A quick follow-up to the post earlier this week on added value marketing. Three things to think about and some further questions.

Added Value Marketing

If you are keen to practise added value marketing then think in terms of Connect – Engage – Share (CES):

1. Connect: Does your marketing and sales effort connect with existing and potential clients, their needs and aspirations?

2. Engage: Does it capture the hearts and minds of your existing and potential clients so that they want to spend time reading your marketing and sales material?

3. Share: Does it share information that adds value for them, gardless of whether they buy or not?

The 4 Key Questions of Added Value Marketing

Once you’ve got your brain around the above, ask yourself the following client-focused questions:

1. Who are my clients/potential clients?

2. What are my clients’/potential clients’ needs?

3. What is my offering?

4. Why is it important to my clients/prospective clients?

Note that the above can me modified for added value marketing sales materials/presentations by changing point 3 to “what is my message?”

Added Value Marketing and Product Deveopment

Andy Fletcher of DigiResults uses 3 important questions when looking at new products, questions that are consistent with added value marketing:

1. What problem do you solve?

2. Who do you solve it for? (This ties in nicely with the 4 questions above)

3.  How do you solve it?

So, if you want to begin practising added value marketing, begin with the CES model and the two sets of questions in this article. There will be more to come on added value marketing over the next few week; in the meantime, let me know if you have any questions or experiences to share.

Added value marketing is a logical step forward for organisations committed to 21st century communication. With the evolution of social media and the opening up of the customer to customer communication channel, marketing has to change.

Historical Perspective

First we had direct marketing -  junk mail and those spam telephone calls that always seemed to coincide with dinner-time! Then Seth Godin coined the phrase “Permissive Marketing” to tell companies that they had to engage people, that marketing was not a monologue, not a broadcast. It was a huge step forward, even though many companies still stay wedded to direct marketing but, all too often, the focus was still on the one doing the marketing.

Added Value Marketing – the Logical Next Step

Added value marketing means that the marketing process itself should add value. In other words, the potential client should benefit from the experience even if (s)he doesn’t buy anything. Added value marketing also focuses on relationships, not on transactions.

Are They Really Separate Activities?

Traditionally, we make a distinction between marketing (lead generation), sales (conversion) and customer service/support (after sales). Is that distinction still valid today? I’m not even 100% certain it ever was, because according to the traditional model, where do referal sales and cross sales fit in, for example?

In a post Web 2.0 world, we need to take a fresh look at marketing in its broadest sense (embracing all three of the activities in the previous paragraph). To put it another way, if you were to start with a clean slate, what should marketing look like today?

Connect, Engage, Share and Added Value Marketing

Connect, Engage and Share (CES) are the three activities that are key to effective communication both online and off. And added value marketing is entirely consistent with CES as the marketer is connecting, engaging and sharing regardless of whether the prospective client is going to buy.  It’s early days in my thinking about added value marketing but some of its implications are:

- market and sell on benefits (from the client’s perspective)
- focus on relationships, not transactions
- focus on developing “clients” not “customers”
- focus on solutions, not products. Added value marketing recognises that the DIY enthusiast buys a path, not cement powder!
- develop sales and marketing materials that add value

When I work in the Middle East, they think of selling as low tab retail. When working business to business, they call the whole process from lead generation to post sales support as “Marketing”. They consider the western distinctions as little more than a useful device for allocating overheads to different headings. i think they may be right!

How about you? What do you consider to be the future of marketing? More specifically, if you agree with my premise, how should the post Web 2.0 added value marketing be different from what’s gone before?

“Hi, my name is Robin and I want to tell you about this great product I’m selling on my website!” What would your reaction be? Most people would be put off and discouraged from continuing the conversation.

To take this a stage further: you go into a restaurant. After you’ve sat down, the waiter approaches you with a glass of wine and tells you your meal will arrive shortly. When you ask to see the menu, the waiter just smiles and says “We don’t have menus. We’ve been in the industry long enough that we know what you need. Trust us!” How long would you stay at that restaurant? A few people might stay, out of curiosity but most people will get up and leave immediately.

The challenge for on-line marketing and networking is that this ‘one size fits all’ approach may have succeeded in the past. However, the internet means that customers are more aware of the choices available to them, making the generic approach redundant. Equally redundant is the approach that revolves around having a “bag full of solutions and looking for a problem that fits”.

And this is the dichotomy presented by social media and social networking. You may be under pressure from your boss, the bank manager or whoever holds your mortgage to get quick results. But one thing that Connect, Engage, Share tells us is that while forming relationships and building trust with people is vital, it’s a slow process.

One way to speed up the process is to have a strategy that allows for this gradual build-up. You might want to start with a blog, then give away a free report then perhaps build a membership site. You might also want to post videos or podcasts where you discuss key issues and give out key messages in your field.

Or you may choose to build up a presence on a network site or two, link with lots of people and when the time is tight, introduce them to your product(s) and/or service(s).

Whichever approach you use, and there are many more, the common thread is that you are building a perception of your authority, your right to sell. Repeated loops of connect, engage, share help you to build trust. It’s also the essence of what Penny Power’s book, Know Me Like Me Follow Me is all about.

Timing is important but when the time is right, don’t be afraid to advertise your products and/or services. It’s just as silly to never pitch as it is to pitch when first meeting people. It’s also unfortunate that “marketing” and “selling” have almost become dirty words in the Social Networking world. Altruism only goes so far, it doesn’t pay the bills!