When it comes to marketing within any organisation it’s traditionally been seen as a bit of a luxury. When things go wrong it’s often the first budget to be cut or department to be culled. It’s nice to have but some believe it doesn’t always contribute to the bottom line. Other areas like operations and traditionally sales are seen as more fundamental contributors to a business. In recent years however the trend is changing. Marketing has established itself as a core function in a business. An essential department which becomes more important in tougher times and permeates a whole business.

Customer Experience

By now we are all highly familiar (and slightly tired) of the phrase ‘customer experience’. It’s one of those catchy terms which has people rolling their eyes at meetings. Particularly when marketing is involved. Unfortunately or not, customer experience is central to the success of almost every business in existence today. It helps a business to define what it is that they do for their customer. How their customer interacts with them. What value do their customers receive from each interaction? What has that customer coming back for more? On the other side, marketing reflects the voice of the customer inside a company. Coaching activities, playing devil’s advocate, giving direction. Focusing on what the customer wants. Their customer experience.

This is where it gets interesting. In today’s world of information, digital tools and hyper-communication (of sorts) customers expect to have access to more information, more easily and in a way that suits them. From technical information, product availability, possible customisations, lead times, core value, company culture, follow-up service….. you get the idea! Customer experience touches more heavily on all aspects of a business than ever before. From operations to sales, accounts, product development, human resources. It’s all in there. It’s all-important to customers in 2019 and beyond.

Managing how all these pieces come together to interact with your customer is down to your marketing strategy. Selecting the pieces that are important for a customer to see and those that are not. This is what your marketing does. It communicates all of this to your customer. It starts those conversations with your customers for you or your sales team, in whatever form it might be, to follow up. And importantly it listens. Gauges reactions. Analyses campaigns. Tracks customer interactions.

Marketing Strategy

About now is the time when small businesses and startups are wondering ‘what has this got to do with me?’. Well, it’s important to realise that marketing at any stage in business development is hugely important. Increasingly in large businesses, the role of the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) has become more important. Particularly in businesses that are looking to innovate and build strong brands, like startups or an SME. Their main function is to provide high-level strategy to a business. Make sure everyone is working off the same page and the customer experience is clear. They are building the marketing strategy which touches on every part of the business. Defining ‘customer experience’. Defining how customers interact with what you do; sales, operations, product development.

According to Pravin Nath writing for Harvard Business Review where marketing has ‘the additional responsibility of sales, firms deliver superior growth. Notably however, only 15% of the marketing functions ‘studied had such a dual responsibility.’ For any small business, where sales are central to long-term growth, the positive effect of marketing on growth is essential to recognise early on. Developing a core strategy which will touch on the other areas of your business will go a long way to helping achieve that growth success.

To give you an example take a look at a part of our very own Marketing Strategy and Brand Strategy. You can download it here… It helps us at Usual put some definition on what we do across our business. Show’s our values, what we do, how we do it. Each of these things is central to our customer’s experience. How they see us. How they understand the value of what we do.

Digital Marketing Tools

The digital world gives us some simple examples of how marketing interacts with the rest of a business. Managing digital platforms from social media to websites and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems fall under the Marketing banner regardless of the size of a business. Regardless of the tool being used the underlying tone, voice, styling needs a consistency that relates to your business.

Social media channels are a fairly obvious one. But also an increasingly challenging one. There is a growing requirement for realism from social media. A demand across all industries for content that not only shows the product or service benefits but also gives the customer reassurance that they are buying from a business that knows what it is doing. Has the expertise they want. Gives them the confidence to buy. Your social media has to reflect your whole business. Show insights into all departments and importantly, the people behind them.

Your website is the go-to information point. It tells your customer who you are through your about pages. Shows the depth of knowledge you hold through your blog or case studies. Describes your product in detail. Becomes hugely important point of interaction through online chat, chatbots and other CTA’s (Calls To Actions). It requires information, content, connections to every part of your business.

Your CRM system takes advantage of your digital assets and brings all your customer information into one central point. It’s where you can define your customer types. Select those pieces of information that is important to them and serves them up through campaigns. It’s your point to follow up and gather information that helps you build your future relationships, services or products. CRM is the connection point for all areas of your business. Where every interaction can be logged for every area of your business.

Customer First

At the heart of it all. Marketing puts your customer at the core of your business. It helps any business from the home startup to the huge multinational bring a focus to what they do through a function that permeates every asset at your disposal. Embracing marketing as a core asset rather than a nice to do provides a solid starting point for a customer experience that no other business will be able to provide. Because no other business will have your persona, your skills, your culture of putting the customer at its’ core in the same way that you do.

So how’s your customer experience been with Usual so far? We’d love to find out how we’re doing. Use our online chat or get in touch at letstalk@usualcreatives.com.