Push or Pull Conversation – What Do Customers Really Want?
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As a new-age consumer we are all overwhelmed with the number of promotional offers and discounts to buy stuff, causes to support, events to attend, bombarded across multiple media.
Most often these push marketing messages do not resonate with us consumers. Irritated, fatigued and bored – we do not stir, respond and become NUMB to this NOISE created by the brands.
No one likes being pushed
Don’t we all hate that annoying salesman who always interferes when we are shopping and doesn’t let us have a peaceful shopping experience? Usually we call out to a salesman when we need any help.
Just like that annoying pesky salesperson, push marketing strategy ignores this basic tenet of human nature.
It’s the same when it comes to email as well as notifications in customer relationships. That does not mean that you do away with email and notifications. There’s always a time and place for emails and notifications and it all depends on the type of the customer, the customer’s intent and the level of intimacy the customers are open to.
For instance: If your credit card firm thinks there is a fraudulent activity on your card then it’s ok if you get a verification SMS while standing in the checkout line. However, a vague message announcing a promotional rate on balance transfers or EMIs will certainly put off the customer. But, if they do that post a recent big ticket purchase it may be welcomed.
We are already tired of deleting numerous notifications we receive on our smart phones in the form of emails, text messages et al. Today, the door-to-salesmen have been replaced by the mobile “notification hell.”
Push thus can lead us to a saturation point. And ultimately your prospective customer will add you to the block list or unsubscribe list.
Brands need to communicate with consumers on their terms
As shopping habits have evolved over the time and consumers decide what, when and how to shop at their own pace!
As marketers you needs to understand the customer and the context any given time. For instance: you certainly cannot send lunch deals for eating at a nearby restaurant post lunch-time or a promotional offer to buy a men’s shoe to a female.
Push or Pull Conversation – What Do Customers Really Want?
The answer to this is pull scores above push, as customers decide when, where, how they want to buy or interact with a brand.
This is why marketers need to deliver contextual messages, which can be done with the help of data.
Databases are available that track and capture every customer interaction, spanning offline and digital interaction channels. However, this is just the tip-of-the-iceberg of understanding the customer.
Pull is the future!
Pull marketing strategy reinstates the fact – customer is the king. Marketing experts predict that people will have more control over what they will get in the coming few years. Customers will be so empowered that they will themselves create a flow of information via automated pull.
The future of the web will thus be a smarter, well-researched pull!
We, as empowered users, in the future will have several machines and agents delivering us information that we care about. In fact, renowned author David Meerman Scott had predicted this very future long ago. It has surely taken us a long time to get there but we are seeing useful agents such as our very own Siri and Microsoft Cortana (voice assistant app).
With the influx of IoT devices, we are set to receive smart-notifications such as the smart fridge that informs you whenever you run out of milk when you are nearby your local grocery store.
Pull thus aims at understanding the behaviour of the consumer (via well-researched data) and then targeting him/her via promotional mediums. For instance, if the behavioural data suggests that a consumer is interested in a particular product category then the marketer can target this particular consumer.
Thus, pull marketing is the future when it comes to capturing the attention of your consumers in a non-intrusive manner.
As a marketer if you are a start-up you can’t rely on pull marketing. You need to begin with push marketing and make the world aware of your existence; gradually word-of-mouth and advertising helps create a pull.
The next blog in this series will share the best practices to effectively use a mix of push and pull marketing strategy to connect with your customer.