After discussion debate and deliberation, you have decided to go ahead and mount a social marketing campaign. Remember the objective is to create value for a target customer, not to sell your product. So, do not place your company, your product or your brand at the centre of that plan. Place your target customer, his/her needs and that experience at the centre. Before you formulate a plan, listen to that target customer. Listen to professionals with experience in the field. And listen to your team. Only once that listening is complete, start to formulate and document the plan.
Returning to the analogy of the art festival. You get to the art festival and you are introduced to somebody. In the initial discussion you feel an immediate attraction. Where to now?
In any conversation there are a few rules one should follow.
People are narcissistic, and they do like to talk about themselves. So, ask questions. Let the other person talk. And you listen. Do not dominate the conversation. No-one is attracted to a person who talks about themselves. And you now want to learn. So, ask questions. Listen. Learn.
And for any marketing communication, it is the same. Listen to your existing customers. Listen to the new and potential new customers. Do not talk not about your products, talk about their experience, their activities. Explicitly ask what you can do to make their lives easier, their production lines more efficient and their products of a higher quality.
And task your identified Social Marketing Team to do the same.
To professionally listen to the target market, consider some professional research. But go into the user environment and ask questions youself. And listen. Do not to defend your product. Not to attack the competitors. Not to sell your product.
Listen to the users.
The professional research you may conduct will have a much a higher value if you have personally conducted similar interviews yourself.
If you operate in the B2C consumer world go into the environment where your product is bought and sold and ask questions. Talk to the consumers about their experiences. About how they lives can be made easier, better, more fulfilling and more exciting.
If you operate in the B2B world conduct research across a broad range of people in your target base. Talk to the Financial Director about you can make his life better and easier. Discuss the same with the Procurement and Logistical teams. Talk to the Marketing and Sales teams and find out the questions they are asked. And of course, talk to the Manufacturing and Quality control teams.
Join industry groups, both online and face to face MeetUps. Listen to the conversations surrounding you. Listen as a competitor should. What are others doing with their products? What are they doing to make the products more competitive? Also listen to what they are saying about the users. What are the opportunities? There may well be an opportunity there you have not discovered for yourself. Keep your eyes and ears open to such.
As part of this initial listening process meet up with a handful of Social Marketing Agencies. Share your views and understandings with them. Challenge them. And listen to the input and feedback. Do not defend your views. Do not attack theirs. Simply listen. And at this early stage in this process do not get too involved in discussions surrounding execution, whether that’s photography, videography or writing copy. And not deciding which platforms you are going to use. Rather look to finding a partner who can provide strategic input to your Social Marketing efforts.
At this early stage, creating the best, most appropriate and the best fitting strategic plan is the most important objective. If one focuses on content production and placement too early in this discussion, one will end up producing poor content, which will not work for you, however effective later placement is.
Finally sit down with your own team. At this stage you will have a far better understanding of the objectives, the requirements, the style, and the measurement of the Social Marketing Plan. You will have a far better idea of what contribution each member of the team can have. Put that to them now. And let them talk. And you listen. Listen
Now the listening is over. Formulate your plan in detail. Write it down. With timings. With responsibilities. With accountabilities. With budgets. With objectives and evaluations. You now have a Social Marketing Plan to communicate to your team and to formally task everyone to complete.
Of course, every market, company, product and brand provides unique challenges and opportunities. One generic plan will not serve all opportunities. In formulating the plan there will be questions, alternate ways of looking at things and ways of creating an impression by doing things differently. That is the same as when you meet someone for the first time. There is no one conversation that will be followed. How we adjust the plan to best accommodate that kind of opportunity will be looked at next.
About Garth Sutherland
Garth Sutherland has an extensive multicultural understanding.
He has worked with local brands (creating independent strategic positions) and international brands (integrating the international brand vision with the local demand to optimize the “on the ground” brand presence). His strengths include bringing a strong strategic focus into all aspects of marketing delivery, working with multi-agency perspectives, independent thinking & implementing with a consistent and practical teamwork focused delivery.
If you are looking to maximize the strategic value of your brand opportunity, Garth is the ideal resource to task.
Contact him at garthsu@gmail.com or marketresolutions@gmail.com or +971 50 459 2536. Other posts in this series can be read at https://www.linkedin.com/in/garthrsutherland/ or on http://www.marketresolutions.com/
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