The Affinity Ladder
education
awareness
recognition
recall
acceptance
preference
loyalty
referral
awareness
recognition
recall
acceptance
preference
loyalty
referral
Knowledge is power. Information captured and stored from the customer database should inform the messaging and the media used to reach new prospective customers. This goes beyond mere demo and psychographics to include emotional and behavioral tendencies and how they prefer to consume media.
Online buzz. Conversations are happening all over the internet. To the extent a company can stay engaged with the sources of those conversations: the experts, the bloggers and the influencers, the more influence they have over what is being said and the more relevant they appear to the search engines.
The social web. Not all social media sites are the same and not all are appropriate for your customers or your prospects. Many social media sites won’t even be around three years from now. But the new form of open networks has changed the way people communicate and the way they interact with brands.
Audience. The more you know about your current customer base, the better you can target relevant messages to people just like them. More than anything else, audiences want to know that you understand them and empathize with their needs. Dialog marketing isn’t about making a sale, it’s about making a friend who will buy from you for years to come.
Outreach. The right message, delivered at the right time in the right place has a far greater chance of being acted upon because unlike the vast majority of the “pollution marketing” that’s out there. this message is welcomed and appreciated. As such, each touch point needs to be pure to the brand, profound to the emotional needs of the prospect, pertinent to the individual audience members and provocative enough to stand out and garner interest and attention.
B2B marketing. Few businesses exist in a vacuum without the support or reliance on other businesses somewhere along the line. Sometimes this means direct sales and other times the relationship is more complex. Either way, keeping an open dialog with these businesses reminds them of how interdependent the businesses are.
Organizing principals. Organizing partner businesses into groups, boards or panels shows both commitment and leadership. Whether it’s traditional or online, partner groups such as LinkedIn Groups are a largely untapped resource for most businesses.
Ongoing dialog. Once you’ve engaged a prospect, how do you respond? The answer is: it depends. Information you learn about each prospect determines a subsequent and relevant set of responses. Each touch point should be strategically planned to move the individual from being a prospect to being a customer.
The sphere of influence. This sphere grows the more a company monitors, participates in and engages with the social web. Engaging with your customers on their turf is the best way to further develop rapport and grow your sphere of influence (as well as improve SEO) at the same time.
The website. Most websites are online brochures. The best websites are the central headquarters for the dialog marketing process. People with needs and desires look online for websites that are relevant to solving their problem. The more active the site, the more relevant it becomes and the more worthy of positioning and engagement.
The gift of value. Companies sell things, services and ideas that help to solve a specific problem. But that’s not enough. To gain and maintain true loyalty when your product or service is becoming commod- itized give them something they don’t expect. Something that will help them will benefit you.
The Affinity Ladder
education
awareness
recognition
recall
acceptance
preference
loyalty
referral
awareness
recognition
recall
acceptance
preference
loyalty
referral