The customer on the Internet

Clients on the Internet require clear, fast, transparent and realistic communication from the first moment of contact, before establishing a business relationship, during the process of purchasing the product or service, and even after completing the sales process.

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What does the customer demand?

Before starting to plan a marketing 2.0 campaign, it is necessary to know in depth the characteristics that define our client and, later, to use that knowledge to plan the strategy of the company. The customer is the one who buys the products and services, so it has to be the main axis of a marketing 2.0 campaign.

 The client on the Internet demands to be listened to, to interact, to receive quality information, to perceive transparency and trust and to express their opinions.

He wants to be heard

One of the most important tasks for the current company is to listen to customers and understand exactly what they require. This implies that companies must be aware of all trends, topics, news, innovative information, comments and opinions of users related to their sector. This involves answering questions such as the following:

  • What are the web pages visited by the target customer of the company?
  • What are the blogs visited by the target customer of the company?
  • Who are the opinion leaders in your sector?
  • What are the most visited social networks or groups on Facebook by the company's target customer?

Subsequently, the company has to analyze what type of conversations occur in these sites, ie, identify what are the current issues in blogs and social networks. A very useful tool to stay informed of a specific sector is called Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=es) that can be used to receive news and news. To start using Google Alerts, you only need to have a Google Gmail account. Other useful tools are Google Reader and Google Insights.

Once the company has understood the needs of customers, you can establish good communication with them. In this way, the relationship between client and company will become much more solid.

He wants to interact

Thanks to new technologies and the growth of social media pages , today there are multiple possibilities to interact with customers and communicate with them. Below is a list of some of the actions that a company can put into practice to promote interactivity with its customers.

On the company's website:

  • Integrate tools such as Skype (www.skype.com) or Google Talk (www.google.com/talk/intl/es/) into the company's website.These tools, in addition to being free, offer customers the possibility of contacting the company through instant messaging (Google Talk) or video calls (Skype).
  • Surveys: they are a very effective means to promote interactivity, since it offers the client the opportunity to express their opinion and, in addition, the company can receive a lot of useful information about the behavior and needs of users.

In social networks:

  • Encourage customers to ask questions and then answer them on the company's blog.
  • Ask questions to lead a conversation with customers on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks.
  • Create videos, upload them to YouTube and ask customers to leave their comments about them.

In general, we must take advantage of every possibility of communicating with customers to interact with them, ask questions, listen and learn, and then use that information in the company's marketing 2.0.

Want quality information

Chapter 2: "Content to convince" talks about the importance of developing interesting and relevant content for the website of a company. The participation of the company in social networks should focus on offering different contents that provide true value to users. Customers want to receive relevant and useful information about the products or services they will acquire. This objective is achieved through specialization. The Internet is an ideal way to reach "niche" customers through value-added content focused on that niche. The information is provided through a combination of texts, images and videos.

The more value content the company generates in the social media pages , the more relevance and credibility is reached from the point of view of its customers. In addition, the fact of generating content and information through articles and videos can also be very beneficial to obtain a good position in Google.

Want to perceive transparency and trust

The fact that every time there are more offers and more publicity obliges companies to make use of resources that contribute to creating a solid bond with customers, based on transparency and trust; and the best way to do this is by maintaining an open and dynamic communication with customers.

Some actions aimed at achieving this objective are the following:

  • Facilitate the necessary resources for clients to get involved and thus have a clear perception of their needs and preferences.One of the techniques that we can use is to offer the client the possibility of telling his experience about the product or service of the company through a testimony that can be expressed in written or video format; Sometimes these testimonies are incorporated into the company's website in a section called "customer experiences", where they can express their opinion through video-testimonials.
  • Publish photographs and videos where they are presented to the workers of the company, in addition to other relevant information. A page that may be useful for uploading photographs is Flickr (www.flickr.com).
  • Be active on social networks, especially on Twitter. The company must be present in those social media sites where communication is established between the clients, or between the clients and the companies. Simply being active and participating in social networks and Twitter will promote an increase in customer confidence in the company.
  • Participate in events related to the business sector. This allows to establish relationships with other entrepreneurs, with possible collaborators and even with potential clients for the company. Later in this chapter, we talk about how to benefit from participation in events and conferences.

The user wants to express his opinion about the products or services

Until very recently, customers shared their opinions about the different products or services acquired within the family or in the circle of closest friends. Nowadays, the appearance of new technologies has meant a great change, so that users exchange information immediately and globally through social networks.

Customers have the need to share their opinion about products or services with other people on the Internet, which offers a great opportunity for companies to intervene in this communication process, offering quality information to users.

In this process, in which the company intervenes in this global network of relationships, a series of actions must be developed to involve the client within the company, focusing attention on their preferences and needs, so that the client becomes in the middle of the conversation. To do this, we must be attentive to the opinion of the client, following the conversations held between them in which they talk about their products or services, or encouraging them to express and share their opinion on the network.

Adprosumer: the client 2.0

Adprosumer is another relevant way to define the new 2.0 client. This term was created by Tirso Maldonado, of Socialtec.Adprosumer is made up of three elements:

AD (advertisement): the customer satisfied with a product or service shares his positive experience with the rest of the clients and becomes his best prescriber. And the viral strength of a satisfied customer is incalculable.

PRO (producer): the new generation of customers produces information (comments, ratings, photographs, videos, podcasts) and shares it with others.

SUMER (consumer): in addition to producing information, it also consumes it.

For an adprosumer, the majority of advertisements on television, radio or magazines go unnoticed, and rely more on the good experience of some other customer of the same profile as what the manufacturer or supplier says.