A New Era of Marketing
Marketing isn’t dead, it’s just different… a LOT different. In a sense consumers have become the marketers and the marketers have become consumers. Today your customers are more empowered than ever and the marketers are busy reacting to the all the consumer feedback. If you want your brand to survive and avoid getting left behind, then keep reading. We promise, this will be a great starting point.

What You Are Up Against
No longer do you simply need to be worried about what you competitors are doing or saying about their brand, you now have to concern yourself with what your customers are saying about your brand. Now more than ever, the customers have social communication outlets and real-time influence to affectively put them in the driver’s seat of your brand.

Exhibit A: Digg
Digg is the product of the customer’s desire to be in control. Digg is very much like an online newspaper company, but there’s one major difference. Traditionally the layout and organization of a newspaper is determined by the editor. The editor decided which articles have greater priority and which news is more important. With Digg the people decide. Everyday, internet users around the world “digg” articles they feel are newsworthy. The articles that receive the most diggs make it to the front page of the website. Ah, finally the voice of the people is being heard!

The New Rules
As the keys to the castle are being handed over from the marketer to the customer you must fight the urge to resist and instead play by the new rules. “What are the new rules?” Great question. However there are a lot of new rules so we will just cover 2 important ones for now.

Rule #1: Customers are now the keepers of your brand.
Rule #2: Customers prefer to be educated about your brand by other customers and not by you.

It should go without saying that your customers will say good things about you if you deliver a good product or service. With that said, it’s important to keep your message simple and remarkable.

Keep it Simple
When your customers decide to be vocal about your brand it certainly helps when they have their facts straight about who you are and what you do.  Remember, your customers ultimately care about 2 things: who you are and what you do. When it comes to this don’t complicate the message.

You essentially have two choices to make:

Choice #1: You can simplify your message and make it easier for your customers to remember who you are and what you do. When your customers want to educate more people about your great service or product there will be a consistent message that will spread easily through all the available channels of communication.

Choice #2: You can stick with your catchy slogan or phrase and try to attach an image to the message you think you are still driving. However when it comes time to communicate the actual benefit your product or service delivers you will find that you’ve left it up to your customers to determine who you are and what you do. Keep in mind that no successful brand is built on inconsistency.

Make it Remarkable
Your customers are social. That’s why they are becoming your marketers. Once you’ve made the right choice in simplifying your message go the next step and make it remarkable. By remarkable we mean find any and all ways to share your message online in a manner that allows your customers to further share your message. Examples might include videos, articles, or photos that are produced around your clearly stated message. Your customers want to share information, so make sure you make it available.

Another important reason to make your message remarkable is that studies show that people are more likely to use a company they have heard about previously. Perhaps your service is superior to your competitor’s but you’ve let your competitor produce more remarkable content than you. Consequently, more of your potential customers have heard about your competitor resulting in more trust for your competitor.

The Takeaway
Ultimately you can’t control what your customers are going to say about your brand, but at minimum you can learn to navigate through the new rules.  Simply put, provide superior service as well as a clear, simple message that your customers will gladly and easily share with other customers.