How many people do you think care about a product or a service, they may use it but do they really care about it? On the other hand, how many companies really care about their potential customers, not the sales or giving customized recommendations but actually care about them? In both cases, the answer is unsurprising, not many if not none at all.
Now let’s take a minute and just think at the speed with which we scroll through our social media feeds no matter the platform when we barely stop for people we know and care about at different degrees, are we really going to stop for a brand? Another easy answer: a resounding probably not!
So what is really happening? People are spending more time online; brands are spending more money online, most happy with sales, traffic or whatever metric they are tracking as per overall statics so how is this happening?
People are getting the convenience of buying from anywhere, getting delivered for free, saving time and money while usually getting some or the other kind of deal. Brands are adapting to this consumer behavior and selling stuff cheaper than ever before via whatever online portal they can. So maybe it isn’t all that bad after all or is it?
Of course sales matter, but who and what is driving them? But do sales matter more than people buying it? Do sales matter despite not being sure what prompted the user to click on an ad so most brands have no clue what is working vs what isn’t. What happens when something Snapchat comes along steals the attention from Twitter, Instagram, and even Facebook to an extent and doesn’t let just post ads with a deal and a buy now button, now what??
Here’s the problem and its always been the same one since I entered this industry in 2012, people only paid attention to the metric that seemed to most convenient not the ones that should have really mattered! It started with likes and followers then they asked what about engagement, ok we got some engagement and 2 years (probably more and spend a ton money) so what about sales, ok we got some sales and here we are waiting for someone to ask another question before spending 6 months to adapt our answers to that.
Ok so now that I have rambled on to my level personal satisfaction, here’s the answer, the only metric that matters is attention! If you have the people’s attention they will probably remember you and think of you and talk about you so obviously unless your product/service isn’t complete shit, buy from you! But why should someone pay attention to you? You have to tell the best story not about the product not about how you make it but why it should matter to the user! So stop instead of worrying about the product photoshoot and giving the best deal, worry about do customers care about you enough to pay attention to you, because if they do they will buy it and if you can show them you care about them, they will buy again and again and that it the aim!
How to show your customers you care about them? Well, that I will explain in part -2!