The Widen Summit is an annual conference aimed at helping businesses make better use of their marketing systems particularly through content and creative workflows.
Just like in years past, the 2015 Widen Summit was packed with valuable, actionable lessons for those in a variety of roles and industries.
Here’s a quick rundown of our top five takeaways just about any company can take advantage of to improve their marketing performance this year, next year and beyond.
1. Word of mouth is still a powerful marketing channel
Keynote speaker Jonah Berger––an expert on the social side of marketing––discussed how the explosion of new ways of talking to each other has made word-of-mouth an extremely powerful way to generate sales today––if you do it right.
Turning referrals into actual sales is all about creating and distributing content that gets customers talking and sharing your messages––even in the long sales cycles of the B2B space. But how do you know the content you’re spending all that time and energy creating is actually something your customers want to share?
A formula for creating contagious content
Jonah shared six principles that make up the foundation of highly shareable content:
- Social currency: The more something makes someone look good, the more likely they’ll be to pass it on. Create content that gives customers a sense of accomplishment or notoriety. Just like achieving a high score on a game or puzzle, these are the kinds of things people love to share with others.
- Triggers: The more you can trigger your customers to think about a product or idea, the more likely they’ll talk about it with others. Consider what triggers people to talk about your product or service and use those topics as a starting point when thinking about what to create.
- Emotion: When we care about something, we share it. Consider what messages will tap into your customers’ emotions when designing content you want to spread.
- Public visibility: The simplest form of word-of-mouth is imitation. The more you see people wearing Apple’s white iPod headphones, the more you want them yourself. Keep this in mind when creating content people will want to have themselves as they see others engaging with it.
- Practical value: The more you can educate customers through messaging and content, the more likely they’ll want to teach others themselves.
- Narrative: People love telling stories. While it’s not always the easiest way to promote what you do, crafting a compelling story around your brand and how it affects customers at the human level can be extremely effective when it comes to spreading a message.
2. Know your users inside and out
In order to make any product or system successful, you have to understand the needs of your target audience. To do that, you need to know how they’re already using your marketing system, or how they plan to use it once it’s implemented.
Surveys are far and away the best tool for this. With a variety of free or inexpensive survey systems out there to use, the cost of surveying usually boils down to the time it takes to put one together and send it out.
For those already using a distributed marketing system, reach out to your service provider to see if they offer help with facilitating user surveys. Here at Suttle-Straus, we believe surveying is essential to continuous improvement, which is why we offer survey services to all our customized brand portal customers.
For those who need a third party solution, here’s a few popular survey systems to consider:
Before making any development changes to your system, gather and analyze feedback from the people who use it everyday and follow-up on those rollouts by gathering reactions.
3. Tell a story
Great storytelling connects with customers on an emotional level. While it’s not always easy, creating content that breaks the typical buyer/seller relationship between you and your customers can be an incredibly effective way to get your message in front of fresh eyes.
Of course, having a great story isn’t much if you don’t have a system that can deliver it to people. Before spending the energy to write your story, be sure the marketing system you’re using is capable of presenting it to customers in through the proper channels.
4. Brand = User experience
Brand is the culmination of all the experiences a person has with your organization. While marketers are great at addressing most of these experiences, they often fail to realize the “micro-experiences” customers have online.
Whether it’s through a website, mobile device or separate application, make sure each interaction is accounted for and addressed by your team. Each positive user experience is directly connected to a positive brand experience no matter how small it is.
5. Great systems need great strategies
Marketing systems are designed to help you reach your goals, not do it for you. No matter how many bells and whistles a particular system might have or how much it promises to do, it can’t replace a smart marketing strategy.
To get the very most out of your system, develop your strategy around its particular capabilities rather than trying to adapt your old strategy to just a few of its features. Set a baseline on day one and use that mark to improve your strategy as you develop your system according to what works best.
Put a process in place to facilitate changes when needed, and lastly, remember to educate everyone who touches your system on the best way to use it.
Want to learn more about marketing systems designed to take your strategy as far as it can possibly go? Learn more about customized brand portals or schedule a product demo to see it in action.
