This week the AM team have been on a mission for knowledge... We are lucky enough in London that there are tons of lectures, seminars and workshops going on non-stop, so we thought it was about time we started making the most of them all! One of the highlights of this weeks talk series was General Assembly’s 'Rapidly Grow Your Business with Content & Social Media’ hosted by Laurie Wang (@LaurieWang_), and we thought it would be nice to share some of what we learned with you.
In the marketing industry we are only too aware of the importance of content especially when launching a new brand or growing a young business. Starting with a solid content marketing strategy the AM team have always struck by the idea that content is key, and Laurie’s lecture helped to reinforce this.
The marketing industry has changed drastically in the past couple of years and competition for consumers attention is at an all time high. Just take a look at your Facebook news feed (or instagram or twitter for that matter!) - I bet that amongst the posts from your friends and family, there will be posts from brands - all competing for your attention, not only against each other but also against these people who you have a personal relationship with. This is when content is a brand’s secret weapon to try and catch your attention in only a few seconds.
Laurie moves on to discuss how social media is adding to its arsenal of roles for brands, now forming a key part of the customer service experience for any company. Apparently 56% of users would rather complain to a brand (publicly!) on social media, than call their customer services team. It’s a scary statistic when you think of the damaging impact negative reviews can have on a brave new brand. With people living busier lives and time being such a valuable commodity its no wonder that consumers are ditching the long on-hold calls listening to crackly elevator music on a loop.
On that note we all have a giggle at this hilarious sketch of Jimmy Fallon and Aziz Ansari dramatically reading Yelp reviews.
..but in all seriousness customer experience is the most important thing and as Laurie explains, we are looking to a future where customers will make choices based on brand experience over all other factors including price.
It’s a scary prospect for new brands who are trying to reach out and expand their audience and the AM team have been working hard to come up with strategies that prioritise brand loyalty and community building for businesses in these competitive markets.
Laurie used a great analogy - business is like dating. If some one took you to dinner on a first date and half way through the meal hits you with a marriage proposal - most of us would go running for the hills! It's the same for brands courting their customers. You can’t just launch in with the hard sell you have to ‘date’ your customer first.
Something that rang true with the AM team was this slide, “stop trying to be great, just try to be useful.” It's something we have been passionate about with all the brands we work with - This article by Araminta explains more on how we work towards educating our consumers and being much more useful than just telling people how good the products are (but to be honest all the brands we work with have amazing products that speak for themselves!)
What we really took home from this talk was that brands need to be asking themselves “how can we help”.