The future is about building several communities full of connections and monetising that rather than creating products and trying to sell them to a bunch of people we are disconnected to. We have forgotten how much social capital really matters as we were busy breeding a couple of generations where human capital was expressed as the sole attribute to have.

I’ve talked a lot about how we have to get up close, intimate and personal with customers. They cost too much to attract and are too valuable to lose. The problem is how we scale that. We are seeing brands and individuals building significant followings and not being able to engage and initiate a cherished relationship, myself included. Its a real head scratcher!

We know and accept that its the density of the network/community not the numbers that matter. We are frustrated with the lack of ability to govern it. We can use IT to listen, identify and deliver customised experiences but we still need to ensure that the algorithmic activity flocks to a common rendezvous with social. The semantic web will create some succor but it won’t provide all the answers. Computers still can’t interpret human emotion, intent and sentiment the same way us humans can.

You can’t do everything that’s a fact, yet we try. Its a big thing for me but last year I learnt a huge lesson; distraction clutters the mind it doesn’t clear it! I spent 2010 trying to clear it. So 2011 for all of us, for all sorts of reasons needs to be about focus. We can’t afford from a cash and time perspective to go down blind alleys and avenues of little reward. Don’t get me wrong we need more ideas than we ever had before, the trick is to keep focused on the goals. I offer five marketing resolutions to guide:

1. Think about building a business community around your brand rather than a database of customers. You will need to encourage and facilitate a more participative and engaged customer in the future. Building a community will not only enable that but encourage the deep relationships you need to create. It does mean being more imaginative and creative.

2. You can’t do everything but what you can do is think about online first and offline second. In the last few years you needed an offline presence to develop an online one, its switched. Think SEO, content marketing, social media, online PR, reputation management and investing more in that website.

3. Get your messaging right. People, even in a B2B environment buy emotionally yet all our marketing literature and sales pitch is built around the physical aspects of our product/service. As there is so much ‘sameness’ out there, people are becoming increasingly interested in emotionally bonding themselves to your brand.

4. Move on from ‘customer service’ to ‘customer experience.’ There is a huge difference and its linked to building a business community. Some would argue that its the only competitive advantage we have left. We know that intense and intimate relationships with customers is of paramount importance. We have gone beyond buying customers through traditional marketing to increasing our loyal customers and that means labour intensive work on a people to people level not abdication marketing!

5. Return on investment. Not just financial returns in fact I don’t mean that. What I mean is increased customer retention, improved customer acquisition, cross and up selling, number of connections, number of interactions, number of influencers in your community etc etc. If you get those bits right, the financial returns will fall out the bottom.

2011 will be challenging. Getting the marketing formula right is a priority. Focusing on the key elements of marketing will help. Its changed radically and so does your marketing activity. That doesn’t mean doing more, it means doing the right things!

Just a short video we produced the lack of randomness in the experience we have with customers and our people!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALDWZ7oa-4g

Hope you enjoy……your thoughts?

Being distinctive defines us. Distinctive is about people (there is that word
again) having a distinct idea of us in their mind. For a lot of companies,
it’s easier to remain indistinctive than to become distinctive! Our product,
even service is probably not as distinctive as it used to be. It’s possible
its competitive edge has been backed into a corner by the plethora of new
products in the market place, or, the bad ones just caught up.

Tom Peters said years ago “Ask yourself what on your turf (local and
global), is clearly unusual about the services you offer.” For me, if we can’t
answer that in five bullet points, we’ve lost the right to be a great business.
Look at the worst bit of your sector, even your closest competitors
and change the customer experience; it at least gives you a stab at the
five points of distinction.

We need to almost forget about our product. It’s great isn’t it? Cheaper
certainly is distinctive but how is being mediocre? Being distinctive now
is about how we use design to differentiate, by building a community from
our clients, being recognized for meaningful work, the passion we inspire
in people, how we engage and build relationships. Get used to it. Don’t
get me wrong it is about developing a sense of currency and curiosity
in parallel, however, the biggest barrier to us identifying what makes us
distinctive is internal not external.

Little question; is your business more like a circus or the waiting room
at your doctors? We really can’t afford to be ignored by the masses and
silent to the few. Don’t be known for everything but something! Distinguish
by identifying our tangibility.

Patrick Dixon the British futurist says “The future is about emotion.” To be able to influence people, we need a deep understanding of what drives them emotionally. Emotions are what our customers want them to be; respect, trust, concern, responsiveness, fun and love. It’s how we make
them feel.

We know that emotions have a significant impact on loyalty and we know it’s a major factor in the buying process and yet, most of the time we ignore it, concentrating on the physical aspects of our business. Look at your website now, where are the deliberate explanations of how you meet your customers emotions? These are more than likely your values.

Emotional reasoning, irrational logic and impatience are virtues. If one of the challenges of business today is attention, then perhaps a good place to start is tapping into people’s emotions. That starched, bland and mundane approach won’t work in the future. And this applies to our people too. They particularly will be seeking out work that is part of something that matters and is meaningful to them. Why? Because they can!

Colin Shaw and John Ivens in their book ‘Building Great Customer Experiences’ quote “Emotions are a major differentiator and are the most underestimated assets available to business today. They can be used to put colour back in a grey world.” I think what you mean guys is that emotions can harmonise and humanise the relationship we have with people and when our product doesn’t really make us different or matter anymore. It’s the only thing we have left, the people experience we deliver internally and externally, and that’s about people being motivated by emotions.

On an individual level, some days we feel we can move mountains, other
days it would be difficult to flip a tidily wink. The point, that’s okay. Emotion
is part of being human, its part of business and we all have those days.
The difference now? We are beginning to recognise it, allow for it and use it
to be more in touch!

I’ve said it many times “all customers are not equal.” I’ve even delivered whole seminars on the topic, but lately I’ve decided I was wrong! All customers are equal especially if you are beginning to build a business community around your brand. How exceptionally arrogant of me to think otherwise.

Customers are equal, they contribute something different to your business. The basis of how healthy your database is should not only be measured by its profit generating capabilities. The benefits some customers bring are not, and should not, be totally profit centred. Sometimes its influence, occasionally it will be knowledge, other times they will act as word of mouth operators. We need to recognise the non financial value adding aspects too.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t focus on the profit generating customers, not at all. What I am saying is that we need to be encouraging all customers to collaborate with each other to ensure the best prospects for everyone rather than pursue the short termism of money! What I have effectively been advocating is for businesses to act like faceless corporations instead of people. I’ve firmly wrapped my own knuckles!

So all customers are equal, just some may, at a particular moment in time, have more of a priority depending on the needs of the business. I accept in times of low sales, you chase the profit/cash generating ones, but its only a temporary measure, If you have an effective customer experience process in place, it means your other value givers are never forgotten and constantly engaged with you. Not all customers will bring you financial value, some will bring influential value…..and that’s just as important!