The New Marketing Mindset: Treat Your Clients As Partners
So, “Old Marketing”, as in “Interruption Marketing”, is dead. Or at least dying. It’s slowly but steadily being replaced by a New Marketing Mindset. Where clients are seen and treated as your partners, both with the same goal: to give and to receive value.
To fully exploit this new concept, marketers have to change their Marketing Mindset. Market share is still the product of Awareness x Trial x Purchase x Re-Purchase, the way to get there changes.
People rely more and more on other people’s experiences to buy or not to buy something. Would you stay in a hotel with a poor rating at TripAdvisor? Or buy from an eBay seller with a negative score?
On the other hand, if your product gets a positive rating or testimonial, people are more likely to buy. Or if you ask them what they need from you that will help them, they feel different about your brand.
You get the picture.
Basically the 3 steps you need to master for the New Marketing Mindset are:
- Turn Strangers into Friends
- Turn Friends into Clients
- Turn Clients into Ambassadors
© Actimpact – The 3-Step Marketing Platform
You cannot turn Strangers into Clients in one step. That’s why I would never buy a new Skoda for €27.000 if I have never driven a Skoda before. They first need to build some kind of “friendship” with me, which means that we start liking each other. If Skoda, or any other car manufacturer, would use the same bill board space (see previous post) to announce a free cup of coffee at the dealership and a day test drive in the latest Skoda, the investment in bill board space would be far more effective.
Now the 3rd step is even more powerful from a Marketing perspective. Currently 1,000s of people ask advice about new shoes they want to buy on Twitter (#newshoes). A Skoda dealership could mail its current client base and ask if they are happy with their car and if they would be willing to share their positive experiences with their friends. If both the client and his or her friend would receive an interesting offer, you have turned Clients into Ambassadors, who will introduce your product to new Strangers which closes the circle.
Of course your product must be outstanding, but I don’t doubt it is. And it works! Two weeks ago, when I was on Madrid Airport, I got approached by a BMW sales lady, who asked me if I would be interested in a test drive in their latest model. I only had to give my contact data (:-)), and she would make sure that a dealership close by my home would contact me for a test drive. And they did! I didn’t buy it yet, but it was a great experience.
What would be opportunities for your products if you would adopt this New Marketing Mindset? How could you turn strangers into friends?
