Many big brands will purchase and implement marketing automation software, in particular, salesforce.com.
These systems allow big companies to mimic the more intimate customer experiences small businesses can deliver, says Chris Howatson, managing partner of Melbourne ad agency Clemenger Harvie Edge Proximity.
For example, tracking leads and tailoring the selling process, mining for rich behavioural insights and deployment of multiple targeted campaigns across all business touch points. He says businesses need to understand who their valuable customers are.
“Determine what they need, recognise their tenure and value to your business and contact them with messages that will delight them,” Howatson says.
Inviting consumers to actually participate in your business decisions will be a popular initiative in easily the bravest example of assuming the customer is always right.
Catherine Heath, executive strategy director of famed communications agency M&C Saatchi, says smart businesses will allow a mainstream open source model of product innovation and co-creation.
Customers want to have input into businesses, and Heath says that smart brands will invite consumer input to impact business output, following the lead of the Commonwealth Bank, which saw huge success with this model with its Ideabank platform.
Heath also recommends that brands engage in fewer marketing initiatives but invest in them as long-term initiatives.
Many businesses have managed to get by without a social media strategy, but that’s all set to change this year.
With many in business noticing increased traffic sourced from social environments as opposed to just search engines, finding a way to harness this traffic to ultimately bolster sales will be paramount.
Communications agency BWM executive creative director Rob Belgiovane agrees that social media is crucial.
“More than ever, people are doing their searches online for products, making it very important to make sure you have strong search engine optimisation. Social media is also very important as the fastest and most powerful ways to launch an emotional connection with your brand and kick-start social media conversations,” Belgiovane says.
While there are pitfalls to social media, most experts agree it’s necessary for those in business.
“Consider what content your brand could contribute to social ecosystems adjacent to what you sell. This will increase your digital footprint and likely lead to more socially sourced traffic,” Howatson says.
“Social media for many businesses has resulted in incremental cost. For example, the cost of maintaining content and responding to customer enquiries has diverted attention away from other business activities or has required the appointment of additional staff,” Howatson says.
Set clear objectives for your social activity, concentrating on engagement rather than likes or followers, Howatson says.
“For example, a Facebook page may have 100,000 fans, but with an engagement rate of only 1%, only 1,000 people will see the message.”
Gretton says there will be a push this year toward brands appearing in social newsfeeds, not just advertising around it.
“Great content will be the key to ensuring that consumers will want to engage with you in this new state of control they will have.”
But M&C’s Heath says brands must connect their online social initiatives with real offline social activation to truly embrace building a community.
