Customers and You: Do you miss each other?

Would you confess, one to the other?

Anna Farmery at EngagingBrand noted in her twitter post, loving this post at Conversation Agent...I'd say Me, too.

The post is The Cluetrain Manifesto Conversation.

"You’re either participating or you’re not"...,

These are not necessarily negative conversations, mind you. They well could be constructive discussions filled with chances to learn about your customers and what you need to do to make them happy. Happy people buy more and tell their friends. It's your prerogative whether to join the conversation or not.

Yes. Every brand has a prerogative. ( Ask Bobby Brown; he had one, too.)

Most, funnily enough, choose to not join the conversation. Go figure. Their loss, really.

That's why so much of marketing these days isn't about talking to ...gasp...the customer. No, it's about statistical modeling and research, survey numbers and margins of error, statistical anomalies... Not about conversations, no.

What an opportunity, though, especially for small businesses where one2one conversations with customers, with each other in the company, can happen daily. They should happen daily.

That close contact with the customers is one of THE KEY ADVANTAGES a small business has over the large impersonal cash-cow brands we call national brands. They can customize their products to their customers needs based on what the customer tells them...in person. That, my friends (both of you), is the true definition of direct marketing.

But enough about me...(What do YOU think about me?) Valerie Maltoni writes Conversation Agent. This post is a great post about conversational marketing.

And Anna Farmery writes a great blog and hosts a great podcast series at The Engaging Brand. She speaks, we should listen.

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

Thank you for the shout, Zane. For you and for your readers, welcome to the conversation, make yourself at home.