Why does traditional marketing no longer work? It worked for decades. It was marketing from the company/product to the customers. We had ideas about what the customer would want. What customers could use, or needed. And then, gradually, traditional marketing stopped working. The cause lies in a number of factors. Firstly, customers themselves have pursued more education, gaining more knowledge and being better able to put things into perspective. Secondly, technological capabilities have changed increasingly rapidly, allowing customers to search for what they desire themselves. And thirdly, with the rise of social media, a greater communication reach has emerged. People can influence each other more quickly. Influencers are also partly to blame. Therefore, the marketer must make a shift.
Marketing has now become an experience. The customer experience. That is now central to marketing. It is of great importance to find out what those customer experiences are. Social media is a perfect tool for this. Within social media, you must strive to be unique. Ensure that customers talk about it because they have had a good experience with you as a company or product. If you can achieve this, those customers and their friends will return to you. Let go of the focus on new customers and concentrate on current customers, who can then bring in new customers.
Marketers realize that a very important question must always be asked in one form or another: “Are you willing to recommend our product to family, friends, or acquaintances?” If the answer is positive, there are opportunities for growth. If it is answered negatively, there is work to be done, because experiences are typically passed on eleven times over. This question must therefore be central to communication with customers.
Therefore, be aware that meeting the needs of current customers stimulates growth. The more you sell to customers, the more you get to know them. That is the advantage of social media. And the more you know about them, the easier it becomes to sell products to them. If you then have more satisfied customers, they will also attach more value to the product or the company and become more loyal. Pay sufficient attention to this, because acquiring a new customer costs ten times more than selling to a satisfied customer.
