More ideas on cultivating customer contribution and creating opportunities for interaction by turning traditional marketing into Marketing 2.0
6. In-person events – These are expensive to put on, so why spend the entire time lecturing on information that’s already in your collateral? Third party presenters can be more interesting, but any lecture can get dreary fast. Give attendees lots of time to interact with you and with each other, while you listens and takes notes. Consider a workshop rather than presentation format so that the entire event is interactive.
7. Trade Shows – This seems like a highly interactive event, but most booth staffers are so focused on doing the demos and spewing the spiel, that the opportunity to listen is lost. (I adore alliteration.) To change the mindset, make it clear you’re at the show to interact with and listen to customers, not just to be seen and heard. Set objectives of specific information you want to gather from booth visitors or people attending your sessions. Ask a few questions or give a short (5 questions max) survey before handing out the tchachkis, or organize mixers and events that have information gathering as an explicit objective.
If a widely open a conversation seems too much of leap, try these by first letting a small group of customers you know well contribute and participate, then open further when you’re comfortable managing a broader conversation.
Have you tried these or other ways to engage customers in conversations? Share them in your comment!
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Turning Marketing into Conversations – Part 2
Turning Marketing into Conversations – Part 1
Spent the day at the Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco. Lots of insightful speakers including JudyFick of Unisys, Jeremy Cooper of Salesforce.com, my friend Gail Ennis of Ominture, and David Satterwhite of newScale.
A few noteworthy quotes:
- To find the buyer, “find out who will get fired if the problem isn’t solved.”
- “If you’re following up on the leads that already have a budget and a time line, you’re too late”
- “Never confuse activity with results” – Judy Fick
- On the importance of metrics in a recession: “When the tide goes out you know who’s been swimming naked.” – Warren Buffet quoted
The big themes:
- Instant information about customer behavior, and instant response
- Sales and marketing alignment and collaboration
- Value creation as part of the sales and marketing processes (see solutions marketing post that touched on this same topic)
- Technology helps create unprecedented visibility and responsiveness – and you need a collection of vendors to cover the entire customer life-cycle. Average # of sales / marketing 2.0 software products shown on presenters’ slides was 8.
A few dozen exhibitors showing all manner of cool software and services for deeper, more detailed, more responsive insight into customers and their behavior. Spoke to some very happy customers of Genius.com, LucidEra, and ConnectAndSell.
More info and some conclusions tomorrow after Day 2.
More ideas about how to transform traditional marketing tools into Marketing 2.0 vehicles.
3. Websites – Don’t hide customer feedback and support in a corner of your site. Place feature request and comment links right on product pages, so that customers can respond immediately to the content they see. Asking a question gets the customer more engaged than downloading a white paper. Involve product management and engineering in responding to the queries. It’s a great way to for them to touch the customers they otherwise rarely or never see. Post the most interesting questions and answers or turn them into additional content.
4. Press releases – What if your PR people became your customers’ and partners PR people? Lots of stories would best be told by someone other than a vendor. (And would be more likely to get picked up for coverage.) Build relationships with your customers’ and partners PR departments to understand how and where they want to be seen, and how talking about your relationship can help with that. Have your PR staff assist partners and customer with replying to PR opportunities.
5. Webinars – Yes, by now, this is a “traditional” marketing tool. But many companies tend to make webinars too one-directional. Use all the interactive tools (and the many webinar hosting services that offer them). Polls, chat, and Q&A are the common set. Use surveys both before and after your webinar. And don’t limit the surveys to questions about the webinar like the all too familiar “Did you find this useful?” Instead, ask questions that help you understand customers or that customers will be interested in too. The latter gives you an excuse for a follow-up contact that actually delivers value.
Have you tried these or other ways to engage customers in conversations? Share them in your comment!
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Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 1
Turn Marketing into Conversations – Part 3
