Trends for 2009: #16: REAL Engagement: Marketing is something you must do with your customer

In the "old days" (okay, this probably refers to last year for 98% of companies, and little more than 2 to 3 years ago for the remainder) - marketing was something you did to your customers. Maybe you figured out who you were going to sell to and what they needed. You built your product and maybe you tested it on some of them. Then you figured out your pricing and put together fancy TV, print, and radio ads, and you went to battle. You advertised the snot out of your product and hoped that prospects would have a look at your product and become actual customers.

Welcome to 2009.

• No doubt by now you've heard of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and several other networks (albeit, last year I sat at a table with a VP of Sales for an Airline who said: "Facebook, what the f*** is Facebook").
  
• You may have researched a product online and read a review about it, and that may have given you the confidence to actually buy it. If you've planned a trip in the last 3 years you've most likely checked out your destination and hotel in TripAdvisor.com.
  
• If you own an Apple product or a Dell product and you needed product support, you may have hit their forums and found support in droves - not from the companies themselves, but from their advocates (i.e. other customers like you who participate in the forums and are only too happy to help you get the best use out of your computer).
  
• Maybe you've been in Starbucks lately and have used one of their new and nifty little green stir sticks. Where did those come from? From "MyStarbucksIdea.com". That's their social site where Starbucks customers can go online and give Starbucks their best ideas.

The message is clear. Customers don't want to be marketed to anymore. In fact, they won't be marketed to anymore. Customers demand that you engage with them. I mean really engage with them. No wimpy newspaper ads. Get out there on the internet where your customers are and where they are talking about you!

• Build a blog that your President and Executives write on regularly with real comments and stories (a great opportunity for brand building).
• Read and respond to blogs and reviews about your products. Do it like you mean it. If someone complains, dig into their complaint and resolve it.
• Create a review site for your product and make sure people can find it on your site. Participate in those reviews actively. Get your product managers, product designers and even your operations personnel to respond to reviews. Thank people for good feedback. Thank them for suggestions. Take those suggestions to heart and change your product to suit your customers better.
  
• If your product is represented on other sites retail with reviews, get access to those reviews from your retailers and dig into them. Participate in each retailer's forum if they will let you, or feed them answers to help them participate. Use the gold nuggets you get from your channels.
  
• Use your reviews in your ads. Get permission from reviewers to use their comments in your advertising. There is nothing like a great testimonial to help move a prospective customer into being a paying customer.
• Create forums for your customers so that they can discuss your product. You are likely to learn more from this "live focus group" of real customers who are really using your product than you will in thousands of test cycles. Again, be sure to participate and fully engage in the conversations as open and honestly as possible.
  

So, what's a Marketer to do with Social Marketing in 2009? Strategies to take on include those listed above plus a couple of extras:

• Look at advertising opportunities on Social Media sites. There are several advertising agencies and advertising networks who can probably help you do this very effectively and cost-efficiently.
  
• Build a public company blog.
• Build secure internal focused blogs and forums to allow your employees to engage with the company and to allow you to learn more about the delivery and branding of your products.
  
• Read and respond to blogs and reviews about your products.
  
• Create a review site for your product on your site, and participate in it actively.
  
• Get access to reviews about your products from your retailers.
  
• Read public reviews about your competitors product and discern from that a certain amount of competitive analysis.
  
• Use testimonials from reviews in your ads.
  
• Create forums for your customers so that they can discuss your product.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.