Today, almost all businesses interact with and relate to their perspective and existing clients through multiple channels: in-person, on the phone, over e-mail and increasingly text, via social media and through Web Reputational Means of which we are usually only partially aware.
For many folks, even just reading the above paragraph arouses feelings of anxiety, frustration, and sometimes even disgust.
Golly they say - wasn't it an easier and better time when everything was just "analog" and “human” sized and paced?
And they go on, in the end doesn't all of this digital stuff cost more than it is really worth? In the day-to-day time, energy, and focus to pay attention to and consistently communicate on them all?
Well Too bad. Multiple Touch Point Business - digital and otherwise – is now the very air that we as modern executives breathe.
And we can choose to either have those breaths be deep, nurturing, and effective, or shallow, distracting, and ineffective.
It really just comes down to in all of our communication no matter its form whether or not we are one thing: Authentic.
Now for most of us this is most easily and naturally done in the traditional channels: Over the telephone and In-person.
So a great prism through which to manage and judge our digital efforts - Email, SEO, SEM, social media, etc. - is simply by how much they lead to high-quality telephone conversations and in-person interactions.
Car dealerships understand this better than anyone: that the over-riding purpose of their digital efforts is to make their phones ring and drive visitors to their lots.
Now, for those businesses in selling modalities (usually lower-priced products) where the telephone/in-person outcome is not desirable nor possible, then the guidance is to work to enrich the “virtual” experience so that it feels as real and natural as a telephone/in-person interaction.
Simple but powerful ways to do this include the use of photos in marketing efforts, along with stories and testimonials from successful and happy clients.
Online Photo Sharing, now so ubiquitous in the personal digital domain, is utilized far less often and effectively in business contexts.
But given that social media stats show that for both business and personal purposes that photos are shared more than 5 times as much as written posts, incorporating imagery into one’s business communications is a simple and inexpensive way to emulate the power and emotional appeal of in-person marketing.
Video is another inexpensive and simple way to improve digital authenticity and effectiveness.
This can be of two forms - Recorded Video in the form of Explainer Videos, Thought Pieces, Case Studies, and Testimonials, and Live Video in the form of upgrading phone calls and presentation to video through free and inexpensive tools like Skype, Google Hangouts, and GoToMeeting.
Does this video need to be of high production quality?
It can't hurt, but a video strategy I find easily effective is to “Share the Webcam” and live video of myself at the start of a call, and then turn it off and conduct the call as normal.
This usually creates that lovely “Ah-Ha” moment when we first see the other person’s face that I am sure all of us have experienced on a Skype call or a Facetime chat without the awkwardness and work of “staying on camera” for an extended period of time.
The key caveat here is that if even for only a few moments in business contexts “staging” is important
So invest in a quality webcam, have well-lit and professional backdrop, and “Dress for Success” in whatever way that means for your business.
And finally, don't hide behind the lazy virtues of “Branding” and “Goodwill” but instead relentlessly and ruthlessly work to quantify the ROI of these multiple touch point efforts.
Yes, doing it all right requires a lot of hard work, but once in rhythm really just requires the simplest and most natural thing in the world: Giving and Sharing the Best of Ourselves.
Just remember to keep measuring and focusing on incremental improvement as we do so.
↧
In Modern Business, Authenticity Trumps All
↧