The Relationship's in the Data, Not the Platform
Building and sustaining relationships at scale is tough work, and it’s gotten even more difficult over the past few years. Marketers got used to building up followings across social networks in order to communicate with customers about deals, product updates and content relevant to their lives. Then it all came crashing down.
The algorithms came and with them came dramatically less effective communication between brands and their followers across social networks. It seemed the ability to sustain relationships was over. After all, if you can’t communicate with your audience, maintaining those relationships becomes difficult.
That mindset’s always been a problem with social media marketing. Relationships is such a squishy word. After all, people follow a brand because they have a relationship with it. They don’t have a relationship because they follow the brand. Relationship marketing became synonymous with social media marketing, and social media marketing is often synonymous with the platforms that make up social media.
Those platforms aren’t where the relationships are. They never have been. The potential to develop relationships with consumers has always been in the data—the data on what people like, what they don’t like, how they’ve interacted with a brand in the past and how they might like to interact int he future
Applying Data to the Relationship
Data is the crux of what brands need to communicate with consumers in the most relevant ways possible. It’s one thing to communicate based on a general interest shared by a group of people. It’s something entirely different to communicate in a way that shows the brand remembered previous interactions with specific customers.
Data’s role in relationships isn't perfect, but it is getting better. Dynamic ads allow brands to re-surface products consumers have shown interest in on a brand website. Custom audiences ensure brands deliver messaging and content relevant based on a set of consumers' previous interactions with brands. CRM channels can now be better segmented based on where different audiences are at in their relationships with the brand.
Relationships change. They evolve, and most customers aren’t at the same stage as other sets of customers. Data allows brands to understand that and communicate with people in a way that takes the stage they’re at in their relationships with customers into account. This data isn’t beholden to a single platform. It can be applied to everything from CRM to social to display and beyond. The relationship’s in the data, not the platform.
Bringing Data to Relationships
Taking relationships back from the platforms has real potential if approached properly. What that means is:
- Own as much data as possible. Platforms will do what they can to keep as much data in their black boxes as possible. Own what you can and work with partners that give your brand control.
- Avoid single points of failure. Putting all of your relationships into the Facebook basket was a disaster for too many brands. Diversify how you reach your audience and nurture relationships with them.
- Apply iterative value. Let every interaction with your audience build off of the previous one and show you’ve taken them into account. Different people are at different stages in their relationships with any given brand. Treat them in a way that shows you understand that.
Everything a marketer does has the potential to build consumer relationships. That’s not a role that was relegated to social channels. As long as you have the data, relationships can be built and nurtured anywhere.