Integrating Your Customer’s Experience

Internet Marketing — email, electronic newsletters, and social media (Twitter, Facebook, et. al.) seems the tactic du jour — and with good reason. It’s an inexpensive means of reaching lots of customers and prospects. The problem is that while it is financially inexpensive, internet marketing can be costly in terms of your customer’s experience.

For instance, barraging your customers with a weekly stream of inconsequential or superfluous email promotions and other self-serving messages may be cheap and easy with some of today’s web marketing tools. But it’s probably not the best strategy. It creates a lot of noise that runs the risk of teaching your customers to ignore you. Even worse, it also reduces the perceived value of your brand among prospects and customers alike. From high-end luxury apparel to gourmet food, many companies fall into the “more is better” and “it doesn’t cost anything” trap. Don’t be one of them.

To maximize the power of internet marketing, it has to be in sync with your company or brand’s overarching strategy and the customer experience it attempts to engender. All too often, different departments, and even different marketing disciplines, operate in silos. When, say, customer service operates in a manner that is not in lock-step with the customer experience that marketing is trying to foster, it’s no surprise to find out that the people in charge of social media, often the IT department, are also attempting to achieve results that don’t necessarily line up with the overarching company or brand strategy.

In short, making sure that all departments and all marketing disciplines are working toward the same vision with the same brand message is critical.

Rule 1: Be Relevant, Add Value

The channels are different, but internet marketing is still, at its core, marketing communications — a means of spreading your integrated message and fostering that desired customer experience. Just because it’s the internet doesn’t mean the communications need to be creatively whacky or even cutting edge. The best way to approach internet marketing for your product or service is to start by identifying topics and tools which are interesting, valuable, or relevant to your customers &/or prospects. If customers use your product at work, share productivity tips or create a users forum. If they use your product when having guests, then give them entertaining ideas, serving or pairing suggestions or otherwise festive content. The key to remember is that every post, every promotion, every tweet, every photo or YouTube post wants to be relevant and add value. This may not sound like groundbreaking information. But all too often, this simple principle is ignored in favor “cool” executions that may even garner lots of attention, yet fail to advance the brand or the desired customer experience.

Rule 2: Old School Works in New Media

When your product/service is complex or if, for instance, you’re first to market, it’s quite possible that prospects have no idea how your product or service works, or why they should even care about it. That’s when it’s best to use your internet-based interaction to use a decidedly old school approach: demonstrate ways in which your product or service can be of value to them.

Then strategically plan how to deliver this interesting and relevant content across each and every one of your customer’s “Touch Points” — all those places where customers come into contact with your message and brand. Plan to show photos, link to a video demo or offer a sample using your social media. And of course, integrate the campaign into your marketing materials, sales calls, website and customer support center. Everyone should know what you’re doing and what you’re trying to achieve. By strategically synchronizing your messages across all channels, customer types and media, you’ll increase the impact of your social media efforts, while creating customer loyalty and value.

The bottom line is that before you waste a lot of time and resources on social media, mobile & internet marketing, first consider the broader context of your customer’s experience. Jumping into social media without a real plan just because it’s seemingly inexpensive runs the risk of generating noise that’s at cross purposes with your brand message and that experience you’re trying to cultivate.

Cacophony or Symphony, the choice is yours!

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