[Resolutions #1 and #2 were posted earlier this week. Be sure to check them out: "2010 Resolution #1: Stop Talking About Social Media" "2010 Resolution #2: Become an Expert in Just One Thing Digital"]
Today’s resolution is pretty simple once again, but it is going to require you to do a little work. Notice I said “you.” That word choice is intentional. I don’t want your agency or your market research team to learn about these five things…I want you to do it.
There are two reasons for this. First, it’s not really much of a resolution if you have someone else do it for you. Imagine if resolutions were that easy. The gyms around town would be filled with our workout proxies right now. Second, and more importantly, during your research, you’re going to discover far more than just five activities. You should learn a great deal about these activities and also why your customers do these things. If someone hands you a list of five things, that doesn’t help you to really learn or understand anything.
You probably want to know why I am even asking you to do this. The answer is simple. There’s no way you can effectively do any digital marketing unless you understand how your customers behave online. I’m not talking demographics here. I’m talking actual behaviors. As part of this, you need to figure out the answers to these questions (and probably a few more):
- What do your customers do online?
- Where do they spend their time?
- What do they care about?
- What tools do they use while online?
- Who influences them?
- What are they dedicated to doing on a regular basis?
- What annoys them?
- Where do they start each online session?
- What brands’ digital presence do they admire?
An important thing to understand here is that I don’t want you to focus on what your customers do online as it relates only to healthcare. I want you to figure out five things whether they are related to healthcare or not. More on that in a moment.
How do you start go about doing this? Glad you asked. You have a few options. First, you can dig up some old research you have about digital habits of your customers to get a hint where to start. Second, and much better, you can ask. Not me…them. Find someone who fits the characteristics of your average customer and ask them. Don’t let them do your homework for you, just let them get you started. Lastly, you can find some research online (eMarketer is a good place to start) and find out what people are doing online.
“So, Jonathan, you just want us to come up with a list?” No. I want you to do this assignment like you have to turn it in to your meanest, toughest elementary school teacher (or, say, post it on a blog like this one). Don’t just figure out that your customers do indeed use Facebook. Find out what applications they use, how many friends they have, their understanding of how it really works, how long they’ve been using it, and how often they use it (and a bunch more). You should be able to recreate exactly how they use these five activities.
Why am I asking you to do this? Well, in my opinion, most digital marketing is not properly targeted. I don’t mean that we’re putting ads in the wrong places (though we are many times). I mean that we’re not always using the right channels to communicate with our customers. We’re not considering which channels they are comfortable with before we create our strategies and tactics. Example? How about all the attention we’re paying to social media when the vast majority of pharma customers are older people who still have a pretty low adoption of these channels. Just saying…but I digress.
Everyone has a certain level of what I call “Digital Savviness.” The idea behind this is simple. People feel comfortable with certain digital tools, applications, activities, and sites while others feel comfortable with a completely different set. For example, if your target audience as a whole has just started using email (there are more of these people than you think), creating a digital program for them that is based on Facebook is a guaranteed loser. Social networking, including the operation and navigation (i.e., getting around) as well as the concept of social media, is a big leap from email, one of the most basic digital activities. You can read a bunch more about this concept here and sign up to get a free copy of the mini-book that I wrote on this topic, which our company will be publishing soon (along with an online tool to help you decide which digital tactics are best for your customers and assigning them a “Digital Savviness” Score).
So, basically, I want you to do some “Digital Savviness” research on your customers so that you really understand what they’re likely to respond to and what they’re going to ignore.
I guarantee that if you earnestly undertake this project you will learn a ton about your customers. It will absolutely be information that will make you a better marketer while making your company’s marketing efforts more effective. At the same time, you’re far more likely to create digital assets and tools that customers find useful and valuable. That would be a “win-win,” as they say, if you’re scoring at home.
You don’t have to figure out all five things in one sitting. You can space them out over a few weeks. Document what you learn and share it with everyone on your team and throughout the company. If you find out any really big surprises, come back here and share those as well.
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