The Marketing Bureau

By Stephen Howard

One of the foundations of my marketing advice to clients is the need for them to start having TLC. When I first raise this topic, most think I am referring to Tender Loving Care of customers (and the enlightened ones also extend this to employees). Now, while I'm all for treating customers with love and care, the TLC strategy I advocate stands for Think Like Customers.

Most clients, particularly small business owners, immediately start discussing how this concept of TLC can be used to improve their customer experiences, especially at the time of sale or their post-purchase satisfaction levels. Again, all good and certainly on the right road for improving customer retention and loyalty.

However, I am increasingly finding the value of being able to Think Like Customers in the areas of social media marketing, especially with regards to search engine optimization (SEO).

For example, in a current SEO project for a client, I took them to the #1 position on Google for three key search phrases, simply by understanding the thought patterns and phrases that customers used when searching for my client's tourism-related services.

Previously they were not showing up on the first three results pages for any of these search phrases.

Now, they are the first listing, beneath the three paid ads from their competitors, on all three search phrases. The results: an immediate increase averaging 25% to 30% every day on traffic to their website and a 25% increase in the number of average pages seen per visitor.

For a client in the UK we recently created an affiliate package for a new service that will be sold through a network of professional services partners. The client came to us struggling to communicate why professionals would want to partner with them. We viewed the concept "through the eyes of a potential customer" and completely reworked their key message strategy. Even though I've never met this client, or any of their potential partners, the ability to Think Like Customers enabled me to identify messages and copy that would resonate with the intended audience.

We applied this same technique when creating the brand name, key brand characteristics, key message statements, website and launch brochure for an insurance client in Hong Kong. Again, we approached the marketing and branding strategy from a customer's perspective. The result: one of their most successful new product launches ever, even despite the fact that we have never met this client and all discussions were via Skype and email.

Far too often I have seen marketing plans and documents drafted to meet "what the client wants" or to please some senior client executive. And, more often than not, the results of such plans are mediocre.

We no longer live in an age where marketers can decide what messages their customers and prospective customers should be hearing and receiving. The only messages that resonate with customers and prospects today are the ones they want to hear -- ones that are meaningful to them.

And to figure out what customers and prospects want to hear, you simply must Think Like Customers.

After you do that, a little Tender Loving Care will simply be icing on the cake.

Steven Howard is a leading marketing consultant, keynote speaker, and author of CORPORATE IMAGE MANAGEMENT, POWERFUL MARKETING MINUTES, ASIAN WORDS OF WISDOM, MORE Powerful Marketing Minutes, and ASIAN WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE. He may be contacted via e-mail at steven@howard-marketing.com, or via his web site: www.howard-marketing.com