By Lianne Wade, Vice President – Customer Insight
Today’s consumers are more in control of the purchase journey , so engaging with them is becoming more critical and challenging than ever before. The emergence of digital and social media has empowered consumers. They use multiple sources for research and consideration; have many choices to select from; and expect companies to provide high-quality service and a personalized experience. To compete, every interaction must be relevant and compelling, based on who the customer is and what they want, in order to engage with them effectively.
Here are 5 customer engagement tips to consider in your next marketing campaign, paired with real-life examples that we have achieved for our clients. These provide personalized and relevant customer experiences, which helped our clients achieve their marketing goals in this dynamic marketing environment:
1. EMPLOY THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR:
Did you know that 95% of decisions are made subconsciously? How do you tap into these unconscious behaviors? People often take short cut methods to decision-making – we are basically lazy – and as marketers, we can leverage these by employing triggers to create the action you desire. This practice is also known as neuromarketing.
The science of human behavior is something social scientists have been studying for years, and they have been proven to persuade and motivate action, in any channel, with any type of audience, B2B or B2C. Here are two triggers that we employed, but there are literally hundreds of them:
Social Proof: We mimic the actions of others who are similar to us to decide on proper behavior for ourselves. For a high technology client, they had already sold 6 other BCBS healthcare companies their software, so we mentioned upfront how we will share with the prospect how these other BCBS’ are benefiting from their software platform.
The Authority Principle: We are more easily persuaded by those in authority or who we look up to. As such, we included several leading analyst firms and industry experts’ quotes, including Forrester and Gartner, to endorse our high technology client.
2. PUBLISH DIGESTIBLE CONTENT:
Value-add information delivered as lists, infographics, and other at-a-glance formats work well in our content-overload environment. Also, provide content which can be used and shared with end users – particularly with B2B prospects – so they can be prepared to start a conversation with their clients.
“Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%.” (Source: Xerox Corporation 2014)
Our client provides insurance for dentists. They needed to educate these professionals about disability insurance to protect their practice – a highly complicated and important (and shall we also say dull?) subject.
We created value-add content that broke down and simplified the subject with the header “5 Mistakes Dentists Make with Business Expenses”. People like lists, and odd numbers are more believable. This clearly got to the heart of what these dentists care about, as many of the recipients downloaded the guide and contacted a rep to learn more!
3. TAKE A 360-DEGREE VIEW:
Appeal to B2B prospects both professionally and personally, since they are people too, to get the engagement and results that you desire. Use actionable insights that you have about your customer to drive the strategy.
Our large financial services client wanted to win back financial advisors who had lapsed, to again offer their retirement plans to their clients. Knowing it is difficult to get back on this short list of preferred providers, we needed to break through and appeal to these advisors in a meaningful way. We used these key insights about the financial advisor to inform our strategy: competitive, bit of an ego, and desire to be helpful to their clients, since it is difficult to start conversations around retirement.
We sent them a personalized New Yorker cartoon. This spoke to who they were as individuals, appealed to their ego, and provided a conversation starter with their customers since they can hang it up in their office – it said “Hi, I’m John Sample. Do you have a minute to talk about their retirement years?” The visual showed two kids: one on a tricycle and our John Sample in a business suit asking this question of his friend. It is funny, but gets to the heart of who they are.
It performed terrifically! The campaign exceeded their sales goal for this hard-to-win-back target and created a lot of buzz – as it opened doors for our client that were previously closed.
4. DIRECT MAIL IS NOT DEAD:
Used in an effective manner, particularly as part of a multi-channel stream, it provides great value. It is tangible, breaks through the clutter, and has staying power, as well as great visibility.
In fact, a study conducted by the U.S. Postal Service and Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making focused on differing response to physical and digital media in the consumer buying process, including intent to purchase. While digital content is processed quicker, physical content evokes stronger emotional response and memory/recall. And, physical content triggered activity in the brain that is responsible for value and desirability for featured products, which can signal a greater intent to purchase.
Consider high-impact dimensional pieces for high-value prospects sent in a two-step incentive process: one-half of the incentive is in the mailing, and the other half is provided when they meet with the vendor.
We did just this for a high technology client who was providing software which created personalized communications, targeting healthcare companies. The mailing included K-cups along with an invitation to meet with a rep, all in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee! Once there, they would receive the other half of the offer – the Keurig machine – and demo the software. It generated great response, including several sales; so much so that the client expanded to other healthcare companies and other industries too.
5. MEN + WOMEN PROCESS INFORMATION DIFFERENTLY:
So it is true. Men and women do think differently, but how do we leverage this in marketing? Men tend to be competitive and respond more to facts and figures, while women typically want to take care of others and are constantly trying balance their professional and personal priorities.
Our client, who offered insurance for dental professionals, had typically marketed their product based on the male persona, yet we convinced them to test a communication which was geared towards female dentists – as more women are now graduating from dental schools than men. It generated a 85% lift over the control! What did we do? All elements, from copy to imagery, appealed to females:
- Included trigger phrases that acknowledge a woman’s greater likelihood to multitask, to feel that others depend on her, etc.
- Included female imagery; including signing the letter from a female rep.
- Research also indicates that women like to hear how others feel: so we included a lift note with a photo and testimonial from another female dentist.
So consider these tips, and employ actionable customer insights to drive your marketing strategy to deliver positive business outcomes. Contact me at Wilde Agency to learn more, including how we can help you develop customer personas to improve the results of your marketing efforts.
E-mail: Lianne.wade@wildeagency.com
Twitter: @liannewade
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