Archive for the ‘Networking Resources’ Category

Customer relationship marketing is powerful in theory, but troubled in practice. We need to take time to figure out how and why we are undermining our own best efforts.

Perhaps we’re overlooking the fundamental elements of a good customer relationship program. With the means to connect with customers easily, maybe we’re rushing to cash in on the potential rewards, while forgetting the essentials of all relationships: intimacy and trust.

Close examination reveals that relationships between companies and consumers are suffering. U.S. satisfaction rates are at an all-time low. Complaints, boycotts and growing unhappiness with big corporations are strong indicators that most CRM isn’t working.

Ironically, the very steps marketers are taking to build relationships with customers are often responsible for destroying these connections. Companies may delight in learning more about their customers and providing services to please them, but customers are fed up. They’re tired of irrelevant survey questions, overwhelming product choices, features they’ll never use in phone plans and cars, and rebate-driven buyer reward programs.

The New Frontier: Mining the Internet

With the proliferation of online stores that complement traditional outlets, companies now have a tremendous source of information about consumers’ preferences. Because a traditional store may not always have a product on its shelves, purchase results are not always a good measurement of desires. Online stores can track consumer demand patterns more precisely, as they offer extensive ranges of products to national and global customers.

The web is more than a sales channel; it is a powerful means of collecting data in real time. The Internet is truly the new frontier in connecting with the customer, offering a huge opportunity for companies to improve customer relationships.

The New Social Marketing: Buzz and Word of Mouth

Where does marketing enter the mix? Some experts claim the old days of “push” marketing are over, where a company shoved a one-way message to customers via print or TV. Corporations are asking themselves just how much return on investment there really is from a 30-second Super Bowl commercial.

Consumers are turning away from media and, instead, tuning into each other. Engagement and word of mouth marketing are the buzzwords of this new era. Customers are doing their market research online and listening to each other. Unfortunately, many marketers continue to look at engagement in a one-sided way.

Corporate blogs have become an excellent resource for CEOs and others to connect with customers in a personal manner. In spite of the possible pitfalls in opening two-way communication between the public and employees, there is much to be gained by being personable, accessible, authentic and transparent.

Customers are already communicating with each other online about products and experiences with your company. If you can join the conversation in a real way, in real time, you’ll have an advantage over those who remain silent and inaccessible behind corporate doors.

Now there is finally a way to discover what customers want, and a way to connect with them authentically. But there are risks involved in being honest and transparent. Will you and your company take the risk?

Just in case you missed it… the Web has changed.

I think a little history of the Internet is in order to grasp the big picture. Social networking began with the telephone and it’s proliferation into new media included the BBS. I ran a BBS (a computer people could connect to with dial-up) in the early 1980′s.

The Internet was much different than the Web is today. There was no graphics… it was totally text based and everything was dial up. All you could do was basically post to a newsgroup, post messages on some BBS’s and send email. Internet Marketing as we know it today did not exist.

In time though – a few brave souls ventured out of the shadows and began marketing within the newsgroups. This started wars between the “Purists” and new “Marketers” that I still remember to this day.

You see, the Purists considered the Internet to be their own little playground. They viewed anyone selling something as evil. After all… Marketers had the TV, the Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, etc, etc as an avenue in which to sell their crap. “The Internet is ours” was their battle cry.

They viewed the Internet as a way for them to communicate with each other without having to wade through all the BS advertising – and they could control what was being said. When the evil “Marketer” entered the picture, this all changed – and it changed quickly.

Once the evil Marketer had discovered the Internet as a new marketing medium, the “Purity” of the Internet, newsgroups and BBS’s was destroyed forever.

The Internet was now becoming just another medium for Marketers to sell their wares. It was inevitable and only a matter of time before this happened. But the Purists fought it tooth and nail.

The Newsgroups and BBS’s were now inundated and overrun with advertising. There was so much spam that you could hardly follow a thread or make sense of it. The thread may have started out discussing a subject as “Microsoft DOS” as it’s first post… but it was hard to make sense of it as the evil Marketers would post “off topic” spam ads trying to sell their wares throughout the threads.

As we all know things have changed a lot since those “Caveman” days… the evil Marketers persevered and the Purists lost the War (or did they?)

Jump to present day…

The Purists did not really lose – they just lost a battle ten or fifteen years ago, but they have recently won the War and staked their claim on the Internet as belonging to them with Web 2.0.

Just in case you missed this “coup d’ etat” – give some serious thought to the current environment on the Web and Social Networking specifically. The Web no longer belongs to the evil Marketer. It is back in the hands and control of the Purists and they are once again controlling the conversations.

I know… it sounds like a bunch of BS, but for the most part it is true.

The difference is the Purists have discovered a way to once again “control” the conversations they want to have, while at the same time make a profit from these discussions (i.e. social networking communities).

Welcome to Web 2.0 and Social Networking.

I do not consider myself a Internet “Purist”… I’d fall more into the “Evil Marketer” category. This being the case, like you (if you are an Evil Marketer too) I have to adapt and change the way I do things or I will soon fall to the wayside and die a slow death.

Like the saying goes, “When in Rome… do as The Romans Do” was never a truer statement than it is today.

The way you sell things and market has to change – you are now in Rome.

Marketing as we know it today on the Web is dying a slow death – but it is happening fast. Only those who adapt and change will survive.

The Web 2.0 Marketer will survive this “coup d’ etat”.

Interruption Marketing has lost out to Participation Marketing and the Web 2.0 Marketer will prosper with these changes. It is no longer about forcing our messages down the throats of people – they get enough of that with all the other advertising mediums. It is all about authority, conversations and participating within discussions that other people deem important – not what you feel is important.

Seth Godin has been telling us this very same thing for a few years now – but a lot have not listened.

Why is this? Because it takes work and discipline (and change) to make relationships and participate in meaningful conversations. It is easier to do what I would call “method of the day” or “hit and miss” marketing – at least in the short run. But that is all it is… marketing for the short haul with no regard to the direction the Web is moving.

Like Seth Godin, Jack Humphrey has been telling Marketers they need to adapt and change their marketing methods for years now with Social Power Linking. Jack saw this “coup d’ etat” coming before most and began joining in with the “conversations” while most of us were still doing our marketing basically the same way as the “evil Marketers” of past (and current) – cramming and forcing our message down our visitors throats.

I have posted before on Social Bookmarking and Social Networking and the success I have had with these methods. You can view other posts on this blog and see the results I have had by simply joining in and creating “conversations”.

This is not a fad or a “method of the day”… it is here to stay.

With the direction the Web is heading (we are really already there) – Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Conversation Participation with links from and pointing to those conversations is the key to being successful for the Web 2.0 Marketer.

So don’t rebel against the “coup d’ etat” – come on it, the water is fine.