Read all the marketing books of yesteryear and you’ll be treated to lengthy odes professing the ultimate devotion to the four Ps. Product, Price, Place, Promotion.
I’ve already talked about what I believe are the new Ps of marketing. Less then before, twice as Potent:
- Passion
- Personality
- Presence (at least that’s where now and then agree)
If you demonstrate passion for your product (go beyond the norm, whatever accepted wisdom is these days, to treat your prospective and existing customers to more than they expect through blogs, offers, value-packed podcasts, and so on), are clearly ‘all about’ your services and a living manifestation of everything you sell (Personality) and finally, understand where your customers are and how to reach them (Presence) you’re pretty much beyond 90% of your unknowing competition.
But there are two additional elements that you need to add into the mix. The cherries on the Ps, if you will.
Engagement
Time to get engaged
Think how much more effectively your driver can turn that screw when you have a firm grip on it. You can do the greatest service for your customers when you have a tight grip on your marketing strategies, too.
Too many people freak out when you talk about strategies. All I mean is having your business plans and your customer service manifesto in close alignment.
You could also consider Engagement as an extension of Presence. If you’re where your customers are (or at the very least, you think they are) then you’re halfway there.
The diamond in the rough that separates your business from the rest is being front of mind. At every opportunity possible.
Engaging – attracting or delighting
Let’s throw all this together. The place is right. Your product is right. Now you have to make your relationship (and isn’t this, fundamentally, what all business success is built on?) durable and delighting.
I think the element that needs to be discussed here is surprise.
To surprise, you have to provide stuff people aren’t expecting. Under the Christmas tree – a Boxee box for dad, so he can watch his favourite internet gardening show on the big screen, whenever he likes. Sure beats a pair of socks and a satsuma, and capture the look on his face when he finally understands what it is and how much pleasure he can get from it.
Do you understand the surprise system? Do you see where, if you haven’t built up that rock-solid relationship with your customer or the client-to-be you’re hoping to court, the surprise system comes into play?
This is engagement. And it doesn’t have to be the big things. It can be the little big things. If you’re a grease monkey, leaving the car seats covered in polythene after a car service makes the difference. If you’re a butcher, wrapping your meats in brown paper before serving them to the customer – it’s a little big thing. A cinema operator, providing your loyal customers with free popcorn – spontaneously. It’s a little big thing, and now we’re entering into the realms of word of mouth – a very potent opportunity indeed for you to not only do business, but grow it: stratospherically.
Engagement is being prepared to know what will amaze your people. Being on Google Places so your new customers can find you when they’re in the vicinity. Having an enewsletter packed with valuable content.
Which reminds me:
Value
Value - it's all about the smile...
We strayed into uncharted territory just there. This V word. Value. Don’t we all offer value in everything we do?
Do we – really?
What is value to you, and what is value to your customer?
If I think about all the things that I think add value to the customer relationship – being available on the phone, replying quickly, offering a superb service and coming up with great ideas to energise product launches, and so on – I quickly discover these are expected parts of the customer relationship.
I imagine you’ve also arrived at that conclusion.
Value – To regard highly; esteem
It’s going beyond, isn’t it? Driving engagement yet higher by creating a reason for people to come back to your site, your social media outposts.
Value in the business context is dreaming of more ways to enlighten, educate and entertain above and beyond your standard product proposition.
Value isn’t about savings and discounts, about how you can trim costs to offer the consumer cheaper prices.
Value today is everything about emotion. Why this person wants you to rock their world.
Bringing your service to the kitchen table is going to make that person feel spiritually wonderful. It’s going to trigger a nice recollection; it’ll make them want to find out more about you.
Picture the first time you checked out the packaging for Innocent smoothies. The way the words played with your senses. Look how many strawberries they pack in to your tasty beverage. See how they manage to squeeze it all in to one highly recyclable container. Emotive pictures and provocative text send you straight to the heart of a village fete, where you’re living the Good Life. All through some intoxicating fusion of emotion, marketing and packaging.
That’s value. It’s free-thinking with your customer in mind.
One of the most impactful phrases I’ve heard in a long time is this:
Don’t fear the unknown – fear the known.
Which is precisely why now is the time you need to open your mind and open your business to growth by focusing your considerable efforts on Engagement and Value.
