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Online Marketing

The Art of Conversation avoiding short-termism

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Ever taken a short cut? Even though you know it’s a quick fix and that you’re probably storing up problems for further down the line? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

Like that time when you super-glued the kitchen table back together, instead of getting out your toolbox. Or when you bought cheap trousers the day before your holiday, knowing they would likely split before the week was out.

It’s the same at work.

Marketers are often pushed for quick wins and instant results, in order to meet the team’s short-term KPIs. The business wants more leads and sales, and the result is a mad dash for quick fire digital marketing tactics, in place of following a long-term, more robust plan.

But at what cost? That longer-term plan is the one that meets the goals and objectives that matter.

Building a relationship

Marketing is moving beyond traditional campaigns, as campaigns increasingly become measured on longer-term metrics like customer retention and lifetime customer value.

The main marketing effort is shifting to ongoing conversation, towards engaging individuals in a progressively more personal, valuable relationship.

However, a good conversation is a two-way thing that needs to be cultivated over time. It’s not a snatched text between meetings, a bullet point email or a hastily-sent emoticon.

The definition of a conversation is a talk between two or more people, where news and ideas are swapped. We get to know each other, we start to recognise each other, and, as the relationship grows, we start to give back more and more to each other.

For brands, it’s no different. It’s just this conversation can be over the phone, online, or in person, depending on the context of the customer the brand is talking to.

Brands that invest in conversation like this, instead of short-term, digital-only marketing tactics that only hit short-term KPIs, are the ones that will meet long-term goals and drive real customer value.

What’s more, as you get to know and understand individuals better, you’ll be better able to meet their needs at the right time, and in the right place, no matter the context – treating your customers as humans and giving them what they want.

But how do you actually do it?

Reaping the rewards

A top Premier League Football Club recognised the need to engage their global fan base and ensure that the fan of today is also the fan of tomorrow. They wanted to understand who their fans were, what those fans needed and where they were on their journey to meet that need.

In an era where the consumption of sport is rapidly increasing across the world through technology, media, television and even gaming, the options available to fans are endless: new sports, new leagues, new teams.

Therefore, as a club, operating across all of your channels and touchpoints, at scale, without losing focus on the fan, is a challenge. As is driving commercial success from your existing fan base and ensuring the acquisition of the fans of tomorrow.

The Club used Thunderhead’s ONE Engagement Hub to listen to and understand each individual fan, as he or she interacted with the brand, whenever and wherever they felt like it. This insight was used to enrich the fan profiles already held by the Club’s CRM.

For each and every fan, the brand now understands their membership, ticketing and retail needs, based on who they are and what they’re actually doing.

Thunderhead’s ONE uses that insight to enable conversations that are based on channel, team favourites, individual preferences, device usage and/or geo-location. Every communication can now be personalised to the fan and is relevant to that individual and their journey with the club.

The club doesn’t contact fans with irrelevant and badly targeted offers – this means less noise and much more of what they’re interested in, to nurture a deep and lasting relationship.

The moral of this story?

Get some better chat – there’s really no excuse now.

Don’t look for the quick fix. Take your time, build real relationships and start reaping real rewards.

[Source:- marketingtechnews]

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Education

Parents’ smartphones harming children’s ability to hold conversation, say teachers

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Children in the playground at primary school

Parents’ immersion in smartphones has left some neglected children starting primary school unable to hold conversations, new research  warns.

Almost a third of children starting school are not ready for the classroom, with many lacking social skills, having speech problems or not toilet trained, the survey of senior primary school staff has found.

Teachers warned of children suffering from a lack of attention and interaction from parents obsessed with their smartphones.

One head teacher said: “There is limited parent/child interaction. Four year-olds know how to swipe a phone but haven’t a clue about conversations”.

Another primary school leader warned: “We are having more and more children entering our early years stage with delayed speech and a lack of school readiness.

“I feel much of this is down to challenging family circumstances alongside the rise of mobile phones and other mobile technology, which means parents are more often to be seen on the phone than talking to their children.”

Four year-olds know how to swipe a phone but haven’t a clue about conversations”Head teacher

The survey of more than 1,100 senior primary staff carried out by The Key, an information and advice service for head teachers, estimates at least 194,000 children could be ill-prepared to start school in September.

The State of Education report found four-fifths of teachers were worried about poor social skills or children having speech problems. More than two-thirds had seen children lacking “self-help skills”.

Teachers also reported levels of reading, writing and numeracy were lower than they should be.

Fergal Roche, The Key chief executive, said: “School leaders are already struggling to retain staff and manage their teachers’ workload, so add thousands more pupils arriving ill-prepared for the classroom to the equation, and the burden placed on our schools will be huge.

“An agreed definition of what ‘school-readiness’ means, could be the first step to helping schools, parents and early years practitioners identify what national or localised support is required to meet this growing issue.”

Gareth Jenkins director of poverty policy at Save The Children said the report “provides yet further evidence that too many children are not getting the support they need to thrive in their early years”.

He said: “Research for Save The Children has shown that falling behind in their early years can drastically limit a child’s chances of success later on, affecting results throughout school, and even earnings as adults.”

Last year, a leading child psychiatrist suggested parents enforce a “talk not tap” rule at the dinner table to stop smartphones and tablets taking over children’s lives.

Dr Hayley Van Zwanenberg, of the Priory clinics, warned that children “transfixed” by social media and messaging risk growing up emotionally stunted and unable to cope properly with the real world.

Today’s research comes after the Department for Education halted its controversial attempts to measure the abilities of four- and five year-olds as soon as they start school.

Teachers and unions had said children starting school were too young for the baseline tests designed to see how pupils developed through primary school.

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