Relationship marketing - Social Marketing Forum

Optimizing the Digital and Social Customer Experience

Since McKinsey wrote about the 'consumer decision journey' and smart B2B marketers started looking at the customer, his lifecycle and his journey first, the attention for that journey has never been higher. In its 2009 article on the consumer decision journey McKinsey wrote "Consumers are moving outside the purchasing funnel—changing the way they research and buy your products. If your marketing hasn’t changed in response, it should". It’s 2013. Yet, less has changed than should have. Time to start a series on optimizing the digital and social customer experience in a holistic digital business perspective. A customer-centric and multi-channel view, based upon the customer journey, in correlation with for instance content marketing as it's called now, the customer lifecycle value (CLV), touchpoints and persuasion/conversion architectures is not new. In B2B marketing we' ve been using it for quite some time. But apparently it's rather new in social media marketing and other … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Customer service, Relationship marketing, Social business, Social CRM, Social media marketing, Touchpoint marketing Tagged With: Bryan Eisenberg, customer journey, Dion Hinchcliffe, McKinsey, touchpoints, W.H. (Hank) Brigman

Why Online Communities are Undervalued – and often Fail

Online communities existed before we even heard about blogs. Since social technologies and platforms popped up, the number of possibilities to facilitate, nurture and engage online communities has exploded. Strangely enough, communities are not given the attention they deserve by businesses. Most of the time, you will find community engagement and management ideas when looking for information on the topic. However, online communities are about much more than that. While we mainly talk about conversations and engagement in social media, community is the true force in a connected era. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community marketing, Relationship marketing Tagged With: Alan Moore, community management, online communities, Tomi Ahonen

The Untapped Brand Advocacy Potential of Loyalists

Brand advocates are among the most powerful sources of social recommendations, word-of-mouth and sales in this social era. However, businesses ignore or forget many possibilities to enhance brand advocacy tapping into the power of specific groups, including loyal customers. 27.5% of marketers even admit they have not mobilized brand loyalists and loyal customers to become active advocates. Furthermore, there is an untapped brand advocacy potential regarding the 'regular Joe' and even the own workforce. As the infographic below by NBRII shows, 20% of businesses don't even have a strategy for customer loyalty (let alone, brand advocacy). The solutions are simply and the reasons to improve customer loyalty are diverse. However, it requires work and planning. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Infographics, Relationship marketing, Word of mouth marketing Tagged With: brand advocacy, word-of-mouth

Get over it! Social media doesn’t owe you a thing!

As the father of identical twins, I wonder if my dad simply grew tired of repeating himself and so decided to keep his lessons simple and few in number. Whatever the reason may have been, he focused on only a handful and he drove them home at every opportunity. By all accounts my father (he’s almost 80) has led a good life and a wall of service plaques and awards attest to his community leadership and contributions. It’s is my father who more than anyone, taught me about community and how it is the core of that good life. He never expected recognition for his efforts. Oh, he got some, but he never expected it or expressed regrets when it didn’t happen. “The world doesn’t owe you a thing son, just remember that.” – Gilbert H. Ducharme … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Opinion, Relationship marketing, Social media marketing Tagged With: Amber Naslund, Facebook, friend, like, online communities, Retweet, RT, social marketing, social media, Twitter

Twitter Customer Service Should not be Lipstick on a Pig

Many major brands now use Twitter as a channel for customer support. The transparency of Twitter means that you are either there, engaging and helping users find answers and (hopefully) satisfaction. Or you run the risk of validating people’s complaints about your products and brands simply by lack of involvement. A good analogy for the use of Twitter for customer service is one I’ve employed before and will do so again now. Let’s say you are out somewhere in a mall or other social setting where there are lots of people around and you suddenly overhear two people loudly complaining about one of your products or services. I would think most of us would want to politely intervene and see if perhaps we might be able to help. Myself, I’d offer a business card with my email address and ask them to contact me so I could investigate the problem. I said “most of us” and perhaps that’s optimistic. Maybe those of us who would be motivated to respond are the type of people who … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Customer service, Opinion, Relationship marketing Tagged With: customer service, customer support, social media, social media monitoring, Twitter

7 Social Marketing Insights

I’m known for turning a phrase now and then. You’ll find them (some of which have been inspired by other, smarter people) scattered through my posts around the web. Today, I thought I would gather seven of them to share with you all in one place. How insightful they actually are is for you to judge, but I do hope this post generates some thought and discussion. 1 - The web is driven by communities Communities laid the foundation for the web and they continue to be its engine. It’s certainly true that once companies developed transaction technology, the web started to develop into a commerce channel and money from that kept building it. However, without communities all you would have is huge strip mall with infinite parking. Understanding how communities grow and interact can help you develop a communication strategy which will work. 2 - The email vs. social debate is a red herring being used by some to drive personal agendas By definition any interaction between two … [Read more...]