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Archived in You hear a lot of buzzwords and phrases in our fast paced marketing world. But one that’s continuing to gather pace and fans as it rolls into boardrooms is that of ‘conversational marketing’.
Everyday we form relationships through the things we say and the way we respond to those said by others. With it so important in the real world, it’s unsurprising that marketers are eager to adopt adopt a conversational approach to engaging with consumers.
The idea of marketing being a ‘conversation’ has been a hot topic for the last decade. But is there any real value in conversing with your customers? Or is it just evangelistic hype?
What is conversational marketing?
The idea of marketing becoming a conversation was first given legs by a set of theses in the ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’ way back in 1999.
Its premise was that, in more innocent times, ‘markets’ were places where people met to talk about goods and services, as well as to buy them. But this dialogue has since been drowned out by advertising telling people what they should think and buy. The Cluetrain Manifesto’s big idea is that the arrival of the internet, and the ability for people to talk about goods and services online, means that companies can no longer dictate what their marketplace should think.
The conversations people have over the garden fence can now be broadcast to (theoretically) millions. So marketing now needs to engage with consumers in a two-way dialogue if it wants to remain relevant.
For the last decade The Cluetrain Manifesto’s big idea has been an almost cultish call to arms amongst legions of bloggers and internet marketers in heralding the internet as a new dawn in communication and the death knell for traditional advertising.
The Cluetrain now has fresh legs in the form of social media gurus, preaching on the influence wielded by people on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Now every company needs a community manager, or risks drowning in a flood of unchallenged negative commentary.
Taking a step back
Getting excited about the potential that social media offers for engaging with customers and boosting your profile is one thing. But thinking its created a revolution in how companies should communicate, and that all the old methods are now dead, is perhaps a step too far.
Dell is often held up as conversational marketing’s poster child. They’ve been very active in harnessing every tool to respond to criticism, engage with customers and to use feedback to implement improvements.
However, as an interesting debate between Dell and a critic in the comments of this E-Consultancy article highlight, conversational marketing is just another channel in the marketing mix. It’s not a replacement for methods that continue to be effective when used well.
Another channel, rather than a revolution
It’s certainly worth creating a Google alert for your brand, so you can listen out and respond to criticism in any far flung corner of the web. But you shouldn’t feel that you need to rush out and start creating fan pages on every social media site just to show that you ‘get it’.
The key, as always, is relevancy and value. So there’s no point creating Facebook groups and a Twitter campaign unless it’s something your customers will want to engage with.
Instead, your marketing should focus on delivering content that’s of value and relevant to your customers’ needs and interests. Email, for example, is still highly effective, and with modern database management one-to-one campaigns can be targeted to match individual preferences.
So, whilst it’s worth keeping an ear open and responding to what is being said about your brand, don’t think that conversational marketing is now the only way brands are built or that the old methods of marketing are now dead.
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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.
May 24th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
This comment was made on the other site (MarCom Professional) where this post was made. From Mark Adams (cluetrainee):
Oh dear, oh dear. “It’s not a revolution at all, it’s business as usual”. Sigh. What a sad, lamentable, unadventurous cop-out submission to the tedium of convention this post is.
Times have changed. Convention is wrong. Get a life.
The phrase “It’s another channel, rather than a revolution” could be Thesis No 1 in the “Arthur Pewty Manifesto of How To Avoid the Future”. It’s a poetic phrase. And so, so wrong.
Thesis No 2 could read “Marketing should focus on delivering content that’s of value and relevant to your customers’ needs and interests”. Oh dear. Again.
Marketing is so not about “content” anymore.
So here’s the thing: this article makes plain the big black line right down the middle of the planet.
On one side stand “marketeers” for whom the create and push of content and the numbed response of clicks and counters are “digital” and “good marketing”.
On the other side of this line are companies and brands who welcome customer in, let them ask questions, respond honestly to them, help them get answers, shape products, get satisfaction when things go wrong, complain, unite, attack and appreciate.
Call it “old v new”, “another channel v revolution” or “past v future”.
The line exists. And too many who should now better, and on the wrong side of it.
cluetrainee (a.k.a. Mark Adams) The Conversation Group
January 29th, 2010 at 11:03 am
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