Customer-Centric Marketing: Build Relationships, Create Advocates, and Influence Your Customers

CHAPTER SEVEN

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE ADVOCATE/SHARECASTER

Creating Content

IN PREVIOUS CHAPTERS, WE'VE LOOKED AT FACTORS THAT DEFINE the new marketing environment and the powerful role that customers now play in the marketing ecosystem. In addition to new customer behaviors, you've seen how customer experience plays a pivotal role in the decision-making process and how brands provide the glue that binds all elements together to build strong relationships. To build these relationships, the primary currency is content, but it can't just be any kind of content. Like currency, it has to be valued by the customer, and its perceived value is directly related to how helpful, entertaining, and memorable the experience is to the customer.

“It's not what you say but how you make them feel.”

Despite a limited attention span, customers have an insatiable need for content, not only to read, but also to share. Your customers now spend one hour and twenty-one minutes more per day consuming media than they did 10 years ago and, as previously discussed, rely heavily on the web when making a purchasing decision. But these are not passive audiences; they're engaged and selective. So, when your customers are evaluating content to help frame their purchasing decisions, whom do they trust? They seek out the small segment of family, friends, and your brand Advocates, who essentially become ...