Engage with
Power™ A Model For Effective Marketing Communications Download PDF
Marketing is any activity that helps move goods or services to market.
Above all, however, marketing is about successfully engaging the
customer. Engagement can be direct, as in a sales
visit, or indirect as in media advertising.
Direct engagement describes real-time customer
interactions that drive sales. These encounters can be played out
at the prospect’s office, on the trade-show floor, over the
retail counter, or through an e-business web site. Regardless of
venue, the goal is the same: one-to-one relationships that turn
prospects into buyers and buyers into lifetime customers.
Indirect engagement is non-personal. Its primary
function is to pave the way for, and support, direct engagement.
Think of indirect engagement as a catalyst that can help shorten
selling cycles. Or boost per-transaction volume. Or stimulate higher-margin
sales. In other words, from branding to direct-response advertising;
merchandising to product literature; the goal of indirect engagement
is to build profits by making the sales process more productive.
Why is the customer-engagement model useful? First because most
organizations occasionally suffer some degree of marketing/sales
disconnect: the marketing group goes one direction, the sales team
another. The first step to staying connected is to manage every
touch point — direct or indirect — as part of a single
customer outreach process. Companies that do this well earn a significant
competitive advantage.
The second reason follows logically from the first: Customer touch
points gain power when they deliver a common brand message. One-voice
consistency across all direct and indirect touch points is a proven
way to optimize sales and marketing resources.
Finally, the engagement model reminds us that success is often as
much about sales training or customer service as it is advertising
or merchandising. And that marketers have one underlying mandate:
to cause or support interactions that directly impact business success.
Successful customer engagement is the outcome of a three-step process:
- Strategy – Build key messages
based on competitive strengths and customer-valued deliverables.
- Creative – Design a distinctive communications
approach.
- Tactics – Create and apply a synergistic
mix of engagement options.
It doesn’t take an MIT brain trust to put
this process to work. What it does take, is clear up-front thinking,
solid creative talent and practical marketing know-how – the
qualities Smith-Winchester applies to build client success.
Engaging with power, then, means managing direct and indirect customer
touch points to achieve marketing goals – a challenge Smith-Winchester
is helping its clients meet every day.
