FIGURE 24.1 The Logo for SUBSCRIBERS RULE!
In the years since we launched SUBSCRIBERS RULE!, its tenets have become engrained in our company’s culture. And upon our acquisition by Salesforce.com, we found ourselves aligned with a kindred spirit focused on helping every company become a customer company. It was all pretty cool kismet indeed, but with the rise of mobile and social media, it struck me that we needed to add two more tenets to our SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy in order to reflect the need for customer-centricity today: surprise them with access, and delight them with your company’s humanity.
Surprise and delight has long been a rallying cry of customer service and social media advocates, as surprising and delighting CUSTOMERS increases loyalty and creates AMPLIFIERS. But it struck me that adding these two tenets means that SUBSCRIBERS RULE! has evolved into something more vivid for our email, mobile, and social age: The Red Velvet Touch.
I know it sounds strange, but indulge me. Red velvet is the fabric of audience. Consider the rationale behind each tenet:
1. Serve the individual. Marketing is now in the customer service business. Amidst the cacophony of social media activity, there are CUSTOMERS reaching out for help—even at this very moment. It is not enough to serve the masses; we must use technology to anticipate individual needs. We must seek to provide high-touch, velvet glove service around everything we do.
2. Honor their unique preferences. Consumers now control the on/off switch of nearly every digital channel. We must request their permission, honor their decisions, and use our Big Data to their advantage. The consumer is king, sitting on a red velvet throne.
3. Deliver them timely, relevant content that makes their lives better. Our proprietary audiences have expectations and finite attention; they want us to inform and entertain them. They have filled our red velvet theater waiting for the show they were promised.
4. Surprise them with unexpected access. Today’s passionate FANS can be vocal AMPLIFIERS of your brand one minute and extensions of your CUSTOMER service staff the next. Remove the red velvet rope that creates us versus them thinking and celebrate the value of passionate people both inside and outside your organization.
5. Delight them with your company’s humanity. Brands can no longer afford to be stoic monoliths. Social media demands that they let their humanity shine through in real time with real people. This means baking the proverbial red velvet cupcake or two regardless of whether or not it produces immediate ROI (#JustBecause).
Is The Red Velvet Touch concept a bit kitschy? Maybe—but that’s what also makes it memorable and perhaps a device that can help your PAD Team’s proprietary audience engagement efforts reach new heights. Let’s take a look at each tenet and some companies delivering The Red Velvet Touch today.
1. Serve (The Red Velvet Glove)
The Red Velvet Touch immediately casts marketing as a service. We’re not just selling widgets; we’re helping customers to meet real needs. We do this because in a social world where Earned Media is on the rise, each CUSTOMER touch lays the foundation for them to become an AMPLIFIER.
Our Proprietary Audience Development efforts support this serve-first tenet by giving your company direct, one-to-one means to interact with CUSTOMERS and PROSPECTS at scale. They also lay the groundwork for Youtility, a term Jay Baer coined in 2012—and the subject of his 2013 book of the same name.1
Youtility is the notion that the best marketing provides a service to customers:
The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those letters make all the difference. Your company needs to become a Youtility. Sell something, and you make a customer. Help someone, and you make a customer for life.2
When everything around our brands is always-on, hyper-competitive, and socially amplified, we must serve individuals or run the risk of creating some very vocal detractors. Here are a few recent examples of how brands can serve individuals within their proprietary audiences:
GE’s “Talking” GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater. GE (@GE) is giving its products a voice by enabling them to “talk” to owners via its Nucleus energy management system. In the case of its GeoSpring Water Heater, this means the unit can send maintenance alerts via text or smartphone app. The result is high-touch service for the CUSTOMER and increased sales and loyalty for the brand.3
Nivea’s Solar Charger Print Ad. In Brazil, Nivea (@Nivea) ran a print ad on the back of magazines that doubled as a solar-powered cell phone charger. Talk about serving today’s mobile consumers! The ad gave consumers an electricity fix for their mobile devices, while also converting READERS into AMPLIFIERS the world around.4