#HootChat round-up: Marketers As Experience Makers

#HootChat is a monthly Twitter chat run by Hootsuite on the third Thursday of the month at 12PST/3EST (I’m struggling with GMT/BST right now, sorry!)

This week, we talked about Marketers As Experience Makers with Jeff Barrett.

Q1. In regards to marketing, what does the term “Experience Maker” mean to you?

Experience Cloud jumped straight in with: “When a brand and its teams shift from providing a product or a service to delivering an exceptional experience from start to finish and beyond.”

Jeff Barrett said: “RIP Toys R Us. When people can choose convenience experience becomes the differentiator. Experience Makers give people a compelling reason to engage with a company or brand consistently and build long-term relationships.”

It’s all about creating a great brand experience for your customers — going above and beyond to deliver a more memorable, personal and emotional connection.

Q2. What are the benefits of creating any type of experience for your customers?

One of the main benefits is that customers are more likely to share their experiences, which increases your reach, visibility, and engagement. Your customers will become advocates, brand loyalty will also increase.

“People will go anywhere once. They will come back again and again if they enjoy the experience. There is more to marketing than just the product you sell,” said Barrett.

It much more about engagement than broadcast. Creating a memorable experience will develop a deeper connection and differentiate you from competitors.

Q3. Successful Experience Makers create emotional connections to their brand. What companies are doing this right?

A great range of examples here: Wendy’s, Arby’s, T-Mobile, Subaru, Disney, Apple, Virgin Atlantic, and Nokia, to name a selection.

Q4. What have the brands you’ve mentioned done to create an excellent customer experience? Share any examples.

Barrett highlighted that Postmates have “used their delivery tech to immediately mobilize local hurricane relief efforts. Because they are not a delivery app, they are technology and experience company and that can be applied lots of ways.”

Other people cited loyalty programmes and discounts, whilst Hootsuite highlighted how Wendy’s have people lining up on Twitter to get roasted by them! Different, but effective.

I think the key is interaction, engagement and personalisation.

Q5. How has the world of digital changed the experiences offered by brands — and the relationship consumers have with those brands?

Customers are able to have a one-to-one relationship, a conversation, directly with brands now. It’s more personal, more timely (often instant), and brands are moving to the platforms their customers are on.

“Digital revolutionized the consumer-brand relationship. Experiences now happen anytime, anywhere, and at a personal level. It also raised consumer expectations of brands and demands more from them in an always-on fashion,” Experience Cloud highlighted.

Brands are able to create relevant, relatable content and connect directly with the buyer or end user.

Never forget that there’s a person behind brand social interactions. Even B2B marketing should be personal.

Q6. How can brands deepen the level of connection with consumers by delivering personalized experiences across channels?

Barrett kicked things off by saying: “@DioFavatas is genius at this. There are so many tools out there @Adobe especially where you can use machine learning and listening to make informed decisions, not guesses about customers. There should be no guessing in 2018.”

Josh Lewis added, “It’s time to let go of ‘canned responses’ — people see through them and it makes them not trust your brand! And..it’s not just about answering a question in the moment. Lets remember follow up is just as important to ensure your customer is satisfied & confident!”

One way Hootsuite have developed their connections is by personalising their content for each network’s audience. They share LinkedIn-centric content to LinkedIn and it’s driven results for them. Communicate with your audience in the way that they want to be communicated!

It was great to see a social media marketer share how they’re working on a project to help “humanise” their brand by removing jargon and buzzwords.

Q7. In what ways can Experience Makers use social media to their full potential when delivering experiences?

It’s all about the one to one experience on social. Engagement, interaction, polls, GIFs, chats — these are all great ways to deepen the customer experience on social channels. As well as great (relevant!) content of course.

“Don’t worry about building your own presence, build a community. A community grows faster,” said Barrett.

Understand your audience, find out where they are, and talk to them in their language.

“Start by knowing your audience — if you know that then you can target them better. Next, tell an amazing brand story across all of your channels. An omnichannel communication plan is what will win you their business” says Hootsuite.

Q8. What advances in tech — or shifts in society — will impact the future of brand experiences? How can Experience Makers stay one step ahead?

Everyone was talking VR, AR, and AI here. Jeff Barrett highlighted that “Humans still guide data but algorithms are able to determine the best experiences more accurately than our guts. Intuition and creativity are not lost. But significantly aided, tactically, by AI.”

Ultimately, take risks, try new things, be brave, keep learning, remember your objectives, and remember your audience.