Way back in the dark ages of 1999, the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto – a collaborative piece of business literature - proclaimed that ‘markets are conversations’. It was true then and it still is today.
However, seventeen years on, so much communication is the antithesis of conversation. From Prime Minister’s Questions to Rent-a-Panel on any news channel, we hear diametrically opposing views expressed without any attempt at dialogue.
This disregard for conversation is also rife in marketing, but not because businesses don’t care about their customers. Many brands try to engage in discussion with customers both online and offline. Many want to build relationships, but too often they lack necessary listening skills. And what sort of relationship is it where you don’t actually pay attention to your potential partners?
Despite their good intentions, many businesses are still communicating with customers haphazardly, without realising they are undermining their own efforts. As a few pointers to help you avoid such pitfalls, I’ve here explored four ways brands often betray their lack of conversational skills.
Listen to me!
Brands proudly broadcast ‘our news’, and you can almost hear the internal requirement to ‘deliver our proposition’ with seemingly no regard to the people receiving the communications. Like walking into someone else’s party and standing on the table with a loud hailer, you might get some people’s attention for a short while, but you’ll also see plenty of backs turning away.
Brand news can be interesting, but only up to a point. Talking and talking without recognising or responding to your customers’ signals will soon deliver diminishing returns.
Thinking people care about your brand like you care about your brand
The volumes of communications we all receive show no signs of abating; notifications from social platforms, reminders, up to 100 emails a day for many office workers. It’s a miracle anyone reads marketing emails at all. Even among ‘fans’ or those registered for competitions or newsletters, most probably don’t open any given email you send; still fewer click on the content or actions you’ve so carefully crafted.
Many customers will accept regular emails from brands, but attention spans are getting still shorter. Brands simply have to be relevant, and (thinking mobile first) immediately and personally relevant to their customers to command attention.
Getting wires crossed
Departmental silos or out-of-date customer data handling can render attempts to be personal or relevant almost impossible. I recently received email and text messages asking me to service a car that I handed back to the finance company nine months ago. Clearly, there was no data interface between the finance arm and service teams. Similarly, I was once offered ‘tailored’ holiday deals for mid-June with flights from Bournemouth Airport, ignoring that I have two children at school and live more than two hours from Bournemouth (Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Heathrow are all closer).
“Big Data” can enable businesses to be ever more personal and relevant, but a brand using inaccurate, incomplete or outdated information can look completely incompetent.
Not paying attention
Too often campaigns and communications are reviewed at a macro-level. Phrases like ‘open rates above industry averages’ or ‘record numbers of engagers’ are reasons to be pleased. But do you know how many people opened more than one email? Or which of your four ad executions they’ve seen? Who clicked on which content links? And how did you treat any of these people differently? They put their hands up; they offered you information and insight to help you build a better rapport. Did you ignore them?
Don’t just evaluate campaigns by the different communications you send, but consider how the real people you’re communicating with have paid attention, or not.
Building customer relationships demands the very human skill of conversation; listening to and responding to others in real-time. Great conversationalists are both interesting and interested, they make you feel important and that your opinions matter. They want to know what you care about, so they can develop common ground with you. It’s not rocket science, but in marketing today it’s sadly more the exception than the rule. Brands could truly stand out if they try, by being more relevant, personal and human.
By Chris Moody, planning director at Indicia
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