If you are starting out with a new business venture, or even if you are well-established, then before you begin to look into digital marketing you must ask yourself the question: ‘Who are we?’
This is a question that should be asked before you do anything really; it seems relatively straightforward, yet you would not believe the multitude of people who cannot answer simple questions about who they are and what their company does.
So, before you start to put plans in place, ask yourself these questions:
1) Who is our customer?
If you think your audience is young professionals, your marketing department thinks it could be children, and your COO reckons an older audience is better suited, you have a bit of a problem!
2) What is our challenge or opportunity?
Where is the gap in the market? What is your USP (unique selling point)? Where do you position yourselves? Where are you making a breakthrough where others haven’t?
3) What is the main customer benefit of our product or service?
It’s all well and good designing furniture that you deem to be of a high quality (justifying a higher price point), but why is it such high quality? Have you looked at your competitors? What benefit does your furniture offer over theirs? Look? Feel? The brand behind it? The comfort? The list goes on.
For example, with my marketing startup, weflourish, I pride myself on being new to the marketing consultancy ‘game’, but with over 10 years’ in-house experience under my belt across multiple industries.
4) What do our customers say about us?
Surveys, focus groups, testimonials…in other words: feedback, feedback, feedback!
You may think your staff understand your company best, and they often do, but don’t forget to find out how the public sees your product or service, as they will give you a valuable unbiased point of view, one that you really need to succeed.
5) Can we visualise the Customer Experience?
If you can’t envisage the user journey, how can you expect the actual customer to have an easy, fluid experience in purchasing your product?
Simply put, if you or your colleagues stumble upon any of these questions, or answer them differently to each other (I advise conducting this activity as a team task), then a larger discussion is needed amongst the team in order to get yourself on the same page internally, before you go further afield.
Please send thoughts at clare@weflourish.biz. Clare Gaba will be judging at the 2018 UK Digital Experience Awards.