{"id":2309,"date":"2011-01-20T18:59:13","date_gmt":"2011-01-20T18:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2011-01-20T18:59:13","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T18:59:13","slug":"step-aside-aspiration%e2%80%a6-inspiration-is-the-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/01\/step-aside-aspiration%e2%80%a6-inspiration-is-the-way-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Step aside, Aspiration\u2026 INSPIRATION is the way to go"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget Aspiration in the years ahead\u2026 the new challenge is to give customers INSPIRATION for your brands and products.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting we throw away our sales and marketing goals (aspirations), just that we give more value to the concept of INSPIRING our customers as a valid marketing tactic.<\/p>\n

If your organization\u2019s internal focus is on easily-measurable metrics, that\u2019s the message that will leak out to your customers \u2013 that each customer is just another number toward your goals.\u00a0 If your focus is instead on INSPIRING your customers, they will feel that difference and\u00a0want to engage with your brand<\/strong>\u00a0and your products.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I state this as a challenge because it is not easy to inspire someone, especially when the digital atmosphere is overloaded with competing messages now that brands can so easily share their messages through social media. \u00a0Your brand needs differentiators now more than ever, but if you can INSPIRE your customers, you will get \u2013 and keep \u2013 their attention.<\/p>\n

Inspiration doesn\u2019t just happen, and is even more of a challenge because it requires a different focus and skill set than most metrics-based achievements do.\u00a0 In order to inspire your customers, you need to provide the following:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Authentic relationship.\u00a0<\/strong>You can\u2019t assume that just because you have a good product your customers will be excited about it. Inspiring your customers requires your ongoing enthusiasm and creativity, but even more importantly, your\u00a0attention and interaction with them<\/em>\u00a0around what they want and expect from your brand.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 A fantastic customer\u00a0<\/strong>experience<\/strong><\/em>.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u00a0need to have a great product<\/a>\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0fantastic customer service\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0use social media to actually engage with your customers<\/a>.\u00a0 Customers can afford to be picky, so you can\u2019t afford to give them anything less than a fantastic experience.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Trust<\/strong>.\u00a0 Trust happens when you do exactly what you say you will do, and when all messages and actions and conversations associated with your brand are consistent, timely, and genuine.\u00a0 Without trust, your customers won\u2019t have confidence in your product or your brand.<\/p>\n

So why put all this effort into inspiring your customers?\u00a0 Because inspiration naturally wants to be shared \u2026\u00a0<\/strong>so\u00a0inspired customers make powerful Brand Advocates<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>They are the customers who want that experience again, and can\u2019t wait to tell their entire social network about it.<\/p>\n

Take the INSPIRATION CHALLENGE \u2013 your customers will love you for it!<\/p>\n

Ted Rubin<\/p>\n

Originally posted at ZuberRants<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forget Aspiration in the years ahead\u2026 the new challenge is to give customers INSPIRATION for your brands and products. I\u2019m not suggesting we throw away our sales and marketing goals (aspirations), just that we give more value to the concept of INSPIRING our customers as a valid marketing tactic. If your organization\u2019s internal focus is … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[961,928,276,960,32,30,3],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-aspiration","tag-brand-advocate","tag-brand-loyalty","tag-inspiration","tag-marketing","tag-social-media","tag-ted-rubin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}