A brand manager told me yesterday what I suggested to him was a great idea, but there was a problem: “How do we show that we care? And how do we reply to all our clients? It’s not plausible!” he said. The answer is very simple. Reply to each single client that says ”I love your coffee” or “I like your shoes”. Simple right? I believe that the world is very simple. Simplicity is key in everything, yet we as human beings make it complicated. I know it’s very-very time consuming. Creating content and replying to people takes time and energy. That’s why there are online community managers.
Digital marketing, social media and content marketing is like getting into a long term relationship. It’s not a one night stand. Do you think a woman would feel special if you show to her that you actually care and want to marry her? Do you think she would be loyal to you? Or do you think if you have a one night stand with a girl she would be loyal to you? I don’t think so. If we treat clients like a one night stand, how do we expect them to treat us like they are in a relationship with us? I hear customers complain to me saying that clients are not loyal. I always tell them that clients will treat you like you treat them. The same principal applies in business. If we don’t take our clients seriously somebody else will, and to make it more clear by somebody else I mean our competitor. Building an amazing brand takes a lot of time and effort. We need to actually care about our clients because like I said in my previous blog article, clients are oxygen!
We can show our clients that we actually care by doing things, not by merely saying, but by doing them. Everybody can talk a good talk but very few do the actual work. I used to talk a lot, like a lot in my personal life. I talked and talked and talked until one day I got sick and tired of myself talking but doing nothing. So here’s a very simple strategy that brand managers can implement: reallocate their budget from TV advertising to hiring two online community managers. Their job would be to reply to every single person that tweets or comments on your Instagram or Facebook with a thank you comment. Everybody? YES, everybody. Every single human being! Even if you have 1 million customers, every single person must get a response from your brand. Let’s say Sarah just tweeted to YOU that she loves your coffee. Are you going to just stand there blank? That’s disrespectful and RUDE!
“How can I reallocate my budget?” you might ask. Well, stop two TV ads that you run that nobody watches and nobody cares about, and use that budget to hire people so they can start showing your clients that you care! It’s very simple – we need to stop being romantic about business. I can hear questions in my head that you might ask on how and how and how are we going to do this… Please, take a step back and think about it seriously. Maybe you don’t put billboards on the road, maybe you don’t place online banners, maybe you don’t spend on advertising telling people how great you are, or promote your special offer that your competitor advertises.
Just think of this please: as an individual, what do you do when you drive? What do you do when you are on social media after 17:00? Do you watch TV ads? Do you click on adverts? How do you feel when a brand responds to you when you comment on their social media posts? I know one thing – when somebody responds to me online I feel amazing, I feel special and I’m definitely spending my money with that brand and the next time I’m going to buy that product.
Share your opinion in the comments below, it would be great to read your opinion.
