Preparing Your Business for Digital Disruption

Digital Disruption https://www.jeffkorhan.com

In a recent guest post about the intersection of customer service and marketing I realized this:

There are two questions every business should be asking:

#1 – How will digital change or even eliminate proven business practices?

#2 – How soon could that happen – and what then?

The premise of the aforementioned article was that these days customer service is designed to create favorable customer experiences, even before prospective buyers become customers. This makes it a new form of marketing.

Conversely, content marketing that helps customers throughout their entire experience with the business serves a customer service role.

Just studying the intersection of these two disciplines helps one realize how the influence of digital and social media are disrupting nearly every aspect of business. Thus, it would be advantageous to discern that disruption before it happens to be ready for it.

There are probably a number of ways to approach this, but the most reliable is probably starting with a reevaluation of what your customers want, as compared to what your business and the rest of your industry are giving them now.

What Do Your Customers Really Want?

Customer service used to be sitting back and waiting for customers to complain, and then responding to hopefully deliver an amicable resolution. Today customer service is being ahead of the customer, anticipating their needs.

You can ask customers what they want, but they may not be able to tell you without knowing the full extent of your capabilities, or that you would be willing to give it to them.

I’m not sure how Amazon came up with Amazon Prime (charging one flat annual fee to then provide free shipping within 48 hours), but I absolutely love it. Many customers like me hate to shop, and so the easier you can make the experience the more readily you will earn our loyalty.

If you were your customer would you buy from you? How would you like to buy? These are good questions to ask your team, as well as your customer.

What would your customers want if they knew they could get it?

Amazon Prime is just one example. Free shipping by Zappos is another. Words like easier, faster, and risk-free come to mind. Of course, don’t forget cooler, fun, and personal.

If it isn’t being done and it’s a cool idea, you can bet it will disrupt your industry if you can be the first to do it.

Content, Social, and Digital are Disruptive Forces

Who would have known in the early days of blogging that content marketing would become a mainstream force?

Next week I’m off to Content Marketing World to learn more about the state of content marketing for businesses both small and large. One thing is certain; content marketing is now an essential business practice.

Social media continues to impact business by giving consumers a voice for getting what they want. Smart businesses are monitoring those conversations. You may or may not like hashtags, but they are here to stay and amazingly powerful for listening and learning what your customers want, as well as what your competitors are thinking.

More than anything, our increased connectivity, especially via mobile devices, is sure to disrupt nearly every aspect of our business operations.  Connectivity and mobile give easier access to all kinds of information, which surely means there will be an expectation for businesses to better create, organize, and protect it, especially if you are in the information business.

How about if your business is a mainstream, brick n mortar store? With customers being better educated and informed, will that require adapting your selling process to it?

There is no question the lines between sales, marketing, and customer service are blurring, and content, social, and digital media are largely responsible for this. It’s amazing to think of a world where every business is now a media company.

Get ready for a world in which every customer is now his or her own brand. It’s going to be both exciting – and disruptive.

Is your business ready?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, helps mainstream small businesses create exceptional customer experiences that accelerate business growth. Get more from Jeff on LinkedInTwitter and Google+.

Jeff is also the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)

 Photo Credit

Native Advertising: Content Marketing goes Mainstream

Just when you thought social media was going to rule the digital world, it is now clear that content is not only king – it is going mainstream with a new twist.

With more people sharing online content, and especially as more regular Joes and Janes are able to now call themselves publishers, content is now moving to center stage in new ways.

As new media challenged traditional media, banner and video ads were employed by traditional media outlets to monetize their content.

The realization has now dawned that their system is completely broken – people are not clicking on banner ads.

And why should they, you can get all of the free content you want by taking advantage of Google news. Consumers are not only ignoring banner ads, they despise their interruptive qualities.

Get ready for a new (sort of) kind of advertising that is designed to draw you in and hold your attention – it’s called native advertising.

Content Marketing vs Native Advertising

Content marketing is designed to build a relationship with your audience – by giving them valuable content that is designed especially for them. Content informs, it solves problems, and ideally also entertains whenever possible too.

Content marketing builds an audience to earn the opportunity to occasionally make offers to buy your products and services. Obviously, both the content and the offers are designed for a specific audience.

Native advertising is paid content marketing that most likely (but not always) includes a call-to-action for selling products and services. Promoted posts on Twitter are one form of native advertising – another are old-fashioned “advertorials” in newspapers and magazines (like the one in the image above).

The Truth About Native Advertising

You have already experienced native advertising. The only thing new is the name – and the fact that is sure to take marketing with content to a higher level, maybe even an art that fully uses all of the capabilities of digital media.

Native advertising in the form of long copy ads in newspapers or magazines at first glance look a lot like the regular content that the publication is known for. However, because the FTC does have oversight to protect consumers, there has to be at least a small disclaimer to indicate that the content being shared is indeed a promotional ad.

The look and feel of the content is what makes the ad native, something that is local or native to the publication, so to speak, and therefore, presumably just as readily consumed.

How This Makes for Better Online Marketing

One expectation is that disclosure and disclaimers will soon become nearly impossible to detect, as they can be disguised with images, overshadowed by well written headlines, or lead to amazing offers that people are eager to take advantage of  – think Groupon, that nothing else really matters.

When the native advertising trend goes mainstream, it will be necessary for you to be a better marketer to hold your audience – truly understanding how to attract, build, and maintain a platform that honors the audience.  This is the future of blogging, email newsletters, and all forms of social marketing.

When the playing field gets bigger it attracts more talent, and there is plenty of it out there. So, the winners are going to be those that are honing their practice and taking risks to differentiate their online digital assets for a defined audience.

Tell great stories, use quality images that capture attention and inspire, and above all, seek to create powerful headlines that earn attention – that’s what the native advertisers will be doing.

There is a fine line between native advertising and content marketing. Both attempt to earn the attention of an audience to sell them something. Only the methods differ.

It’s going to be fun. When there is a shift in marketing trends, being among the first to adapt provides invaluable advantages.

Are you ready?

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business – (Wiley 2013)  

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+.

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