Marketing & Growth
It’s too easy to forget why we do what we do. We’re distracted by logos, colour, budgets, planning, ads and if the media will ever feature our business.
All of that makes a difference, but we shouldn’t forget the purpose behind what we do.
Whether we are selling, buying, changing or leading – we can never afford to lose sight of the outcome.
‘Are we succeeding?’ should be the most asked question.
Why do most call centre’s seem out of touch?
Is it the robotic voices that ask you to reveal your personal details out loud on public transport?
Could it be when they pretend to check with their supervisor before coming back with ‘no, we can’t do that’?
Or is it when we are transferred to 5 different departments before someone can help?
The gap
One overlooked reason why our customers become so frustrated with our service is how we structure our teams.
The people tasked with delivering and improving what we offer (marketing) are completely separate from the team that helps support that offer (customer service). In fact, they’re not only separated on the organisational chart, but often by countries and time zones too.
As a marketer, the best thing you can do to truly understand your user’s experience is not to spend time on social media listening, send out surveys or cold call customers – it’s to spend one day in your support centre.
Suddenly, you will see the frustration gap. You’ll see why quality support staff are essential to any business and why so many businesses fail.
You’ll see where potential customers drop out, why carts are abandoned and how a 1-step process can morph into 20.
The positive: we can fix it.
What are you doing to close the gap?
Generalisations are usually accurate.
— Sean Blake⚡ (@seanblake26) November 5, 2013
See what I did there?
It’s true, though. Most of the time, most of the people will act the way we expect.
However most of the time we aren’t trying to get most of the people to do what we want. (to change their thinking, perceptions, behaviours)
We usually target very specific segments, commonly referred to as niche’s. They’re the kendo club, the amateur cartoonist or karaoke restaurant enthusiasts.
Most of the time, those people are weird. Different to the norm.
Generalisations are useful, but let’s keep in mind who we’re really trying to connect with.
You chase, advertise, pitch and door-knock. Then, finally, the customers start coming in.
We celebrate, set the next sales target and repeat.
But wait, what about those new customers? Did they get what they wanted? Did they buy something else? Do you have their contact details? What was their experience like?
We forget that it’s so much easier to retain customers who are already inclined to buy from us (based on past behaviour).
Instead, we search for the new, unconquered land of more. More targets + more ads = profit. Right?
We can’t afford to treat a transaction as the finish line. It’s only the beginning.
Marketers must cast off the Indiana Jones mentality and focus on delighting the customers they worked so hard to persuade.
Looking for more sales isn’t bad, but your previous customers are important too.
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The Growth Hacker Marketing movement is gaining momentum. ‘Growth Hacking’ isn’t the easy way to reach your customers, because that doesn’t exist.
It’s the recognition that the most successful new startups don’t rely on big media and advertising budgets to reach their customers. Instead, they target precisely the right segment.
Communities of people who naturally look our for a type of product you offer.
This slideshare includes some of the tools we can all use to optimise our marketing. I hope you find it valuable.
My recommended reading list includes a book on Growth Hacking by Ryan Holiday. It’s a great read.
As cavemen (and women) we stuck together. Or tribe was our family and without one you didn’t have protection, food or connection.
Now our tribes are our passions. It’s the stand up board riders, banjo players, local tennis club and yoga class.
If you can align your business with a tribe and connect with that community on a personal level (not selling to them) you can totally change the way your fans think about you. If you contribute to the tribe, you’re one of them.
You can earn trust by being authentic. By being human. Where’s your tribe?
Join my tribe: Subscribe.
We know it’s wrong but we can’t avoid it. When we make new products we always bring our own interests to the table.
‘Those people don’t use Twitter.’
‘We should charge 99c. That’s how Apple price their apps!’
‘Our market prefers to contact us on Social Media.’
Of course, these assumptions are based on ourselves, and we try hard to apply them to our market because we desperately want to be our target market. But we’re not.
That leaves us with two choices. Drop the assumptions and make products for the market (not like us) or keep making products that we like and go bankrupt.
The 80/20 rule is one of the most well-known theories of management and marketing.
20% of your customers, messages, employees or time give you 80% of sales, conversions and output.
It’s ironic that this is one of the rules we get wrong so often.
Why? We chase our losses. It’s a common reason for problem gambling where we fail to recognise what’s causing us so much damage.
Every time you ignore the evidence that your social media marketing is draining your time, or that your sales mainly come from a demographic you don’t particularly like, you chase your losses.
Refusing to accept where your 20% is and cutting out the ineffective 80% is a quick road to disappointment.
Let’s be more honest with ourselves and make sure our efforts are spend in the most valuable places.
We often forget that our customers are just like us. They are perceptive and intelligent.
So why do we treat them like extra work? Why do we sigh and moan about how much stress they cause us?
Let’s choose optimism over cynicism.
Serve them like you would serve your own family, because the easiest way to lose a customer is to treat then like one.
We’re used to advertising that’s full of stereotypes, poor humour and irrelevant imagery.
This one’s different and there’s 2 reasons why it works so well:
The biggest thing to take away from this ad is that simplicity works and we should always focus on how the product makes you feel.
The problem with neutral messages (ignored by your audience) is that they aren’t actually neutral.
Every time we interrupt someone’s day with our message we are asking for permission. Permission to get inside their head and prove that we have something to offer them.
Too many times we fail to offer anything of value. And each time we fail, we don’t just get another free go. We lose some, if not all, of the influence we once had.
It could be that our target is too big (not targeted) or, more likely, the idea sucks.
When I watch a mediocre TV ad, I not only ignore it’s message, I actively detest the brand forever. “What a waste of time,” I think to myself.
Your audience does the same. Whenever we interrupt a colleague with useless news or complain about trivial frustrations we lose the permission to do it next time and the opportunity is lost.
Communication is not a right, it’s a privilege we can’t afford to waste.
We all spend time and money on different ways to get customers or to keep them.
But how do we know what works? Many assume that spending more money on advertising is the answer to all business problems.
But many times we fail to measure how effective each message is and, usually, we find out that we aren’t breaking even on each ad we buy.
Turning the tap on harder when the pipe is leaking is only going to make the leak worse. The truth is we might be better off handing out the money on the street.
So make sure you know, really know, where you’re leaks are and understand that more doesn’t always equal better.
Sean Blake Blog