The past few years have seen a seismic shift in the ways that consumers interact with brands. The 24/7 energy for everything from e-commerce to delivery services to news outlets has increased exponentially — and that means customers’ expectations for how and how quickly businesses engage with them has risen dramatically as well.
In today’s Now Economy, customers expect on-demand convenience, real-time support, personalized service and memorable brand experiences. What marketers are now realizing is that trying to achieve those many goals with traditional marketing tools is a lose-lose proposition.
Saying No to Noise and Nuisance
It might be tempting to assume that the best way to grab a customer’s attention against the competitive din is to reach out on every platform imaginable. But you’d have more competition than you’ve bargained for: the average customer is bombarded by up to 10,000 brand messages every day, according to the American Marketing Association.
Customers won’t lean into the cacophony — they’ll tune out. And that’s especially true if the messaging feels haphazard or inauthentic. 65 percent of customers report that brands send them too many irrelevant messages. And a Blue Research report found that 94 percent of customers discontinue brand relationships if the messaging is off base.
Scrambling to reach every potential lead on every possible device without a unified plan of action will alienate your customers. If they’re receiving irrelevant, mass-produced messages that don’t resonate with them personally, then you’re likely to end up filtered into their junk mail or put on the spam caller list.
While any marketing automation tool can help you reach customers, connecting with them is a different skill altogether — and one that only a modern growth marketing platform can support.
Mastering the Art of Omni-Channel Conversation
Modern growth marketing technology is different than its predecessors, because it starts with marketers’ best assets — their creativity, their inventiveness, their deft ability to turn on a dime — and deploys them at scale, across every communication channel available.
The noted distinction is that instead of feeling like they are juggling a handful of fragmented marketing channels, marketers build a cohesive, omni-channel environment in which to connect with consumers and steer their purchasing decisions.
For instance, traditional marketing automation tools might send a customer a promotion for an upcoming sale across multiple channels. But the promotions are likely to be identical, with no customization based on factors, such as where the subscriber prefers to engage, or what the individual’s specific interests are.
In contrast, a growth marketing platform can create personalized, 1:1 communications, based on whether the individual opened a message sent through another channel, rather than annoying the consumer with the same message across multiple devices.
If your email went unopened by a segment of users, you can then follow up with a personalized text message to make sure they don’t miss it. Or, customize the promotion by offering a prospect a special deal on a product category she’s purchased before.
Growth marketing focuses on thoughtful communication that ties into what your customers are really looking for — ensuring that they’ll actually listen.
It’s important that marketers take a step back and ask themselves the tough questions: How can we look past short-term metrics, like likes and views and clicks, and impact the bigger picture? How can we embrace our creativity with the help of marketing technology, not eliminate it? And, ultimately, how can we stop spamming people and start truly connecting with them?
Want to learn how to build meaningful relationships with your customers? Download The No-Nonsense Guide to Achieving Omni-Channel Relevance to discover how marketers can transform their strategy and personalize messaging at scale across multiple channels.
