Marketer // Customer

Mediabistro Circus June 2.2009

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Today I'm speaking in front of audience of journalists, writers, editors, and digital strategists at the Mediabistro Circus conference in New York City. My panel will discuss this marketing Renaissance that has seen the customer front and center - not just of our conversations, but (hopefully) of our thinking.

The slide deck I offer you here is a starting point and it already looks massive for my 10 minutes of presentation. That's because there is so much to think about before even beginning to integrate some of the tactics in the tools we have at our disposal. There are new tools created every day. Your objectives should drive what you do and how you do it.

My main goal is to get you started thinking about:

• integrated needs to be around the customer experience - what you integrate around the campaign needs to drive that

• your challenges will probably be in three flavors:

(1) culture - interaction
(2) sustainability - engagement
(3) content - experience

• your actions build reputation and increase your social capital and trust:

(1) deliver more value
(2) put the customer first
(3) listen, listen, listen
(4) tell them you are listening
(5) demonstrate you are listening
(6) give freely, including credit for ideas
(7) find ways to solve problems your customers have

• get the experience right - make your customers smarter, better; help them be more connected with what they want and others from the community (intangible) through (tangible):

- portability of applications, what they need for when they need it
- productivity tools, how to get things done
- purposeful activities, that create meaning for them

• measure the effectiveness of everything you do. Behind the curtain of Oz, you're measuring clicks and page views, impressions and reach. Right? Right. Out there on the yellow brick road you're developing relationships. Relationships are the New Black (thank you, Anne).

Your objectives should determine what you measure. With social media you have the opportunity to improve reputation and build relationships. For example, what is your cost per customer acquisition? That's the value of recommendations.

Connections are the new currency, where social is determined by the people - online tools just allow us to amplify and magnify.

This is what is on the table for the discussion today. The fundamental shift marketers need to make is moving away from viewing customers as a mass and dealing with them that way. That which has lead to customers viewing your product or service as a commodity - one of too, too many.

I'd love to hear your reactions, thoughts, and stories. I will be reporting back from the day's sessions in a future post.

________

Related posts:

Trusteership and Value

Can Your Brand Design this Kind of Conversation?

Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Harriet Meth]

Valeria, thank you for sharing this excellent presentation. You have zeroed in on the central underpinning of how marketers can better communicate with their customers - and that is story. Stories are what people share, they are how people communicate with each other. In fact, stories truly are the original mash-ups.
Interestingly, your other 2 most recent posts on video and press release long tail, also point to the critical role of story. Video is an excellent tool for sharing stories with customers, by customers and others, and a press release (one would hope) should provide the building blocks for a story.

[Anne Libby]

You bet! Thank you, Valeria.

[Matt Eventoff]

Great job Valeria -- I really enjoyed your presentation - very well prepared. I noted it in a post today - http://www.matteventoff.com/face-to-face-communication-is-worthless.html

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Harriet - yes, story does seem to come up a lot lately. We do respond to stories and they prove to be more memorable. The video format also allows for a more intimate experience, which has an important role in building relationships. I work hard at my press releases so that they provide value with the news.

@Anne - thanks for stopping by.

@Matt - glad you found the experience valuable. Re: your post - Generally speaking, I try to keep a positive attitude and teach vs. preach in my online and off line behavior. I realize that sometimes the immediate gratification of a well crafted remark may make us feel sort of good. Sometimes audiences (and customers) can be a bit difficult, too. So taking things with a grain of salt helps in the long run.