You have
a great product to sell. So you pour time, creative ability and life’s energy
into making sure customers know just how great that product or service is.
But,
just between friends now, that product isn’t right for everyone, is it?
If you
answer that question honestly, it naturally brings up another question.
How do
you give your customers what they want even if you don’t have it?
Content
marketing is about serving customers, not pushing product. Only once you serve
those customers (and build up trust) can it become an effective vehicle for
selling. And oh brother, can it ever be effective.
Here
are two ideas for serving customers when your product isn’t right for them.
Idea
#1. Help customers decide not to buy your product
Limited
shapes and designs: Because fiberglass pools are built from a mold, the consumer is
limited to the shapes and sizes offered by the various fiberglass pool
manufacturers.
The
above line is from a blog for a company
that sells fiberglass pools.
What?
Why?
“Fiberglass
might be too skinny, but if you’re looking for that size, it can be good for
you,” said Marcus Sheridan, Co-owner, River Pools and Spas. “We tell potential
customers, ‘You know what, fiberglass might not be for you. And that’s OK,
we’re going to figure it out together.’”
The
results? The “problems post” garnered 176 comments, 396 inbound links and
43,867 page views. For a small pool company. In Virginia.
You can
read more at “Competitive Messaging: Tell your
customers what you can’t do.”
Idea
#2. Help them get what they want
Sometimes
customers can’t find what they want from you because it simply doesn’t exist
yet.
Since
the best marketing messaging is based on how the customer expresses what they
want, hopefully you’ve been:
·
Listening in on social media
·
Engaging with customers service
·
Learning from Sales
·
Doing research in relevant target audience-focused newspapers,
magazines and websites
·
Testing value proposition expressions using A/B testing
In
doing customer research, you will naturally come across these gaps of
unfulfilled customer desire.
When
you do, it’s a chance to work with product development and business strategy to
test your company into new products and services to better serve your
customers’ unmet needs.
But
sometimes, you simply can’t produce that new product or service.
What to
do? Check out this brilliant idea from Eventful, the Best in Show in the E-commerce
category in MarketingSherpa Email Awards 2014,
sponsored by ExactTarget.
Here’s
how the event Web service handles an unfulfilled customer desire.
I’ll be
the example. I go to Eventful.com to search for a Pearl Jam concert in
Jacksonville. But Pearl Jam doesn’t have any concerts planned for Jacksonville
(really, Eddie, really?), so I’m greeted with this pop-up that states, “Would
you like to be notified when Pearl Jam comes to Jacksonville?”
The
other option I have if I close the pop-up is:
“Bring
Pearl Jam to Jacksonville! Demand it!”
How
cool is that? As a customer, I can demand what I want.
To add
some social pressure, I can also see how many people are demanding Pearl Jam
concerts and where they live. Am I going to let Belgrade get a Pearl Jam
concert before Jacksonville?
Of
course, dear marketer, you don’t care about Pearl Jam concerts in Jacksonville.
You care about marketing objectives like list building and social media
engagement. If I click “Demand it!” the next screen is:
It
captures some segmentation info, and then:
Boom!
Email capture, or social account capture through Facebook. So seamless, so
flawless. Doesn’t feel like I’ve signed up for a promo. This is some excellent
content marketing.
The
marketing benefits become clear:
·
Viral marketing –
Users are encouraged to spread the word on social networks to encourage more
votes.
·
Highly relevant triggered email marketing –
Subscribers received alert emails when these performers do visit their areas.
I’m
going to be interviewing Paul Ramirez, Vice President of Operations, Eventful,
on our next MarketingSherpa webinar – “Email Marketing: Key takeaways from
an award-winning campaign that increased online sales 66%.”
If you
have any questions you’d like me to ask Paul, tweet them to me:@DanielBurstein.
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