Visibility

Like it or not, the world has changed.

In the past, a one-way flow of information to customers was enough. Marketing strategies built around mass broadcast mediums were the norm, and consumers were content to digest the information provided to them.

But the advent of social media and global technologies has caused a paradigm shift in consumer expectations. Today’s consumers are fully aware of their ability to participate in conversations with the companies vying for their buying dollars. Consumers are empowered. And they demand fresh, new strategies for receiving and interacting with the information that guides their decisions.

Consumer engagement is the currency of the new marketplace. The companies that thrive will be the ones who invest in services and technologies that leverage the power of the individual consumer.

Surveying the Landscape

In the current social climate, consumers simply won’t accept marketing strategies that fail to recognize them as individuals. Traditional mass broadcast strategies alone are incapable of influencing consumer perceptions because they don’t recognize the needs of individual consumers.

How did we get here? Shifts in consumer mindsets have been fueled by a growing distrust of corporate messaging. Today’s consumers are hardened cynics who tend to view company claims and motives with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Research from Alterian’s recent global study, “Your Brand: At Risk or Ready for Growth?” indicates that on average, 54 percent of U.S. consumers believe companies are much more interested in selling products and services than they are in listening to their customers and helping them identify the products that are right for them. Likewise, only 6 percent trust what the company says about itself through advertising.

Interestingly, this trust deficit disappears with users of social media, many of whom place a high value on companies that facilitate online dialogues and believe those companies have a genuine interest in them as individuals. Based on the survey findings, 80 percent of U.S. respondents believed there would be a positive impact from companies taking more time to find out about their needs and interests.

The 21st Century Consumer

The empowered, 21st century consumer expects a lot from the mechanisms they rely on for information. Their baseline expectation is information when they want it, where they want it and in the format that is most beneficial to them.

A key consideration for empowered consumers is something called “assemblage,” i.e. the ability to assemble content and experiences in a manner that suits the individual. Informed 21st century consumers recognize that they – not companies or brands – are the centerpieces around which messages are shaped, reshaped and digested.

Connection is also important for empowered consumers. Although consumers maintain strong individual identities, they base those identities on their connectedness to other consumers. New media outlets have opened consumers’ eyes to the power that rests in networks of like-minded individuals. For marketers, the challenge is to continually engage these consumers at the individual level rather than falling back into more comfortable, mass broadcast mindsets.

One of the ironies of 21st century consumers is that their need to connect with other consumers exists alongside their need for highly mobile communication tools. Mobile technology is quickly replacing stationary devices, emphasizing the need for businesses to communicate with customers in short bursts of information. For mobile Twitter users, if you can’t get your message across in 140 characters or less you won’t get it across at all.

The ways in which consumers receive, assemble and reshape messages are infinitely complex. But a typical scenario could look something like this: individual surfs the Internet for a review of a product (or brand), then pastes the review on his Facebook page, inviting his friends to weigh in on the product. After a series of online discussions, the consumer makes a decision and then uses a BlackBerry or iPhone to tweet his decision to his network.

There are several points in the purchasing decision process where companies have the ability to engage consumers and initiate dialogue. But doing so requires a more sophisticated approach to CRM, e-mail marketing and other tools that connect with this consumer on his own turf.

The Engagement Challenge

The biggest challenge facing companies in today’s business environment is learning how to regain their customers’ trust. That’s easier said than done since trust can’t be manufactured or created apart from intentional processes that take into account the consumer’s needs and preferences.

Rebuilding trust with customers begins by taking a proactive approach to interacting with them as individuals. If customers get the sense that a company’s relationship with them is primarily transactional, they will move on to a company that is interested in creating a more meaningful consumer dialogue.

Across the board, customers who have the ability to interact with company brands exhibit higher levels of trust because they don’t have to turn control of the relationship over to a distant, corporate authority. When the customer is given at least some control over the relationship, the process of rebuilding trust is accelerated, and both customers and companies enjoy the benefits. In fact, findings from the Alterian study revealed that 86 percent of U.S. consumers said they would respond positively to brands that allowed them to become more involved with developing products and services. If given the chance to participate in the process, 82 percent of all survey respondents (85 percent for social media users) said it would make them more likely to tell others about the company.

One of the ways businesses can initiate customer interactions is by making a serious commitment to listening and learning. Shallow customer feedback mechanisms are ineffective because they are throwbacks to the era of mass broadcast strategies. Instead, companies achieve the highest ROI when they invest in comprehensive strategies to gather personal information from their customers and initiate conversations about their brand or products.

CRM integration and e-mail marketing can be critical anchor points in this process. For example, Best Western identified a need to overcome a trust deficit and boost its company’s brand loyalty program. Best Western segmented and analyzed its customers’ personal information data (listening) and transformed it into personalized e-mails for loyalty program participants (engagement). The result was a dramatic spike in click-through rates and a 30 percent ROI.

Meeting the Challenge

In order to meet the challenges presented by 21st century consumers, businesses should take a fresh look at how they collect and analyze customer information, and then use it to create new avenues for engagement.

Social media undoubtedly plays an important role. But it’s a mistake to view social media as an isolated solution. As mentioned in the Alterian study, consumers usually have to see and hear things in five different places before they believe it. One 19-year-old male respondent said, “I look at things from different places if I’m researching something, so I’ll Google it, have a look through the first few results, go on forums, see what other people are saying.”

With that being said, social media monitoring can be a resource for aggregating the responses of individual consumers. Social media can also be a resource for initiating dialogues with customers, but only if it is emphasized throughout the company.

It’s an unfortunate fact that many businesses simply aren’t prepared to navigate the opportunities presented by popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although CRM integration can streamline the social media engagement process, many companies achieve the highest returns by partnering with third-party providers.

In addition to leveraging social media, many businesses are turning to resources that automatically deploy targeted and personalized content to their customers. A practical example of this strategy is Princess Cruises’ use of personalized email. Using high-level analytics and message tracking, Princess Cruises created templates for dynamic customer content. Princess Cruises can then automatically generate personalized e-mails that serve as CRM touch points with its customer base.

Moving forward, successful marketers must become even savvier about connecting with consumers via mobile technology. Consumers are increasingly dependent on mobile phones and PDAs to access e-mail, connect with social media networks and surf the Internet for short bursts of information. Mobile technology creates new possibilities for dialogue with customers, but to be effective, brands need to design messaging geared toward impatient, mobile users.

Actions Steps

Transitioning your brand to meet the needs of the today’s consumer won’t happen overnight. But there are several action steps you can take to prepare your brand to meet the challenges of the consumer-driven marketplace.

1.    Promote buy-in. Preparing your brand for growth begins by promoting total buy-in. Everyone in your organization must understand the limits of mass broadcast mediums and the importance of engaging your customers at the individual level.
 
2.    Listen to your customers. Token listening initiatives may have worked in the past, but they won’t suffice for 21st century consumers. Begin to implement strategies to collect and analyze customer data at the individual level so it can be used as a basis for personalized messaging.

3.    Create a culture of dialogue. It’s imperative for business leaders to dissolve cultures that are stuck in a one-way corporate messaging mindset and replace them with cultures that value meaningful dialogues with consumers.

4.    Leverage e-mail marketing and CRM integration. Strategies that combine the power of CRM and e-mail marketing are critical for brand growth in the new marketplace. Consider consulting a third-party provider who has the expertise and resources to maximize the ROI of your efforts.

5.    Embrace social media and mobile marketing opportunities. Social media and mobile technology are here to stay. Pay attention to the ways your customers are using these technologies and take advantage of opportunities to insert your brand into the conversation with short, relevant messaging.