Are you playing marketing hopscotch? As part of an online panel discussion with other marketing professionals, a superb question was asked by the moderator –if you could encourage marketers to spend more time doing one thing, what would it be?
Outbound marketing – like email? Inbound marketing like content creation? Social media – earned or paid? Advertising, PPC, PR, or events?
To me, the answer was straightforward and didn’t involve any of these tactics.
Start by talking to customers. Listen. Observe. Learn. Ask Questions.
When I meet with new marketing clients, I’m surprised that they don’t spend enough time engaging with customers. They think that marketing happens from their office (or home). Nope – not even close. Like marketing hopscotch, you need to start by speaking with customers. Start at the starting point before you hop, skip and jump around.
Do you understand what pain point you solve? How close are you to a customer’s world, their challenges, and how your brand helps them with their issues?
Conversations with customers are where strategy begins. Understand needs. Feel their pain. Go beyond the words they say. You may think you are selling software, but maybe you are selling peace of mind and assurance. You may focus on your product or service’s features – but the benefits to them is what matters. Features are a detal – important but not dispositive of why they buy.
Don’t jump to tactical discussions until you understand your brand’s role in your customer’s life. Remember – sometimes, the position isn’t apparent. If you never heard this story, learn how Clay Christensen studied what job a milkshake plays for McDonald’s customers here.
Love or Hate?
What do you know about your current customers’ love or dislike about their relationship with your product, service, brand, and company? What can you learn from a lapsed customer who no longer buys from you – why? What changed? Is it you and your brand, or has its market, needs, or situation changed?
The deeper you understand what is and isn’t working – the easier it will be to construct a marketing action plan. But begin at the beginning – with the customer. Marketing hopscotch is an apt metaphor for being strategic – you need to begin at the beginning before skipping through the tactics.
Traits of Great Marketing Professionals
I have worked with some great marketing professionals, and the most consistent behavior is that they stay close to their customers. They find reasons to engage with the people they are marketing to understand their situation more deeply. They build relationships with their customers so that they are better informed where the market is going.
Tips for Engagement
- Set up a schedule for connecting with your top customers and put it on your calendar. Make sure that you have a reason to speak with them frequently. The cadence may vary based on their level in the organization. Bring them value beyond your transactional relationship.
- Ask them to share how they see the market changing. Customers can often give you insight and hints about the coming year based on what they hear inside their organization. A client recently told me that he learned about a problem with their technology and forecasting because he was in touch regularly with a key customer stakeholder. He knew of a lack of responsiveness from his team. Before it festered, he got them to help even though that wasn’t in his job descriptions. This same customer also had a terrific insight about a shift in the marketplace that he saw years before others recognized it.
- Can you talk to the customer of your customer? Sometimes getting deeper into the value chain allows you to learn more about needs. At my encouragement, a client did precisely this and found some outstanding problems with the type of box his product was pack in. His customer didn’t know about the problem, but his client did. Dig deep and see how your product or service fits into a market ecosystem.
Marketers need to stop focusing on tactics. Spend time with customers, and your path forward will become clear. Start with customers. That’s a more strategic approach. Don’t skip around to tactics before you understand the game.
Need help figuring out where to hop, skip and jump?
I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conver?sation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.
