Visibility

By Dr. Gary Edwards, Chief Customer Officer at Empathica

Strip away the jargon and marketing really boils down to matchmaking – forging a “love connection” between brands and consumers. In the old days, it was enough to pass notes from the brand to the consumer and wait for a response. It was clean. Simple. Effective.

But in today’s constantly connected (some might say overly connected) culture, passing love notes from brands to consumers doesn’t cut it. In particular, the convergence of social media and mobile technology are challenging marketers to adapt to a new universe, a world in which consumers – not marketers – expect to control brand interactions.

From high-octane business executives to the teenager sitting at the dinner table, consumers from every imaginable background are constantlyattached to their mobile devices, using smartphones and other technology to create their own connections and perform an array of mobile activities.

Mobile stopped being a tool for early adopters a long time ago. Now, four out of five American consumers own a mobile device. Chances are your mother and grandmother currently own mobile phones – and they’re using them to connect not only with their kids and grandkids, but with the information and influencers they rely on to make purchasing decisions.

The takeaway is that online marketers can’t afford to ignore the connections and synergies that are being created through mobile and social media. Now more than ever, marketers need to consider making social media and mobile channels high value targets in thebattle to forge brand connections online.

The New Rules of Brand Messaging & Brand Experiences

The nexus of social media and mobile technology means that customers are the new channels forbrand messaging and the brand experience. Equipped with the latest mobile gadgetry, consumer-driven messaging is occurring more frequently and with greater immediacy than ever before.

Let’s say a consumer experiences an in-store snafu at a retail location. In the old days, the consumer might march over to the customer service desk to lodge a complaint. Not anymore. Instead, the consumer will pull out a smartphone and trash the brand on Twitter, Facebook and any other number of user-generated content venues, including comment sections on the brand’s website.

And that’s just the beginning. With today’s technology, disgruntled consumers have the ability to enhance the value of their online content with photos, geolocational tags and other features. Within minutes, an arsenal of negative brand messaging has been distributed to hundreds, if not thousands, of other consumers.

Online marketers need to understand that it’s not a question of whether or not consumers will comment about their experiences with the brand (they will!), but how the brand will influence and engage with consumer comments when they appear online.

The new rules of brand messaging and brand experiences require marketers to help brands create exceptional consumer experiences and effectively participate in dialogues that are initiated in the arena of constant connectedness. If it’s done effectively, this can drive traffic to the brand’s website and enable brands to participate in more meaningful conversations with their customers.

Tips for “Constantly Connected” Marketing

For some online marketers, the transition to a constantly connected marketplace will be relatively painless; for others, it will require major mental shifts and a completely new way of engaging consumers.

Although the execution of constantly connected marketing strategies must be contextualized on a brand-by-brand basis, there are several general practices that online marketers can employ to connect with consumers.

1.    Listening
Consumers have power in the new marketing paradigm and they expect to be heard. Brands that ignore their customers are quickly labeled as irrelevant and out of touch with the marketplace. But brands that make an active effort to listen to their customers, through they channels in which they prefer to communicate (i.e. social media and mobile), are rewarded with advocacy and loyalty.

2.    Clarity
In order to effectively market to modern consumers, marketers need to clearly understand the factors and features that drive consumers to the brand. Although this is related to listening, it’s critical for marketers to understand the things consumers value about the brandbeforethe brand implements measures to change or enhance the customer experience.

3.    Engagement
If there is one thing we’ve learned from social media it’s that consumers no longer expect to be talked to by brands. Rather, they expect to talk with brands – to engage in two-way dialogues and interactions. For online marketers, this means finding new ways to facilitate customer interactions through the right combination of web-based and mobile/social media channels.

4.    Equipping
Marketers can’t successfully reach constantly connected consumers without top-to-bottom buy-in from the brands they represent. Employees throughout the organization need to be equipped with the tools they need to interact with consumers on social media sites and maybe even mobile channels. Just as importantly, employees need to understand how the brand’s various marketing channels interact and work together to form a coherent customer experience.

5.    Mobilizing
Old school mobilization meant the deployment of resources to create messages directed at consumers. Now, mobilization means giving consumers, employees and other stakeholders easy access to the tools they need to create content and positively influence other consumers in the constantly connected universe.

For many online marketers, a greater awareness of today’s constantly connected consumersforms a foundation that can be built on to help drive sales and set the stage for the next wave of online marketing opportunities.