There was a post which we wrote around 7 years back which stressed on how Traditional Marketing techniques can help to retain customers & also acquire new customers. 7 years is a very long duration 🙂 & most of those techniques are now outdated/expensive and marketing has taken a new route i.e. The Digital route.
Social Media is now playing an important role in “customer buying behaviour” & customer-sentiment echoes about your brand and might affect “buying behavior of prospective customers”. How irritated do we feel when we get an un-wanted email about deals from companies e.g. Unmarried person receiving deals about diapers etc. Today’s age is more about Understanding the consumer & utilizing information we have about the customer [Buying Behavior] & offer something to them which is RELEVANT to them 🙂 However, this same tip may be true for B2C business but might not be applicable for B2B space.
In a Nutshell, Digital Marketing Strategy needs to answer very simple question – WHO is your customer, HOW do you communicate & WHICH tools are available for communication. My wife runs a small Home-Made chocolate business & sells on online-marketplace(s), so it was evident that Facebook & Instagram would be an ideal place in order to share useful information about Product Updates, Discounts etc. which definitely brought in new likes & new customers but at the same time, Twitter turned out to be less effective.
Today, we look at some of the rules which we can use in today’s Digital Age for “Customer retention” or “Customer Acquisition”
Leveraging the Right Social Medium
As mentioned at the start of the article, “Knowing a customer” was never so important than it has become now 🙂 It has become very critical to know about the Target Audience [Gender, Age etc.] & their online-habits. Understanding their online-habits can help you to make “content/deals/stuff” tailor-made according to their liking & this would definitely play a vital role in “Retaining that customer”. For B2B companies, LinkedIn might be a better place to acquire new customers.
Lot of new age CXO’s are now active on LinkedIn especially publishing “Posts” since it provides more transparency from company stand-point & at the same time, gives better visibility to the company. However, for B2C companies, Facebook, Instagram etc. might turn out to be more fruitful since they are your target audience [similar to what I mentioned about the Chocolate Business]. Conversion of LIKE/COMMENT to Prospective customer is much higher !!
Better understanding of customer(s), Monitoring competitors & Leveraging the medium is the key…
Build Deeper interactions
In many cases, the ultimate goal of social media marketing is to increase exposure, drive traffic and create leads. This leads to some misconceptions on how to use the platform. You would have encountered this situation – “You are talking to a friend on phone…you are done with all the discussions…dam’n, there is nothing more to discuss and than comes Aur Bolo [Tell Me] 🙂 This means that “All meaningful discussions are complete & hence, the chances to getting hooked on-to that call is less” 🙂 Your online-conversion [on Facebook, Twitter] should not end in “Dead-end” just like the above mentioned telephonic conversion.
Define your target audience[Age,Sex,Marital-Status etc.] , understand their buying decisions and build “Deeper Connect” with them. This creates a very positive influence on your brand & your customers might turn into “Evangelists” 🙂 Personalized and Tailor made content can work wonders in this case. TO THE NEW Digital is a premium digital services company that combines the power of technology, analytics, marketing and content for digital transformation.
Understanding customer, their needs & tailor-made content can go a long way…
Finding Influencers
When I joined Twitter I used to wonder “Why would someone follow me” or better question is “Whom should I start following”. The obvious answer to this question is “Someone who is influential on Social Media/SM Guru etc.” On similar lines, when your brand is present on a Social Media channel, it is very important to find other relevant social media accounts, blogs, sites and services and mention them on your social media feeds. These are the INFLUENCERS for your brand 🙂
Identify Influencers, Reward them & create new Influencers
Social Media Risk Management
We have so far talked about the “Rosy Side” of Social Media but given the “Speed” with which Social Media posts spread like FIRE, Issues can grow quickly and you need to be able to respond. Having presence on Social Media might not be enough for your brand, Listening to what consumers are saying about your brand would drive VALUE. Ensure that there is no leakage of confidential company information.
Feedback [Positive/Negative] should not be deleted since this would ensure that there is “Transparency”. You need to do Social Risk Assessment to quantify, monitor & benchmark social media risk vis-a-vis competition. You need to go beyond the regular social media metrics & quantify risk by analyzing millions of social data points and calculating a unique Social Net Promoter Score [NPS].
Consumer feedback, good or bad, should be seen as “Emotional capital”
In most of the scenarios, companies keep the “Core” work & try to find a partner to work on something “If there is a better fit in the market”. Same can be the case for Social Media Management & Monitoring.
Your can leverage the existing skills of TO THE NEW Digital, a premium Digital Services Company that has a team of over 600 people which includes technology evangelists, social media experts, content specialists, and creative mavericks who have transformed businesses of more than 300 companies spread across 30 countries worldwide. TO THE NEW Digital is also a strategic partner of many global companies including Google, Amazon Web Services [AWS], YouTube, DataStax and MongoDB.
Conclusion
Just to summarize, there is no special Mantra to achieve success on Social Media. Certain tactics might work for the competitors however, might not work for your startup. But in this fast-moving Digital Era where “Information spreads like wild-fire”, these tips might help you to build a better Social Media Strategy for your brand & if you ain’t have that skill, better to partner with an agency that can deliver the goods of “Social Media” for you 🙂
Image Source – Web-Live.it
