Real Conversational Marketing
Everyone is talking about about social media and word-of-mouth marketing these days and acting like it’s a new phenomenon. When, in reality, it’s the same thing that’s been happening for centuries (if not longer) just now we use fancy technology to do it. Word-of-mouth referrals are the holy grail of marketing. Just how do you convince someone to tell someone else about your product? How do you convince someone to share their opinion on their blog, on your website or in a cafe? Really, it’s quite simple — do something that is actually worth talking about.
That’s why I really prefer the term “conversational marketing,” because the goal is to start people talking. Ideally people will share their positive thoughts to the widest possible audience, but the overall goal is to enable and encourage conversation about a product, brand, or idea. You can’t control what people will say. Maybe they will hate your commercial — but they are still talking about it.
The thing is, what’s interesting to one person won’t necessarily be of interest to the entire world. That’s why it is so important to know who you are trying to reach. Here at RTC, we do Relationship Marketing . You can’t develop a relationship with a total stranger or a demographic group. You need to really know who you are talking to and what that individual cares about. Many people are afraid to reach out to a specific individual because they think they may alienate others. You might. But when you reach out to everyone, you speak to no one. It’s like shouting in the middle of a crowded market place.
It’s risky to learn about your customer and see what moves and motivates them. But, it can also be highly rewarding. A great example of this right now is the campaigns supporting the NBC television show Heroes . If you’ve never seen the show or the marketing campaign — well — it may not be targeted to you. But that’s why it’s brilliant. The show is very high quality and it knows its audience. It’s basically a comic book storyline and a comic book played a big role in the first season, so what’s a natural extension — a comic book , of course. But a printed comic book would cost a fortune and you’d have to do surveys and other slow response research to see if people dig the comic book. So, how about a digital comic book ? Better yet, how about an interactive comic book and a PDF version that people can print out, and for even more innovation how about video version that plays through the comic book and adds a musical score? Just for fun — let’s add the ability for people to leave comments, rate it, email it to someone, or link to it ! And of course, let’s provide a variety of other community features and additional materials that will appeal to people who might read comic books.
Now, before you think — great I’m advertising to a 7 year old. Not so fast. You’d be surprised at who these people really are.
Persona of a Comic Book Reader:
- Female
- 30-34
- Lives in Major East Coast City
- Owns a house or condo
- Professional
- Tech-savvy
- Blogger
- Motivators: eco-friendly, quality, style, value
Would you expect a 30+ year-old woman who owns a home/condo and lives in a major metropolitan area to be into comic books? Maybe not — but maybe you should. That person may not spend her life on the Heroes site, but what level of engagement do you want? What’s the outcome you are looking for. Would you want her to be able to talk about the show? How about notice the cool car that was blatantly product placed in the show? What if she thought the show and the marketing was quality enough to write about it on a blog and link to the site ?
Heroes know its audience and is doing a great job building a relationship with those people. The show may have broader appeal than this core — but this group of highly active fans provide more eyeballs for advertising than just the weekly television broadcast. They provide market insight and, with all the interactive features , great metrics for proving to value to advertisers. So why is this a great example of conversational marketing — because people are talking and to each other.
Written by Carly Lesser - Visit Website