Experiential Marketing:
Thinking Beyond Features and Benefits

Many products are quickly becoming commoditized. Accordingly, differentiation continues to become more difficult, which can lead to the trend of companies purchasing based solely on price in far too many instances. In order to curtail this trend, your marketing habits must change to speak more to the user's experience when conducting business with you. Experiential marketing attempts to connect consumers with brands in personally relevant and memorable ways.

Here are some suggestions that can help pull out your products or services from the abyss of obscurity and into one that is tangible, vivid and desirable.

Personalize the use of your products or services.
When the value of your products or services is associated with an experience, simple facts will not appropriately communicate the benefits to your users. You need to personalize the products or services in this case. Accordingly, weaving quotes, testimonials and narratives throughout your campaign can introduce a perspective that allows users to project themselves into the experience you provide.

Optimize your website and offer demonstrations.
Show your ability to deliver. You need to prove to your prospect base that you have the ability to deliver what you promise. To do this, align the features of your products or services into a larger story and then organize events that incorporate live demonstrations, where possible.

For example, if your products promise a more streamlined, stress-free approach to process transactions, then use white papers, case studies, in-person demonstrations, webinars or even video or audio clips. Be sure to integrate hard facts and figures so viewers can quantify real results that they, too, can experience. Post what you can on your website, as this will help to convey the benefits of how and why your technology works. And be sure to optimize what you post on your website. This methodology can be applied to nearly any industry and its products or services.

Another great example: Remember when Mercedes-Benz introduced the G500? The car manufacturer invited Mercedes-Benz owners to attend events all over the United States as a way to learn more about this vehicle. The event was incredible. Several cars were displayed in a large structure, where a video demonstrated how the G500 was made and tested. Visitors could also buy Mercedes-Benz merchandise, test drive cars and receive demonstrations from skilled drivers who pushed the G500 to its rock-climbing limits.

Use your online presence to convey the experience.
Yes, visitors go to your website to learn more about you, but your site and the experience it provides both form impressions. Sure, this is understood, but far too many sites fail to convey a favorable web experience.

For example, suppose you are targeting baby boomers and seniors with the all-too-hot reverse mortgage products currently available. When visitors enter your site, are they able to adjust text size, easily differentiate text from background images and find your phone number so they can contact you? Is your site truly conversion oriented? The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has put standards in place to help developers aid site viewership and conversion. There is much to consider in site development, as this medium requires special consideration.

Differentiation is key, so I hope these suggestions can provide some insight into how you will go about developing your next campaign.

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Gauging Your Online Engagement

On the map of web-based marketing, online advertising resides at the intersection of consumer interaction and ad impact. This heavily trafficked intersection is not hard to find in today's electronic era, and marketers are searching for ways to better gauge the activity that occurs there. With an ETA of summer 2008, a new development for gauging online ad engagement will innovate the way marketers assess consumer interaction with Internet ads.

A couple months ago, marketing insider featured an article about how marketing is changing due to developments in behavioral advertising, which uses cookie-based computer programs to store the online search history and shopping patterns of Internet users who can be targeted with interest-specific ads. This form of advertising enables web users to see completely different ads when simultaneously visiting a given website. Now there's a new way for marketers to track the effectiveness of these ads, rather than counting clicks, or hits, their online ads receive. This new way, called Engagement ROI, combines measurable data with the various interactions consumers have with Internet advertising.

In February 2008, Microsoft introduced Engagement ROI – a reporting and optimization solution capable of gauging the impact of web-based advertising for the corporation's online advertising system. This new method is still in the test phase, but it has already been programmed into Microsoft's Atlas Media Console, which, according to computerworld.com, "is software used for booking and managing online advertising campaigns." Microsoft plans to further test Engagement ROI from March to June 2008 with national ad clients and agencies. Beginning in June, results will be reviewed with the hope of bringing the system to market sooner.

So how does Engagement ROI, or engagement mapping, work? According to Microsoft, it "evaluates and assigns [– on a real-time basis –] measurable value to a consumer's interaction with ads" to determine how successful the messages are in influencing purchase decisions. Engagement ROI considers various aspects of online ads, including how recently they've been posted and their frequency, size and format.

Over the past decade, marketers relied on the counting-clicks method; however, this method fails to take into account "the various touch points and interactions a consumer experiences before an eventual sale," reported Microsoft. Because of this, Microsoft claims the old way is a poor measure of ad effectiveness. Microsoft's Brian McAndrews stated, "The 'last ad clicked' is an outdated and flawed approach because it essentially ignores all prior interactions the consumer has with a marketer's message." Also, the outdated method fails to consider when a consumer accidentally clicks on an ad, whereas Engagement ROI can help determine the nature of the consumer's click.

While the results of the test phase are still months away, marketing professionals remain optimistic about the benefits to using a more advanced system. They hope that Engagement ROI will help maximize their online ad expenditures. Plus, advertisers can have better knowledge, insight and control over their ads because Engagement ROI allows them to manage their own campaigns rather than go through third-party ad serving companies.

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What Do Your Customers Really Think?

Administering online surveys is an effective way to quickly determine your customers' insights, and fortunately, companies increasingly understand the importance of knowing their customers. But to the frustration of these companies, customers seem to ignore surveys for a number of reasons, including a lack of time, the feeling that there is nothing to gain by responding or the fear that surveys are not coming from credible sources. Although getting people to respond can be a challenge, the information gathered is worth the time and effort. Try these tips to increase your response rates.

Have a goal in mind.
What is your purpose for sending a survey? Knowing this first will help you ask the right questions and provide data you can use to improve your business. Stay on track and ask questions that flow from one to the next.

Know when to send your survey.
Avoid sending your survey on Mondays, Fridays, and the days immediately before and after national holidays. Try sending your surveys mid-morning and mid-afternoon, as this is when people are more likely to use their email systems and are not as overloaded with messages.

Offer an incentive to respond.
Having an incentive to complete your survey can have a significant effect on response rates. Some companies offer gift cards, coupons or white papers, while others offer chances to win gifts in drawings. Whether or not you can offer an incentive, make sure you show your appreciation by thanking the customer for responding.

Be considerate of their time.
Keep your survey focused on the point and ensure that it takes less than five to 10 minutes to complete. Tell your customers upfront how long the survey will take to finish, so they know what to expect. A progress bar can help motivate your customers to continue.

Ask in the right way.
Avoid asking overly wordy or biased questions. Do not use industry jargon that your customers will not understand. Also, if you are going to ask for demographic data, make sure to include a privacy statement. Ask these questions near the end, so you can obtain more important information earlier in the survey in case someone quits.

Test your survey.
Make sure your electronic survey works with a variety of systems. Sending the survey to employees first will give you an idea of how long it will take to complete. Employees can also provide feedback about whether the survey is confusing or if there is a technical problem that should be addressed.

Send a friendly reminder.
People get busy. They may set your survey aside and forget to complete it. Send a reminder, asking them to proceed with the survey. However, do not overwhelm or annoy your customers with reminders. Keep track of when you send reminders and who receives them.

Use what you have learned.
Do you have customers who are interested in learning about other products or services? Or are some unhappy with the services they received? Use survey data to follow up with customers. Surveys can reveal cross-selling opportunities, so make sure this information gets into the necessary hands.

Research helps to make your marketing more targeted, and it allows you to find new growth opportunities. Beyond online surveys, consider putting an extensive research program in place, which may include focus groups, mystery shopping and one-on-one interviews. Using blogs can also encourage dialog about your company as you gain instant feedback and have conversations with customers, plus blogs spread the news about your company. Consider making research an ongoing marketing strategy in order to gain insights into your customers' opinions, thus improving your company's identity.

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Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Don't underestimate it.

You have probably heard the old adage that if you make customers happy, they will tell three to five more people about your business. And that's about where things will end. The same applies when you make customers upset, but they will each tell at least 10 other people. And that's about where you can expect things to end.

Not any more.

If you make customers happy today, they will still verbally tell three to five people. If you make them very happy, chances are they will email a bunch of their friends, post online reviews of your products or services, and brag about you in blogs. (It's amazing how many people take the time to review vacuum cleaners on amazon.com!) The reach goes from a mere few to thousands. Why? People love to express themselves, and they take pleasure in seeing their comments and posts online.

Here's an example.

I am a motorcycle enthusiast. Prior to purchasing my first bike several years ago, I was torn between three different models. I decided to spend some time online and research a number of reviews and customer posts. I stumbled upon a forum for the Ducati Multistrada (at the time of writing this, there were 7,881 users who had collectively written 112,879 articles). This is a place for Multistrada owners to brag about their bikes; review products; share photos, mechanical tips and advice, and stories about their experiences and the dealerships where they purchased their bikes; and much more. After dedicating two hours to this website (time flew), I was confident that the Multistrada was the bike for me. After all, there were 7,881 people who couldn't stop bragging (over 112,000 times) about their Multistradas!

On the other hand, if you make customers at all upset, they will still verbally tell quite a few people. And with the power of the Internet, they will likely email their friends, participate in blogs and, if they are upset enough, start their own blogs. For example, I witnessed a video in which someone demonstrated how poorly his computer performed, even after spending hundreds of dollars to fix it and wasting three trips to a national computer repair chain. How did I discover the video? I simply typed the words "computer repair" in Google's keyword search, and this video was at the top of the search results list. Why? It had recorded over 70,000 views!

In the old days, some companies may have gotten away with selling poor or mediocre products or services for quite some time because viral marketing moved at a behemoth's pace. However, if a discerning customer purchases a less-than-perfect product today, expect a review to be posted online before the end of the day.

Don't forget to tell your friends!

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