Marketing has changed. Is the way you use content changing with it?
The core of positive customer relationships is an open, honest dialogue between a customer and its supplier. At Group82, we make that dialogue — the content of that conversation between you and your customers — central to everything we do.
Combined with an evolving dialogue, technology continues to change the mechanics of effective marketing. With less control over messages, how you use your marketing content matters more than ever. You need to actively engage customers with content that offers ideas and perspectives they understand, relate to, find valuable, contribute to, and share with others.
How do you plan conversations that lead to greater sales? Consider the impact of social networking and communications technologies, and companies can only influence the dialogue with customers, prospects and the market-at-large by making sure their content delivers real value. Today, effective marketing must begin with a strategy that is more than just 'telling the right story'. It should consider the new forms of dialogue taking place in the market today and identify the ideas that customers truly value. By doing so, companies can transform their marketing efforts from one way transmissions to real give-and-take conversations that deeply engage customers. Equal parts planning and listening, the right strategy brings together all the ideas or 'content' that you have into a coordinated effort that builds trust and awareness. In today's environment, trust is the key to revenue generation.
Developing and sticking to a strategy can be one of the most difficult tasks in the world of marketing. The pressure from sales, management and other constituencies for 'stuff' can often overwhelm the best intentions. Added to that is the listening side of the equation — being able to adapt to what your customers are telling you — and it's easy to see why many strategies go off track.
At Group82 we understand the push and pull of both sides. Marketing has to provide its users — with actionable materials and support. And it has to be spot-on with a strategy that 'gets it' from the customer's perspective.
