Markets are Conversations
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:39 am
The equation is very simple: markets are conversations and conversations lead to transactions. Conversation, yes, conversation with a human voice. As people used to converse when markets were not mere demographic data, when the market was made up of visible, identifiable and, why not, endearing faces: the butcher, the baker, the milkman, the shoemaker.
Of course, this conversation must contain certain elements and have a common thread so that it can be transformed into a commercial transaction, since that is what it is all about when we talk about companies and businesses: turning strangers into friends and friends into clients, and why not, into repeat clients.
First of all, the content you share with your community is your voice in that conversation, never negotiate quality or respect. It is very difficult to return from that place.
Like any self-respecting conversation, there must be a sender and a receiver of the message. This seems obvious, but in practice we tend to use communication channels, leaving aside their most powerful aspects, especially when we talk about digital channels: their bi-directionality, their ability to transform a receiver into a transmitter that spreads (like a virus) the conversation beyond the original transmitter. That is their power and their danger.
Big business is mostly screaming through the media. Of all mobile name list course, that's what's worked for them for decades, so why would they change? But there are warning signs: giants like Kodak declare bankruptcy, United Airlines loses millions because of a poorly handled complaint that reverberates on social media, traditional newspapers are bought up by internet moguls.
The CLUETRAIN manifesto clearly states: "To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of the community... they must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end. If their corporate cultures end before the community begins, then they will have no market." An enlightening and brutal paradigm for those companies that (the manifesto continues): "... must come down from their ivory tower and talk to the people with whom they aspire to relate."
What a huge gap is established when companies of all kinds venture into social networks: because it's fashionable, out of curiosity, because others do it or because a consultant told them that if they don't do it they have no future. And they don't even bother to answer their followers' questions or participate in conversations where "they are heard" and from there value is transferred to that community.
In most cases we see well-cared for images, advertising texts that reek of catchphrases, pre-fabricated phrases that almost always treat the user as if they did not exist... and then they are surprised when no one takes notice.
Listen, participate, and also get involved and involve that community emotionally. Speak to them from the heart, speak to them with a more human voice and speak to them frequently. Frequency leads to trust, trust in a purchase and this in a recommendation. It is human nature to tell others what excites us, if each transaction represents a remarkable emotional experience for the client, they will rush to tell everyone and you will save thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising.
And therefore the transaction: and not just a sale, a call, downloading a file, accepting a trial period, visiting your business, subscribing to a newsletter, etc.
The important thing is to generate that trigger that detonates emotions because these are essential to direct the conversation towards where we strategically want to direct our interlocutor.
Barack Obama, during his first presidential campaign, was able to establish a conversation with a growing community of voters. He was able to do so through the emotional connection he established with them: listening to them, respecting them, giving them a voice. He was able, I said, to touch that emotional nerve that made them not only get involved but take the strategically selected action: cast their vote and win the presidential election. Nothing more than that.
And since we are presenting formulas, I will end with this last one: An effective conversation must Persuade, Seduce and Direct. And finally obtain a commitment.
In that order, because it is in the very DNA of human relationships. Otherwise, try to get a marriage commitment from the person you just met without going through the whole process. Do you understand what I mean? It's all about human relationships. Technology is just a tool.
Of course, this conversation must contain certain elements and have a common thread so that it can be transformed into a commercial transaction, since that is what it is all about when we talk about companies and businesses: turning strangers into friends and friends into clients, and why not, into repeat clients.
First of all, the content you share with your community is your voice in that conversation, never negotiate quality or respect. It is very difficult to return from that place.
Like any self-respecting conversation, there must be a sender and a receiver of the message. This seems obvious, but in practice we tend to use communication channels, leaving aside their most powerful aspects, especially when we talk about digital channels: their bi-directionality, their ability to transform a receiver into a transmitter that spreads (like a virus) the conversation beyond the original transmitter. That is their power and their danger.
Big business is mostly screaming through the media. Of all mobile name list course, that's what's worked for them for decades, so why would they change? But there are warning signs: giants like Kodak declare bankruptcy, United Airlines loses millions because of a poorly handled complaint that reverberates on social media, traditional newspapers are bought up by internet moguls.
The CLUETRAIN manifesto clearly states: "To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of the community... they must ask themselves where their corporate cultures end. If their corporate cultures end before the community begins, then they will have no market." An enlightening and brutal paradigm for those companies that (the manifesto continues): "... must come down from their ivory tower and talk to the people with whom they aspire to relate."
What a huge gap is established when companies of all kinds venture into social networks: because it's fashionable, out of curiosity, because others do it or because a consultant told them that if they don't do it they have no future. And they don't even bother to answer their followers' questions or participate in conversations where "they are heard" and from there value is transferred to that community.
In most cases we see well-cared for images, advertising texts that reek of catchphrases, pre-fabricated phrases that almost always treat the user as if they did not exist... and then they are surprised when no one takes notice.
Listen, participate, and also get involved and involve that community emotionally. Speak to them from the heart, speak to them with a more human voice and speak to them frequently. Frequency leads to trust, trust in a purchase and this in a recommendation. It is human nature to tell others what excites us, if each transaction represents a remarkable emotional experience for the client, they will rush to tell everyone and you will save thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising.
And therefore the transaction: and not just a sale, a call, downloading a file, accepting a trial period, visiting your business, subscribing to a newsletter, etc.
The important thing is to generate that trigger that detonates emotions because these are essential to direct the conversation towards where we strategically want to direct our interlocutor.
Barack Obama, during his first presidential campaign, was able to establish a conversation with a growing community of voters. He was able to do so through the emotional connection he established with them: listening to them, respecting them, giving them a voice. He was able, I said, to touch that emotional nerve that made them not only get involved but take the strategically selected action: cast their vote and win the presidential election. Nothing more than that.
And since we are presenting formulas, I will end with this last one: An effective conversation must Persuade, Seduce and Direct. And finally obtain a commitment.
In that order, because it is in the very DNA of human relationships. Otherwise, try to get a marriage commitment from the person you just met without going through the whole process. Do you understand what I mean? It's all about human relationships. Technology is just a tool.