125: 3 Words That Will Change Your Marketing Strategy
Back in April, MINI USA brought me to the 2014 New York International Auto Show to answer media questions about what it was like filming a Final Test Test Drive video. The night prior to the first media day, another winner and I were treated to dinner by Peppercomm, the public relations firm coordinating our interviews.
After we finished eating, the Peppercomm consultants walked us through helpful advice on how to interact with the reporters that we would meet the next day. Fifteen years removed from public relations classes in college, I was thankful for their insight; and I’ll be keeping their instructional packet for future reference.
What struck me most from the entire session, though, was the tag line under the Peppercomm logo.
“Listen. Engage. Repeat.”
That’s great advice for both public relations and interpersonal relationships like marriage, parenting, and mentorships. Because of its inherent truth, it’s also probably the best advice I’ve ever heard for social media and company promotion, too.
For almost half a decade, I’ve been telling auctioneers to stop treating social media like a broadcast channel—another line item in an advertising budget. For many entrepreneurs and marketers, Facebook, Twitter, email, and blogs are just additional fields into which they’ll copy and paste their advertising headlines. In reality, though, social media are just online environments for the kind of conversations we have offline. The attributes of successful conversations are the same for successful social media.
Listen first. Interact with your conversation partners (even if just a small slice of your audience). Engage—just like you would in an offline social event. Ask questions that let them know you’re paying attention. If possible, affirm what’s interesting or good within their content. Then, just as in-person conversations, add content where it builds upon the foundation of what they’ve expressed. Only then, talk about the services or assets your business brings to market.
If you’ve given away knowledge (or inspiration or entertainment) for free, your audience will probably have already investigated what is that you do and sell. If they haven’t, starting with conversations and interesting posts will at least make your next sales pitch more of a soft sell.
The same principle holds true for your company promotion. Before you start a new marketing campaign, first interview your past clients. Listen to their answers to questions like, “How did you hear about us?” and “Why did you do business with us?” Those answers will tell you the solutions you provide and the media (or environments) where similar prospects likely congregate. Build your initiative around those answers, and then interact with your next round of clients. If the answers are the same, keep up the good work. If the answers are different, evaluate why; and adjust your next campaign accordingly.
Listen. Engage. Repeat. Most of us are really good at the repeat part. We like doing the same thing over and over again, because it’s easier. It’s the first two that entrepreneurs and marketers—me included—struggle to implement. And those are the most important two legs of the tripod.
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Taking It Personally
Church attendance as a percentage has been declining across the United States. Pundits attribute this to multiple factors, but I would posit that Peppercomm’s three-stage advice could explain a lot of that drop. So much of American evangelism misses the listen and engage parts of successful communication. Organized religion is good at protecting tradition, repeating the clichés, and putting the same verses on protest placards. We can broadcast a lot better than we listen or engage.
If we ever want to attract unchurched people to our lifestyle, we have to close our mouths and open our minds. We need to spend more time conversing and less time blogging. We need to remove the bumper stickers and add friends from different social groups. It’s not that we are trying to hide the truth we believe or even rebrand it. God doesn’t need us to sell anything for him. We can, though, make it more approachable and personal by having authentic conversations with people who don’t do church.