In Shakespeare’s time, the play was the thing. For businesses today, the Conversation is the thing–the market conversation that is.
Yan, Tony and I will be blogging regularly about our thoughts, experiences and insights as conversation marketing professionals. You can read more about why we’ve started this blog on the About page or click on one of our names to learn more about us individually. In short, we are marketers who see that traditional marketing no longer works well and that companies can benefit by participating in the market conversation “with” Influencers and consumers rather than by talking “at” them with advertisements, sales pitches and press releases.
Social media and other online technologies have brought people together to share, compare, discuss and influence one another like no technology has before. But we also know that one-on-one conversations over the phone, via email and in person have not disappeared. A company’s specific market conversation is going on everywhere and by joining those conversations and participating with quality content that addresses the needs and wants of consumers, companies will:
- Increase brand visibility:
If you’re participating with quality content rather than marketing bullet point messages more people will be noticing you rather than ignoring your ads. - Decrease market research costs:
You won’t need to spend as much on focus groups or market research because you’re paying attention to what the market needs. - Reduce the impact from negative user-generated content:
Not everyone in the world will love you and you will have some customers who are unhappy, but conversing with them both in public and private to resolve their issue deters them from telling everyone else that you’re a bad company. - Increase the number of direct inquires and get more qualified leads:
Potential customers will have a better understanding of who you are and what you offer before they contact you. - Increase sales:
When you actively interact with the entire conversation ecosystem you’ll expand your brand awareness and improve brand perception. - Increase sales win ratios:
Your sales team will be able to counter sales objections with relevant content from the market conversation. - Increase customer retention:
Actively communicating with your customers and the communities they’re involved with makes it less likely that they’ll leave. - Increase equity of your created content:
You’ll leverage activities in the market conversation to expand the reach of your created content.
As Yan, Tony and I continue to expand our thoughts on these topics, we hope you’ll join in with comments and share your experiences.
