Quite often, despite investing considerable time and effort toward developing their digital marketing strategies, marketers find their brand channels resembling social media ghost towns or campaigns not quite having the desired impact. Research suggests that the perception gap between what consumers want and what marketers think they want is among the common reasons for this. To understand exactly how wide this perception gap is, Thismoment found some interesting studies:

• While 76% marketers feel they know what their consumers want, only 34% have actually asked them (Pivot).
• 59% social customers want to engage businesses to share feedback, while 58% wish to receive customer service. However, only 37% of marketers believe that these services are in demand by their customers (Pivot).
• Brands have listed discounts and purchase right at the bottom and assume they’re being followed for product/business information. For consumers, discounts/offers are the top motivating factors to engage with brands on networking sites (2011 CRM Study-IBM).

This disconnect, referred to as the “great divide” by Altimeter’s Brian Solis, means brands could risk missing out on valuable engagement opportunities. This is why, before launching campaigns or engaging with consumers, marketers need to bridge this gap and find out exactly what consumers want.

Bridging the Digital Divide

Users’ changing tastes and dynamism of the social space means it’s not always possible to accurately predict what customers want. Marketers can, however, study consumer trends, understand them better and find out how best their needs can be met. Our research showed three things that customers most expect from brands:

1. Money-Saving Offers: The 2012 holiday shopping report from Yesmail Interactive indicates that shoppers are oversaturated with promotions and expect to see more deals/offers this holiday season. With shoppers looking forward to money-saving offers on social sites, marketers need to ensure that their social strategy isn’t overly promotional and features enough incentives to make consumers feel rewarded for engaging with their brands.

2. Mobile-Friendly Channels: Today’s on-the-go consumers access social sites from their mobile devices and expect their favorite brands to have mobile-friendly sites. According to a recent Google study:
   • 72% consumers think it’s important for brands to have mobile-optimized sites.
   • 96% have come across sites that weren’t mobile-friendly.

   The above study indicates that brands need to bridge this digital divide and increase engagement opportunities by optimizing their social channels for mobile viewing.

   E.g.: The Coke TV social channel, powered by Thismoment Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC), is optimized for mobile viewing, enabling Coca-Cola to deliver a seamless brand experience to their mobile users. By doing this, Coke provided their on-the-go, time-strapped consumers with what they need; the opportunity to engage with the brand via mobile and tablet devices.


3. Customized/Localized Campaigns: It’s crucial for marketers to take into account the fact that customer requirements may vary based on age or region. Campaigns that work well with one audience may not necessarily work well with another; which is why users expect campaigns that are customized/localized according to their requirements.

   For instance, alcohol brands looking to promote their products on social sites need to follow age-related marketing guidelines and laws, while a brand’s audience in Brazil may not want to see the same content as its users in the US.

   How can marketers design content and deploy campaigns accordingly?

   
   • Thismoment DEC’s geo-targeting and multi-language support allow brands to distribute campaigns to a variety of global and local distribution points.
   • This means brands can customize and localize campaigns according to regions and languages.
   • Localization support also includes the ability to control visibility of content according to specific regions.
   • Using Thismoment’s age-gate feature, brands can advertise campaigns that are specific to a certain age bracket.

Conclusion

While some customers know exactly what they want from brands, there are others who are not so sure. Either way, marketers need to do their homework by asking customers what they expect, and understanding them better before deploying campaigns or content on social brand channels. To lessen this perception gap between customer expectations and what marketers think their customers want, the best approach will be to look at things from the customer’s perspective. This means offering more deals (especially with the approaching holidays), optimizing brand channels for mobile viewing and minimizing spam by targeting the right campaign at the right audience. Besides opening up more engagement opportunities, marketers’ efforts to bridge this digital divide will also translate into better conversion, loyal customers and healthier returns.

- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment

Andrew Sielen

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