In my previous post I discussed how you can apply these marketing channels to the different stages of the buyer’s journey.

In this post I will be discussing – Move beyond the stereotype campaign mindset

Traditional marketing campaigns are short-lived, one-way monologue. For a long period of time, such campaigns have been the crux of your marketing strategy. But, with well informed and demanding customers, drastic technological advancement, the marketing approach has changed. Today, to survive you need to facilitate two-way dialogues and creating an opportunity to directly interact with the targeted individual.

“Now, a campaign-only approach is insufficient for nurturing long-term client relationships, with effective and sustainable results.”

Today, information is available in a click. Customers do a thorough research about the company, product and in general, feedback about the support, and are well equipped to compare brands before making purchasing decisions based on more than just price. Social media and word of mouth are very impactful in creating an impression in the consumer’s minds before a purchase. Most often, the customers have already decided whether they want to make a purchase or not before contacting a company.

Therefore, when a prospective customer calls, (s)he is not asking a sales person to sell the product offering to him/her, all (s)he needs is to get a confirmation on the tangible benefits offered by you vis-à-vis completion and then providing a price quote that would actually seal the deal.

Over time, the buyer’s journey has evolved and they decide what, when and how to shop at their own pace. During this circular journey they connect with your brand via various physical and digital touchpoints, and one bad experience and you stand to lose them forever.

With multiple channels at their disposal, including web, email, social media, text, phone, and more, your customers control the conversation and relationship with your brand. As a result, isolated campaigns don’t connect the dots that can add up to a 360⁰ brand experience. This can be the recipe for perfect disaster as it can let customers slip through the cracks.

Think of new approaches to marketing

Today, as savvy marketers you need to adopt the different approach that would help you break out of the traditional campaign mindset and find the right blend of technology and push and pull marketing techniques.

With this new approach to marketing in mind, you may want to consider few of the strategies listed below to move beyond the stereotype campaign mindset.

Buyer journey: The traditional purchasing funnel, as we knew it, is no more relevant. The customer journey is multifaceted and most of the times, comprises of multiple touch points. This calls for a shift in your mindset if you want to build a long-term relationship and customer loyalty. The cornerstone of the new approach to marketing is strategically anticipating the touchpoints along the buyer journey.

Consistent Omni channel Experience: Consumers now want to engage with your company via the website, mobile app or walk into a physical store, or through social media. To keep them engaged it’s essential you provide a consistent and seamless experience across all channels, when they want to access your products or services – be it the phone or an app on their smartphone, or with a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop computer.

Personalization: Customers today want to know: What’s in it for me? Why do I need it? What problem can it solve? Can I live with an alternative solution? What does it cost? How does it work? Where can I buy? What are the benefits of ownership? Is it easy to use?To gain their attention, you need to provide – real-time, personalized content that aims at delivering the right messages at the right time over the right channels answering these questions. You need to invest in marketing automation and CRM solutions, which will provide you the insights to create personalized yet real-time content. This also helps you to effectively track multiple campaigns.

Brand storytelling: Crafting stories to promote your brand is not a new technique, but leveraging technology to start a two way dialogue is. Is a unique way of creating a long-term emotional connect with the customers who can relate with the stories.

Be Active On Social Media: You may social media channels to broadcast about your company and product updates. The point to remember is that social media marketing has direct correlation content marketing. Therefore, you need to create high-quality content to be feed into the system to create awareness and generate sales leads.

You need to board the technology train or stay at the station

It’s important that we board the technology train now – even if it’s a slower-moving one or be ready to be left behind at the station.

Moving beyond a stereotype campaign structure is a difficult change; and most of us are reluctant to change, as we are comfortable with what we have been doing for so long. But, it’s important that we board the technology train now – even if it’s a slower-moving one or be ready to be left behind at the station.

The basic concept is, with technology as an enabler you can deliver real-time, personalized content to a customer or prospect when they want it—at the right time and through the right channel. It calls for investment in technologies like marketing automation, social CRM, and customer experience management tools. These integrated platforms enable you to:

With insights that lets you understand what buyers want along their buying journey
Connect with customers and prospects at the right time and right channel
Integrate the physical and digital touchpoints with your brand for a full and satisfying brand experience

Innovatus Marketers Touchpoint LLP is a customer experience, marketing, service design, design thinking and business innovation consulting firm, based in India. We offer go-to-market and digital strategy consulting and help our clients rethink and redesign customer and employee value in the digital era. We offer design thinking workshops and consulting, tailored to enable, accelarete or transform your business. We are laser-focused on the problem at hand and your opportunity space, and optimize process to make design thinking and service design principles accessible to your employees who’ve never done it before or stuck-up, and provide “just adequate” theory to help you get moving and achieve outcomes.

You may reach out to Vidya Priya Rao @ +918080015500 or email @ vidyapriya.rao@marketerstouchpoint.com

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