People > Products
Your company sells a product or a service, right? So you must love touting the value props of your handiwork to potential customers:
Our service is reliable! Our product lasts longer! The thing we sell is prettier/cheaper/easier/more luxurious than those of our competitors!
But that strategy only gets you so far. How do you not only convince a customer to purchase your product or service – but to come back to your company every time they want to make an upgrade or have a new project?
Easy: You don’t talk about what you sell. You talk about the people who need it – and how amazing your solution is for solving their problems. This is the heart of customer-centric marketing.
Here are four ways we keep people at the heart of FSM’s work, always remembering that what we do makes a difference in people’s lives.
1. The Psychology of Consumer Choices
You know the feeling: You’re getting ready for work or an evening out. You gaze upon a closet crammed with clothing options and come to the irrational conclusion that you have nothing to wear.
Or you default to wearing the same items over and over because they’re familiar, comfortable, flattering – regardless of the clean laundry languishing in overstuffed drawers.
It’s called analysis paralysis, that sense of overwhelm at being faced with too many choices. And it’s counterintuitive. Humans seem to value choice as an expression of freedom and autonomy. But studies have shown that too many options will lead most consumers to:
- Fear making the wrong choice
- Doubt the value of any of the choices
- Simply walk (or click) away instead of choosing
Smart marketers who practice customer-centric marketing are mindful of this paradox of choice when creating web pages aimed at selling products or services. To simplify the decision-making process and achieve ever-better conversions, the FSM team works to:
- Limit the number of products a visitor must decide between
- Create clearer categories to organize products into more manageable choices
- Guide the decision-making process with default choices, expert suggestions or visual comparisons
2. The Power of Emotional Connections
It’s no longer enough to simply list a product’s features and benefits – you need to connect to your audience’s values and emotions.
Why? Because people tend to make purchasing decisions based on how a product makes them feel or how a brand aligns with their personal moral code. Those elusive affinities often count much more than tangible qualities like durability or usefulness when it comes time for consumers to open their wallets.
We make those connections through storytelling. It’s intuitive to love a good story, but science backs up those feelings with facts like:
- Stories are 22 times more memorable than facts and figures alone
- Our neural activity increases 5X when listening to a story
- Storytelling lights up the sensory cortex in the brain, allowing the listener to feel, hear, taste and even smell the story
Those are powerful connections! They can transform a customer into a lifetime advocate and ally for your company.
To really harness the power of storytelling, we take a cue from the customer-centric marketing playbook. One excellent example of this comes from Ann Handley’s handy and humorous book Everybody Writes. She points out the importance of making your customer the hero of the story thanks to your product or service. That can take a thousand different forms, but here are a few ideas to get you started:
- A narrative about how a building manager saves her company time and money while elevating the workplace experience by ordering the perfect lighting
- Testimonials from real people who were able to change their lives for the better by using a company’s services
- The image of a brighter, more comfortable future for a family after they hire a company to transform their living space into a relaxing and useful oasis
3. The Drive of Personalization
We all want to feel understood, valued and unique. It feels really good when a new acquaintance remembers your name, a coworker compliments your input or someone treats you to your favorite coffee on your birthday.
Those are all examples of a tailored approach to engaging with others – and it’s exactly what customer-centric marketing attempts to achieve. Whether it’s your real name in the greeting of an email, a curated selection of products you might like on an oft-visited web page or a special discount on your anniversary of creating an account, personalizing the experience goes a long way toward building brand loyalty.
4. The Appeal of Authenticity
Honesty. Openness. Transparency. We value these qualities in ourselves and other people – and we tend to be drawn to companies that demonstrate them, too.
Honest accountability, forthright communication and transparent policies make a brand seen authentic. When people sense authenticity as part of your everyday business, they’re more likely to trust you and want to nurture a long-term relationship with you.
Ways the FSM team builds authenticity and trust – both in-house and externally – include:
- Communicating openly about sources and processes
- Sharing genuine core values
- Demonstrating those values in everyday actions
- Staying consistent with tone, voice and messaging
- Listening to customer feedback
- Owning up to mistakes
The People Who Power FSM
We’re picky about who we welcome into the FSM team – just ask our HR Generalist, Maegen Gallagher! And every decision we make as a company centers on how it will affect the people we work with and partner with. Relationships keep our collective heart beating, so our company’s health depends on the strength of our connections to our colleagues and clients.
If you’re searching for customer-centric marketing strategies that align your business goals with people’s needs, talk to us. Our work can help make a difference in your brand identity – and in the lives of your target customers.
