As many of you know, I am working on my master’s degree right now. In one class called “Services Marketing” we are reading a book called Branded Customer Service by Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart (affiliate link). Now, business books have a tendency to bore me. They usually repeat the same thought a hundred times hoping to get that point to sink into the mind of the reader — drives me up the wall. But I have found nothing but inspirational clarity in its pages. It’s nothing I didn’t already know, merely made some nice connections.
Just a Tool
One chapter called “Generic Customer Service Isn’t Enough Anymore” explains how customer service cannot be a process. Signing a generic thank you letter and expecting that to be enough doesn’t fly anymore. Your CRM system, like your PPC management systems, is just a tool. At the time of this book’s publishing social media had nowhere near the strength it has now so they couldn’t have made the same connection. However, the same thought was there. It’s the people that matter when the customer is making the purchase.
The power of a brand lies in the people representing the brand. Social media today is a tool to help online businesses get up to the same level as the brick and mortar stores by putting that personality to the brand. Social media platforms like Twitter allow a company to reach out to customers in both good times and bad. Some companies have figured this out, most haven’t. It’s about the relationships you build, the responses you give, and the dedication you show to the end user. It’s putting the customer’s satisfaction first, at any cost to you. Go out of your way to meet your promises and the reward is more than any marketing push that can ever be designed.
What the authors state is that a big brand has the upper hand in almost everything to do with that product. They have more revenue to spend more on advertising. But guess what? Advertising isn’t everything. While advertising is the push, it’s the relationships that make the difference. At this point, most internet marketers would go into how you have to focus on social media and customer service, but this post has another purpose. Just as search engine marketing is a balance, marketing is a balance. When your company starts a new online marketing push, remember one thing: traditional advertising is not dead.
Creating Interest with Traditional Media
Someone asked me recently, “How do I get more impressions? No one is searching for my product!” The answer was simple: advertising. Word of mouth is always going to be the most trusted and cheapest form of advertising but it is so hard to come by, even with social media. People still have to learn about your product. You have to be able to tell them that you have something to solve their problem. Advertising is still one of the only ways to get a new product in front of consumers.
So we aren’t a captive audience anymore. It’s harder to get the consumer’s attention, but does that mean you should give up? No! Utilize everything you have. Don’t get singularly focused on the “new” area of marketing, thinking that is going to solve all of your problems. Marketing is a whole strategy and for it to work at it’s best, each part has to work with the others. The whole is always going to be more valuable than the sum of it’s individual parts.
Go For It
Don’t discount traditional media just yet. Focus your precious marketing dollars on a whole package. Get people interested by finding the people that will be interested and be where they are. Marketing plans are not one size fits all. Be creative. You’ve got that great idea, now shout about it to the world any way you can. Go for it all.
