Like the classic R&B song, every customer is looking for R-E-S-P-E-C-T and that should be reflected in every facet of your marketing. Sometimes the issues about showing respect are obvious, and some are more subtle. In looking back over the past year, here are a few marketing concepts that I've written about that all show respect for the consumer in one way or another:
- Make sure your marketing messaging respects consumers' time by getting to the point or what's important for them to know right away. Don't waste time on questions. Some marketers consider questions to be qualifiers, but they're actually just a waste of time. As I expressed in my gentle and thoughtful way, Starting With A Question Is Dumb.
- Show respect by having a marketing philosophy that treats consumers like human beings, not numbers, data, or statistics. The goal of your marketing should be to get people to know, like, and trust you, which is John Jantsch’s definition of the goal for all marketing.
- Nothing shows consumers that you respect them more than caring. It's more than just listening and, in some cases, being responsive. It's a total commitment to listening to the voice of the consumer and letting that guide your marketing messaging, customer service, and actually every facet of your company. Everyone who works at your company, including your marketing researchers, call center, service providers, and sales people, should understand your company's commitment to caring.
- Respect the value of your best customers by making your customer loyalty or customer rewards program easy to understand and relatively easy to obtain a reward. Carefully monitor the way your program is executed. Don't spam or over communicate to your loyalty or reward members to make them regret getting involved with you at all. If you want to know what not to do, see my blog about "4 Ways to Fail at Your Loyalty or Reward Program." ((link))
If you want to resolve this year to improve every facet of your marketing, just embrace the concept of always showing respect for consumers, prospects, customers, and yes, of course, that all important internal customer, your employees. Before sending out any marketing message, review it to make sure that your intended prospect or consumer will feel respected, and you'll be well on your way to have marketing success.
