Forming That Internet Marketing Bond

No matter how many marketing platforms become available to businessmen to sell their products and services, one thing remains essential: creating that sincere relationship with the customers

You can bore someone into buying your product or you can develop a bond that will generate bigger market share.” These, according to OgilvyOne Worldwide VP for Consulting Services in Asia Pacific Lucy McCabe, are the two general things business owners can do with social media.

“Selling a brand or a product now is more complicated as compared to 10 years ago,” says McCabe in a recent press briefing on social Customer Relations Management (CRM). Not only do business owners and marketers have to learn newer platforms, they also need to determine how to take full advantage of these tools.

Social media has not only affected the way customers pick brands, it has also changed how and to whom people give their feedback. A few years back, when a customer had something to say about a product or service he acquired, he would share it with his family and friends in a confined gathering. Nowadays, a customer can share his thoughts on a certain product or service not just to his friends but even to people across the globe. Most of the time, sharing is so instantaneous that even if he is still in the process of experiencing it, he is already sharing it to the world via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Path.

E-commerce is also giving more brands the vehicle to reach a wider market. In Asia, the growth of e-commerce is expected to surge as more infrastructures mature and develop. Products that we only see in stores can now be purchased in just a click.

The above scenarios sound healthy. But the problem, McCabe points out, is that the brands are having a hard time catching up. For a brand manager, McCabe says as an example, managing the output or the product feedback within the world of social media can actually be scary. At the same time, a lot of brands are still learning the ropes of e-commerce. She said the challenge for marketers in the next five years is to understand how to make use of these media to their advantage.

“A lot of brands struggle as to what their e-commerce strategy should be,” shares McCabe. “It’s not just about the shopping carts, it’s the whole shopping experience—the process of discovering the product all the way to the purchase,” she says, adding that sharing this experience is crucial.

Bond With Your Customers

In a world where digitalization is one of the key trends, online recommendation greatly influences purchase. In fact, McCabe says online recommendation is in the top five influences on purchases in almost every single market in Asia. “That’s a massive shift from 10 years ago,” she reveals. And based on their surveys, she says recommendation is a key driver of market share.

That is why “bonding” with the customers—whether existing or potential—is important. “Bonding is when you feel a real emotional affinity to the brand,” explains McCabe. “If you’ve bonded with a brand that you trust, you will recommend it.” She adds that customers who have bonded with the brands they trusted spend up to at least 20 percent more recommending those to other people. “The higher the level of bonding, the higher the future level of marketing share, so there’s a direct correlation between that bonding score and the market share. It’s a critical number,” she says.

To be able to create that bond, one must earn the customers’ trust. “Trust and recommendation are big drivers of market. If you don’t have these with your customers, your brand is less likely to grow,” she says. This is how social CRM becomes the new era of relationship marketing. It’s building a relationship with your market through social media. For business owners and marketers, this means being perceptive of their audience. “Understand your audience, segment them; what will interest them? Understanding the audience means giving them the right content they need,” she points out. This is very important in this highly digital age and marketers now must have a rigorous approach on how to use the technology available to them.

“It’s like your relationship with your friends—it involves a lot of communication, of valuing their opinion, of celebrating with them, working with them, of learning how to be there for them and when to leave them alone at the same time,” she says. And if you find this kind of relationship with a brand you like, chances are you will share this experience with other people

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