The Mack & Mark POVBelow you will find a synopsis of Doug White's breakout from the recent
Frost & Sullivan Marketing World event held in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Facilitator: Doug White, MindComet
Thought Leader Panelists included Mack & Mark:
Mack McKelvey, Senior Director of Marketing, XM Satellite Radio
Mark Mendelson, Head of Business Communications, LyondellBassell Industries
Key Take-Aways:How to build and enhance customer relationships across channels including email, online communities, blogging and Web 2.0/social media
How to leverage and incorporate existing communication components and strategies into the digital mix - where and how to start
How to segment and develop relevant digital communications through relationship marketing
Moving People from Customers to Fans Let’s first review the challenge... Mack, “Speaking to the customer is difficult regardless of industry. Everyone has specific reasons for coming to XM - they want to be communicated to in relevant ways, in their language with appropriate mediums. We (marketers) don’t inherently know that data, we have to find it out. Our issue is moving people from customers to fans. First figure out who they (potential fans) are and make it so relevant that they don’t even know they are being communicated to. We are constantly in testing and modeling - we determine places to jump into the conversation.”
Mark, “I’ll speak to BtoB. We are industrial and so are our customers. We sell to large complex organizations. We have to get to segmentation by function. I started out in sales. The sales organization is the bedrock - as marketers we have to ask ourselves, ‘are we helping the sales team?’ The next step is understanding the manifestation - there is a vast array of people the sales organization can’t get to. If (marketing) can help sell, then we are helping. Email, web presence, etc. are designed to help the sales organization.”
Creating Rock Stars & Asset Management Significance
Determine creative ways to procure assets, from within the organization and through user channels. Then determine relevant places to repurpose and place those assets to deliver significant value back to the end user.
Mark, “Our C level is focused on press releases, interviews and how to create ‘rock stars’ - we do that. It is complicated and personal - everyone wants to be in the media, in releases and gain exposure. To allow our team to function efficiently we have to be able to repurpose - taking the interview and placing it in other places such as the website.
Start the Conversation & Get Out of the Way Part of engaging target audience through social media is determining an effective way to start the conversation allowing the end users to then spread the word. It’s also important to establish monitoring and feedback strategies for these channels. Mack, “We look at our subscribers (customers) and create an on-boarding experience based on the initial service transaction. Onboarding is incredibly complex - then we have to keep the customer, which is where it gets difficult. I have to remind the customer ‘why’ he/she should stay - we don’t actually have to do that. We are starting the conversation and then getting out of the way.”
Mack, “We market to 45 white males. We also have to manage to the influencers - children. We all have different needs - my daughter finds out what to listen to through her social networks. We try to encourage the conversation so we don’t have to do direct marketing to the tween audience.”
Mack, “You have to figure out ‘where’ the conversation is happening, even if you don’t do direct marketing through those channels - such as Facebook. You also need to have an overarching customer database to store all of the campaign data that will allow you to communicate effectively.”
The Face of the CustomerTo play off of Keith Pigues keynote earlier in the day, Doug continues the stream of consciousness discussion. Doug, “We (marketers) have to define the goals and customer values prior to developing customer lifetime messaging. We sometimes don’t have the luxury of taking a step back and creating a strategy for messaging - we tend to place communications ad hoc based on deadlines and timing. How are both of you tackling this challenge?
Mack, “Look at the face to your customers - for us its our ‘on-air’ talent. Our subscribers want to interact with them, not with marketing. The talent is having the direct communications. We provide the tools and allow our talent to have the conversations.
Managing ChaosHow are you managing Chaos?Mark, “I’ve seen some spectacular CRM failures in the past. You also have to aware of new legislation - our email is handled out of Europe. There are mechanical issues. What we’ve tried to do is leverage company power centers - for us it is our sales directors. We tend to create small wins and then add on to that strategy.
“One of the biggest challenges in BtoB is employee churn - the databases become way obsolete. I’m for focusing on the customer data first. Every CRM program I’ve ever seen is an upside down pyramid - we ask the sales team to put all of this info in, so that the marketing team can use it. It should be a few people doing the work to support many.”
Don’t Message to Dead PeopleThis is common sense, but the panelists feel there is more to it... Mark, “Don’t message to dead people.” He went on to explain that they were actually doing this because the data in their system was stale and the challenge of keeping up with list hygiene and user preferences.
Doug, “Allow customers to manage their own data. They do it because the value that is reciprocated is important and visible.
Mack, “Poor customer experience leads to poor satisfaction scoring and retention falls suite.
Doug, “Ask your customers how they want to be messaged to.”
Mack, “We are creating a preference center housed online that will eventually migrate into our database. We are going to do some interim marketing and testing based on this.
Mack, “Whenever I got to stay at a hotel or purchase something, if they don’t have a review I won’t purchase. I’m a Marriott reward member - if there wasn’t an opportunity to have a dialogue. Risk v. reward - engaging customers that are most likely to review will be the people with the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ experiences.
Mark, “From a regulatory standpoint we struggle with the same questions. To balance - it’s a common challenge for customers to figure out how to use the product. “How do I use this thing” That’s generally the gap - the customer base needs to receive more information on your product. The future of BtoB is social media and community for dispersing this information. It is possible to create a community around ‘how do I use this thing’ - but you have to disassociate your company, which breaks the legal liability. This is a ‘tight-rope’”
My Final ThoughtsThe way in which consumers find, digest and spread media has changed dramatically and will continue to do so as technology evolves - which also has influence on messaging and communication methods. In order to get in front of the right audience you have to figure out a way to get in front of key influencers and allow others to be referred/influenced as a result; therefore, 'finding' your brand/product/service/etc. There are a lot of different ways of seeding this initial piece including display ads, social media, conversation starters, reviews, etc. It is ignorant to think that people will find your product/video/etc. simply by making it available. It is essential to create a realistic budget for getting things kick started & driving traffic and not spending the entire fund allotment on the development of a widget/site/video/etc...