Advertising Business Consultants

We are at the end of 2014.

Therefore it is a good moment to do predictions about what will be the major marketing trends in 2015 

As any other prediction (especially speaking about marketing) they will be wrong probably but it is worth a try.

1) Content marketing

Content is already a key factor in marketing and it will continue to be even more in 2015. Consumers are attracted by content and engaged by personalized content  There will be a huge effort by companies to empower their content marketing trying also to add a high level of customization

2) Visual marketing

Content is not only text. Nowadays an image speaks more than a text. So far visual marketing has been considered something connected to corporate image but now businesses must be able to communicate also through images. Pinterest and Instagram already showed their role in marketing in 2014 and there will be more next year.

3) Mobile

If it was true in the past that everyone had a PC, now it is definitely true that everyone has a mobile phone (and most of them a smartphone). And everyone is using more and more it as unique access to Internet. Companies will need mobile content. It doesn’t mean the “mobile” version of the Web content, it means something different because accessing content through mobile is a completely different experience

4) Customer emotions management

CRM (Customer relationship management) changed a lot in the last year. Support doesn’t mean anymore simply helping current and potential customers, it is really a sales force. But the approach will be more and more customized and a big role will be the management of customer’s emotions. As everyone knows emotions have the primary role in the purchasing process

Let’s update at the end of 2015 to see if at least one of the prediction will be right.

And if not? We are marketers we are used to change opinions

CRM is the process that creates a relation between a customer and a company through a product/service and describes how this relation should be managed

Usually everyone focuses on the first phase when you have to attract the customer and increase the conversions and therefore sales. 

After the purchase everything seems to be around the word “Support” and most of the companies believe that through a good Support and Service we can keep the customer.

This is definitely true but it is a necessary condition but often not sufficient.

Purchase is a human decision let’s try to analyze what happens in the human mind during that process.

Mostly of the purchases are emotional with a little rational component related more on things like an affordable price, features but undoubtedly the emotion rules the purchase process.

We consider the purchase like the decision to marry someone. We noticed each other, we dated to know each other a little bit, we fall in love and finally we marry.

The first period after the marriage is a honeymoon. So everything is perfect, if there are problems we can go over them, but after a while the excitement fades away a little bit.

The customer bought your product/service and he has been using it for a while. At the beginning there was excitement but after some time customer changes relationship with the product/service. He begins to criticize it if it doesn’t perform very well, the relation with the company is more  demanding, he cannot forget the little troubles he could have.

So how the company should react to that?

We believe support and service must be different for a new customer and an old one.

A new customer aims is to keep the excitement so relation must be mainly emotional, we need only to avoid disappointments but it is easy to manage. This is the also best period to try to sell something new. We need to think to that customer like a honeymoon: avoid disappointment, be enthusiastic, have fun. 

An old customer is different, he is more rational, he is demanding more, he begins to think that the first love is gone, he wants more reasons to stay with the company. He could be happy but he is not in love anymore, so he can criticize and sees the things without the filter of the honeymoon.

Now he is asking attention and we must provide it very fast otherwise he begins to look around to see if he can find something better.

To the new customer we can try to sell any new product we have. To the old one we need to sell only what he needs.

We need to make able the support process to act differently based on the customer we have in front of us.

New

• Keyword: excitement
• Support: fast to avoid afterthought
• Focus: selling
• Emotion Focus: joy and gratitude
• Support Role

Old 

• Keyword: disappointment (also without reasons)
• Support: rational and effective
• Focus: taking care 
• Emotion focus: hope and appreciation
• Support role: caregiver

The common definition of knowledge is “facts and information acquired by a person by experience or education”. Pretty generic but knowledge is the main thing that makes human being so advanced and effective.

The question here is if there is a relation between knowledge and business success. The answer is very simple: without knowledge there is no business so therefore there is no business success.

A business is an entity that provides to potential customers products and/or services that are created, realized, designed with the knowledge of the business owners.

Without the knowledge of the people that created, developed and that are running the company there could not be a business because there is no product and/or service

So it seems clear that knowledge is the base on any business (like it is the base of any human activities) and the reason of that is because through your knowledge you use your skills to perform what the customers needs.

We must pay attention that there are two knowledge that are equally important: the product/service knowledge and the customers’ knowledge. Sometime businesses have an outstanding service or product but it doesn’t fit customers’ needs and they fail. And sometime businesses are successful with a crappy service only because this is what customers need.

So the combination of knowledge of what we can do and of the need we can satisfy is the base for any success and we must have both otherwise it is an issue.

So far everything seems clear but what happens when the company expands his business? 

Usually the knowledge and the skills are focused on the business owner(s), the person that had the idea, started the business and they made it successful. But when the company becomes bigger, that knowledge must spread out over the spine of the entire company, because the new employees don’t have at all that knowledge.

And this is often an issue that block or even damage any attempt to expand the company.

Marketing companies usually propose to businesses to expand but they don’t care most of time if the company can stand an expansion. And we are not speaking about find and hiring new employees or being able to produce more, we are speaking about the biggest issue of all: the knowledge management.

A company can expand only if it is able to clone itself becoming an unique organism able to have the same DNA. There are many analogies between a company and an organ.

An organ is made by cells, all of them able to do their tasks with the same skills. For example if the liver is damaged is able to heal taking new cells that already know what and how to do.

A business should be like an expanding organ: able to incorporate new cells that are already able to perform. You can do that only if you are able to share the knowledge of the first cell of the organ.

You had a great idea. It can become a business but it is still not.

An idea is a start (without it nothing can start) but it is not a point of arrival. To develop an idea and making it viable and profitable (which means transform it into a business) you need a plan. Don’t think the plan is something you need to give to others, the plan is something you need to order all the crazy (and probably creative) ideas you have in your mind. Because until you are not able to create an order in your creativity, you have no chance to realize really what you thought.

A lot of times in our experience they ask a business plan to get a loan, to present to the bank, to support an investor and so on but mostly of the times we answer that the business plan is needed for the entrepreneurs because it helps them to have clear vision on how, what and when.

How: it means the way you can realize what you thought. We want to create an Italian fast food able to serve fresh pasta in 1 minute. Wonderful idea! But how do you think to cook a pasta (that needs 5 minutes) in 1 minute. So you need to specify how you want to do that

What: it means the exact thing you want to realize. It seems strange asking yourself what but sometimes the idea is a dream and when you awake, you find out you were thinking something different

When: we can have the idea to go to Jupiter, it is nice but when is this possible? Probably in 100 years so our wonderful idea is useless. Timing is important

And most important of all: for whom?

I had the idea to create a pen for Asian people that use the left hand but lives in Western countries (because they write with Western alphabet). Nice idea! But how many customers can you get? And how easy is reachable your target?

This is a simple summary of what a business plan must be able to focus and describe. More will follow

Lately everything seems to be social. Many companies (especially small businesses) understands that social marketing is crucial for them.

They are still thinking how to improve their websites and now it seems that corporate websites are old and social media are the new frontier: is that true?

Should I trash my company website and do everything social?

First of all there is a big difference between the corporate website and the social networks. Corporate website are top down information channels. They are perfect channels to be found (and for this reason SEO is so important), the best way to show your products/services and the perfect approach to attract potential new customers.

Corporate websites must be updated regularly but they are not a way to dialogue with customers

Social networks are really different: the communication channel is down-top and also top-down (customers they do questions, they do comments, they participate to the published content), they are not showrooms, they are frameworks where companies can connect to their customers and potential customers. They have the potential to start viral mechanisms (websites don’t): we underline potential because it is not true that you do a tweet and that becomes a trend….

Many customers think that going on social is easy to do (even easier than publishing a corporate website) and doing that they will become popular, they will create a community without no effort: big mistake!

What do you need to be effective on social?

1. Content is different: corporate websites they need a clear, understandable content because there is no dialogue with customers. Social need a content that is interesting, easy to share and able to create questions. If a customer read your content and has nothing to say, he will say nothing…
2. Viral is only potential: you cannot control the viral mechanism, users do. The content and your presence can help you to go viral but don’t think it is easy. Luck has his role here
3. Customers ask questions and they expect an answer: websites are static, social networks are not. You need to dialogue with your audience otherwise you can lose them. 
4. Negative feedback is allowed: website is like your store where you reserve the right not to serve someone. Social is a public place where everyone should be allowed to say their thoughts. You can limit your audience freedom but this could be like a boomerang because closing the communications means that customers don’t feel free to speak and they don’t communicate with you anymore. Ready to manage a negative feedback?

Social marketing has a huge potential but it needs really more daily effort than the corporate website and a different mental approach.

Social marketing is therefore more human intensive: managing your social networks need more time (and sometime money) than finding the best web design agency to publish your awesome corporate website and then update it sometime

It is someone weird that sometime a new technology framework increases the need of human capabilities and resources instead of adding more automatism: this is the reason why we have not been replaced by robots so far