Relevant Content and a Bit of Privacy—Are Customers Asking Too Much?
One of the most common goals our clients have when redesigning their marketing websites is to increase the number of qualified leads generated through the website. Not a huge surprise, right? Digital marketing, regardless of the form it takes, should move prospective buyers further along in the buying process. The problem, however, is that the way businesses approach digital marketing often does the opposite.
Obviously, business aren’t trying to repel potential customers. But by failing to define what “engagement” means for their target audience and developing a win-win situation where organizational and user goals are both met, businesses perpetuate a downward spiral trying to amass clicks, likes, and newsletter signups.
Voice+Code’s research shows that potential customers:
Are repelled by marketing-speak. But avoiding overt marketing language isn’t enough. Businesses often hugely underestimate the power of language. Message clarity is key.
Establish trust online the same way we establish relationships in the real world. Transparency, data privacy, and security are more important than ever. Your CEO isn’t going door-to-door to explain your commitment to privacy and security—it’s up to your website and digital products to communicate that sentiment. This is accomplished by a combination of what digital products say, how they behave, and what their visuals convey.
Often miss out on important content in their hurry to accomplish a task. Think about how you navigate websites: you are a hurried website visitor, anxious to perform the task you need to perform and get out. Your users are the same way. So not only is message clarity important, how that information is displayed is critical to ensuring website visitors see and process the message.
Are limiting the social media platforms they use and how much time they spend on them. Further, many do not follow organizations, instead only connecting to people they know in real life. In many cases, people are starting to actively curate what media and information they are exposed to. That means getting in front of them is harder than ever.
What does this mean for businesses? Quite simply, current marketing methods have to change. Seth Godin, in his recent book This is Marketing, says, “Marketers make change happen: for the smallest viable market, and by delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people actually want to get.”
If you take a moment to think about your own inbox and the content you’ve consumed today, I’m sure you would agree that most of the marketing messages you receive are not personal or relevant and are far from desirable. In fact, HEY, a new email platform designed by the folks from Basecamp, only allows emails you’ve expressly approved to enter your inbox. It also blocks spy trackers from emails—making it impossible for marketers to know if recipients even open emails (among the other things they track). Great news for those of us who want an uncluttered inbox and appreciate our privacy. Bad news for marketers.
Despite this, customers still do “engage” with digital marketing content. It’s just not in a straightforward, easy-to-measure way—particularly if you care about your customers’ privacy. And the term “engagement” means something different—and as a result must be measured differently—for each organization and the different groups of people who interact with their digital products.
Crafting a digital experience that encourages users to take the actions you want them to starts with aligning your users’ goals with your organization’s goals. A lack of alignment is a surefire way to repel potential customers.
How do you find alignment? It sounds so simple, but it’s surprising how few businesses think to do it when it comes to their digital marketing efforts. The solution is to develop a deep understanding of your customers through primary research. Businesses that truly care about their marketing return on investment conduct research where they immerse themselves in their customers’ world—relying on both one-to-one conversations, as well as observation. Through this research, businesses gain an understanding of what’s important to their customers, how they talk about their challenges, what actions they take before engaging with organizations like theirs, and what content and modes of delivery are the most effective.
Of course, this type of research—and the analysis and strategy that follow—is easier said than done. But the impact on your digital marketing efforts is staggering.
First, your organization gets a better understanding of how a customer interacts with your brand. How they find out about you, what they are feeling as they interact with the organization, and the impact of different touchpoints throughout their experience. Increasingly, organizations are creating customer journey maps to visually plot these different interactions to achieve a shared understanding, as well as uncover challenges and opportunities. Our clients at Voice+Code have found customer journey mapping exercises to be extremely helpful in getting a bird’s-eye view of what are, increasingly, a series of complex interactions.
Second, businesses are better equipped to capture their customers’ attention by mimicking the way they talk. Through research, you know how they talk about their problems, what objections they have, and what information they need and in what sequence. Do not underestimate the importance of language. Many businesses focus on visuals to establish a connection with customers. But language plays an important role in establishing connection, as well.
Finally, by achieving a better understanding of your customer, you can establish better success metrics. Page views and likes are meaningless if you don’t actually generate business. Customer research helps you identify what engagement means for your organization and your customers. These could be opportunities to create interactions or features that don’t currently exist. All the tracking pixels in the world won’t help you provide more value or establish a better relationship with your customer.
Customer research is not a one-off exercise. At Voice+Code, we don’t—and don’t expect to—get everything right on the first try. We measure, learn from our mistakes, improve and measure again. We never stop conducting customer research. It’s hard, it takes a long time, and there isn’t immediate gratification. But for today’s businesses, it is the only process that will actually generate a return on investment.