure they have the answers.

If customer magic maker Disney can mess up, then we’re at risk too.

Take some time to identify the danger zones where you could potentially disappoint a customer. Figure out where you’re vulnerable and outline how you’d like to handle both fixing the problem and resolving your customer’s frustrations that it happened.

Meet with your entire team to review your oops plan. Then, get it in writing and review it regularly with your team so that when a mistake happens – you all are ready.

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The future of personalization

January 20, 2016

If you haven’t been thinking about the future of personalization — you should. The CMO Council released a fascinating study today, looking at how marketers are viewing/using personalization and what that means for all of us down the road.

 The study, done in partnership with Pegasystems, is entitled “Predicting Routes to Revenue, and found that nearly half of marketers say their current analytics programs have the ability to give a clear view of past performance but do little to shed light on the road ahead.  The study is based on insights from more than 150 senior marketing executives surveyed primarily across North America and Europe during the fourth quarter of 2015.  You can download the complete study here.

The study also found that marketers looking to deliver exceptional customer experience will increasingly turn to personalization as the key driver to maximize customer value. This will require redefining data¹s value and primary role, moving away from using data as a vehicle to calculate past performance metrics and into a critical tool to uncover new, real-time insights about customer behavior.

The study also found that marketers looking to deliver exceptional customer experience will increasingly turn to personalization as the key driver to maximize customer value. This will require redefining data¹s value and primary role, moving away from using data as a vehicle to calculate past performance metrics and into a critical tool to uncover new, real-time insights about customer behavior.

Gone are the days of simply including a customer’s name in an email and considering that to be personalization. Today, customers expect that brands will understand who they are, what their habits are, what they want to see on their device screens, what they want, how they want it, when they want it…and the list of expectations goes on. These requirements are making it all the more imperative for organizations to be able to craft robust experiences that are targeted to the needs and desires of all of their customers.

A one-size-fits-all approach reveals to the customer that a brand does not understand them and opens the door for customers to defect and leave a brand’s fold in favor of one that does. In a world where customers have a multitude of options for nearly everything they are looking to purchase—and where new contenders are willing to offer almost anything to gain their business and loyalty if given the opportunity—the demand to know and effectively engage customers has never been greater.

Read more about the study’s findings and the recommendations from the CMO Council and Pegasystems and then identify personalization opportunities inside your own organization.

Seems like the time is now if you’d like to be an innovator in this space.

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Simplify your marketing

December 14, 2015

With less than a month until we ring in 2016, I am going to cling to the belief that you have started working on your marketing plan for the upcoming year. I want to get a message to you before you are too far along in the planning process.

Do half as much.

That’s right – my prescription for a successful 2016 is to do half as much marketing. Here’s what I am not saying:

• Spend half as much
• Invest half as much time
• Try half as hard
• Reach half as many people

What I am saying is I’m betting that you’re stretching yourself too thin this past year. Let me sketch out a typical company’s marketing effort and see if you recognize a bit of yourself.

Company A has a robust marketing program, with most of their efforts being focused on attracting new customers. These new customers are needed, according to the marketing and sales team, to achieve the aggressive 2013 sales goals set by leadership.

The company has committed to a print media buy and fully intended to create a new series of ads for this effort. Unfortunately, the team was spread thin, so they only created one ad, which they ran throughout the schedule. They also identified the top trade shows for their industry. By the time they got around to planning the new booth, the rush charges would have killed the budget. So instead, they’re using last year’s booth and giveaway.

They also send out direct mail to key prospects (they really hope to follow these mailings up with phone calls in 2016).

Recognizing that only using traditional marketing methods was shortsighted, the marketing team decided to embrace content and digital marketing. The goal was to create one new article or white paper a month that would be used for a customer and prospect newsletter and as new content on the website. The team got five new articles written, and for the other newsletter issues they just advertised the current special. Only 10 of the 12 newsletters went out, but eight of them were on time.

The team launched a Facebook page, Twitter account and started a digital ad/retargeting campaign. They linked the Facebook and Twitter accounts so the updates were duplicated because they didn’t always have time to create fresh content for both. The digital ads were supposed to support and promote the new article every month, but in the end it was easier to just drive traffic to the website’s home page with a pricing teaser that proved marginally successful.

You see where I’m going with this, right? Every tactic that my imaginary company implemented can be very effective. There are an infinite number of marketing solutions but unfortunately, both your budget and your time/staff resources are finite.

This has always been the case, but the addition of digital marketing tactics has just exasperated the challenge. Marketing has evolved into a never-ending spinning plates exhibition, with the marketing professionals trying to catch the plate that’s closest to the floor.

The result? By trying to do too much, nothing gets done as well or as often as it should. Key audiences get ignored or short-changed and opportunities are lost.

I’d like to suggest a different path for 2016. Identify your three most significant audiences, based on your company’s goals. Then, decide on the one or two marketing tactics that will have the greatest impact on moving each audience deeper into your sales cycle. Put together an action plan that outlines how you are going to get those tactics accomplished with more depth, frequency and quality.

Your mission – keep it simple, focused and do it better than you’ve ever had the time/budget to do it before. Then, watch what happens.

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What don’t you know?

December 1, 2015

Take off your “I’m trying to be healthier” hat for a minute and answer honestly. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could start every meal with one of your favorite desserts?

You either said yes or you’re lying! Of course it would be great to do that – desserts are not only tasty but they’re festive and somehow celebratory. But we know better. We know desserts don’t serve our bodies very well and we can’t live on them alone. (Even if your idea of dessert is fresh fruit) We have to follow the plan of eating enough of the good for us stuff that we can indulge in a dessert now and then.

That same principle works in marketing as well. We all want to rush to the tactics and the creative. It’s easy to get caught up in that trap. And it’s not just that because it’s the fun part. We’re under the gun all the time to produce results and somewhere in our subconscious there’s a voice urging us to get going already.

There’s a third reason we rush to execution. It’s comfortable. We know how to do it.   Marketers live to accomplish and get things done, as a general rule. The execution stage feels right and good.

But if you want to be successful – you need to battle that urge and slow down. You need to stay in the uncomfortable place of not knowing because that’s where insights and actual innovation happen. All too often, we put together a marketing plan or even a marketing campaign based on what we think we know. We rarely linger in the “what we don’t know” because it’s uncomfortable.

Think about all the assumptions we make every day about everything from how customers perceive our product or service to what it’s like to do business with us.

Especially with the advent of content or digital marketing, many marketers are simply putting out more stuff without much regard to what would actually move the needle. I believe if we were willing to stay in the discomfort of not knowing for longer – we’d actually execute better and enjoy better results.

So, how does one stay in the land of discomfort? I think it all starts with identifying what you don’t know in some key areas. Take my examples and dive much deeper into identifying what you really do not know. Pay attention to the assumptions you’ve been operating on for years. Now is the time to test them.

What you sell: Do you really know what people think about your product or service? Do they understand how to evaluate its quality?   What might they consider instead of buying from you?

Your company: Have they ever heard of you? What is the first word that pops in their head when they think of you? From their perspective, what does it say about them if they do business with you?

The buying experience: What does it feel like to buy from you? How consistent is the follow up? How do your sales people come off? Are you consistently keeping all of your customer service promises?

Your current customers: How do they talk about you and their buying experience? Do they brag about doing business with you or keep it on the down low? On a scale of 1-10, how delighted are they with you? What would make them go away and make a different choice?

Like I said…these just scratch the surface. You should also be asking yourself what you don’t know about everything from production to promotion and post sales systems. The biggest danger to you is the assumptions you’re operating under.

The longer you stay in the “what we don’t know” zone, the better your marketing will be. Then, you can treat yourself to some dessert!

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Do you really understand your buyers?

November 16, 2015

Do you really understand your buyers?

No matter what you sell or whether your buyers are purchasing your wares for themselves or on behalf of their company – you are selling to human beings and they’re an odd bunch.  They make decisions based on some very odd triggers, beliefs and reactions.

Yet somehow, we have to figure out how to market to them in a way that allows them to consider what we’re offering. This isn’t about tricking them or selling them something they don’t need. It’s about removing the barriers that get in the way of someone being ready to buy. This is about really understanding your buyers — their needs, their emotions and their buying triggers.

Create a minimum: For some reason, many people get frozen and are unable to move to either say “no thank you” or “I’ll buy one” if they don’t have a sense of the minimum investment required. I know – I would expect that they’d want to know the maximum they might have to spend, but research shows that’s not the case.

A recent study showed that people were motivated not only to move forward but also in most cases to spend more, once they understood the low end of the potential spend.

Show them how you stink: People are drawn to companies, products and services that don’t oversell and actually admit to their failings. Rather than resorting to hype and slick language – be accurate and realistic when talking about what you sell. No product or service is perfect for everyone, so acknowledge who you are the prefect fit for and who you’re not.

Or, if there’s a flaw that you’re working to fix, talk about that too. Studies show that buyers are drawn to companies who own up to their shortcomings and they love a good redemption story.

Create an enemy: Interestingly, people naturally take sides. If you can create a foe for your product or service (think Apple versus PC), your prospects will quickly align with one or the other. Odds are, if they align with the foe, they weren’t going to be a right fit customer for you anyway.

But, if they align with you, they are more likely to buy and buy more often, out of loyalty and to help with the fight.

Call them names: When you assign a positive label to someone, they are psychologically driven to live up to that label. When a product or service is associated with something aspirational – people are drawn to it. You might call this the midlife crisis reality. Convertibles and Harleys would fall into this category.

But it doesn’t have to be a vanity purchase. If you assign someone a label like well dressed, politically active, or socially responsible, they will often take an action to prove that the label is correct. In the case of my examples – buying nicer clothes, voting or donating money to a worthy cause.

Keep them engaged: Lingering equals buying, sooner or later. If someone is in a retail establishment, they longer they stay in the store, the more likely they are to make an impulse purchase.   This is true online as well. The stickier your website, they more likely you are to make a sale.

For a brick and mortar store, you might use free samples, live demonstrations, or interesting displays to entice people to stick around. Online, you could have entertaining videos, helpful articles or interesting polls to get make it tough to leave.

It’s long been known that we buy based on emotion and then use features and facts to justify the purchase.   The more you understand your buyers and what motivates them to take action, logical or not, the better.

Why not use these psychological insights to get your potential buyers to see your products or services in a new light?

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Your 80/20 marketing plan

November 5, 2015

One of the age-old rules in business is that 80% of your revenue is generated through 20% of your customer base. While the numbers may not align perfectly – the axiom is accurate. Your best customers generate the lion’s share of your earnings.

In fact, over the lifetime of your relationship, your most loyal customers will spend 10x what the average customer will spend. They’re also responsible for over 70% of the total visits to your business.

Even if you didn’t know the numbers – you know how important your best customers are. Yet – 63% of marketers believe that new customer acquisition is the most important advertising goal.

A recent study of over one retail million customers looking at both their behavior and their attitudes revealed some very compelling data.

• VIP and loyalty program members are 70% more likely to spread the word about your business
• 65% actually want their favorite stores to frequently email them coupons and promotions
• The probability of making an additional sale or up selling a loyal customer is 60-70%

I’m not suggesting you stop chasing new customers but based on what we know in our gut and the data in this study, we sure need to focus a little more attention on those best customers too. Keep in mind that the average conversion rate (a new sale) from efforts aimed at new customers is less than 1%. The new ones are more price conscious, less likely to come back and pay full price and are going to require a lot of wooing to earn their return.

On the flip side, you have this group of people who has already made it clear that they choose you. They’re already in the habit of spending money with you and like how you conduct business. These are people worth investing in.

Whether you call it a loyalty program or just put together a marketing plan aimed at making your best customers feel your appreciation and love – it will pay off. This shouldn’t be a generic effort. You need to do a little homework so you actually create something of value.

First, identify who your best customers are: This sounds silly. Of course you know, right? Actually, I’ll bet there will be some surprises. Crunch the numbers to identify your best customers.

Spend some time thinking about them: Don’t just assume you know what perks or added value would mean the most to your loyal clients. Or better yet – ask them. Come up with a list of options and find out which would really put their buying into overdrive and make you their only choice of vendors.

Keep it simple: Don’t make them carry a card, memorize a customer number or jump through hoops to take advantage of your program. The average American belongs to 18 rewards programs, so your goal is to make yours the best in terms of value and the easiest in terms of use.

Do some testing and tracking: Don’t assume you’ll get it exactly right the first go around. You absolutely need to track which aspects of your effort are gaining traction and which are falling flat. Adjust accordingly.

Spread the word: Once you have it working well, you want to invite others to join. A loyalty program has two core benefits. First, it rewards your best customers and encourages them to spend more. The other benefit is that it can entice your average customer to increase their activity level.

One of the biggest marketing mistakes most businesses make is they don’t pay enough attention to their best customers because they’re too busy chasing new ones. Don’t make that mistake – it could cost you more than you want to spend.

 

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6 steps to creating an effective infographic

September 29, 2015

There’s no doubt that infographics are an influential element of today’s marketing landscape. They take advantage of your audience’s ability to process visual information quickly and to retain the key facts long after the words have faded.

You can use infographics to:

• Tell a story
• Weave in insightful data
• Build your brand
• Increase SEO through easy sharing
• Increase your credibility

But before do all of those things, you have to actually create the infographic. Here are 6 steps to creating an effective infographic — so you can begin to reap the benefits.

1) Create an outline: Even though you’re going to be telling the story through visuals, graphs, and data – it is still all about telling a story. Like all good stories, it needs to flow in a way that helps your audience understand it.

Identify the key messages you want to communicate and give some thought to the sequence of how you’d like to present the data.   You’ll want to build up to your conclusion appropriately.

2) Do your research: Accurate facts, statistics and credible sources are all key to building a valuable infographic that can create buzz for you and your business. This isn’t the place to approximate or guess. Remember that the data is the core of your story. It creates the interest and is your main tool for providing insight. So don’t skimp here. Take the time to really dig deep.

Be sure you provide reference links (typically at the bottom of the infographic) to document your data sources.

3) Take time with the title: An infographic’s title is in essence a headline and deserves the same time and attention as if you were creating a print ad. If the title doesn’t grab your audience then it’s pretty tough to lure them into the content.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy knew the power of headlines, and proved time and time again that the headline determined whether an ad would get read. He rewrote his famous headline for a car ad over 100 times before being content with “At 60 miles an hour, the only thing you hear in the new Rolls Royce is the ticking of the dashboard clock …”

Be as diligent as David Ogilvy and create a headline that does the heavy lifting.

4) Paint the picture: I hate to state the obvious but what makes your infographic work is how it looks. Too many visuals, clichéd images or a lack of organization in the storytelling means that all you’re going to get is a glance.

The images you use should frame the story and the data fills in the details. At each stage of your story, use an image to anchor and explain that particular section. Be mindful of your color scheme as well. Choose a palate that will make the data pop, and make your infographic stand out in the sea of competitors.

5) Draw conclusions: A good infographic doesn’t just present facts. It combines those facts, trends and other information to help people see the connections. In a world where we are overrun with information, we’re still starving for meaning. Your infographic should illuminate and connect the dots for the audience.

Think of your infographic as a snapshot that helps someone get the big picture and then, if they want to, they can drill down into your specific data and even check out your sources for the nitty-gritty if they want to.

6) Finish right: Just a few things to make sure you keep in mind. Always include your own URL on the infographic so you get credit for creating it. Be sure to make it easy to share on all the social networks and if you can, offer embed codes so people can post it on their own websites and blogs.

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