What Your Business Can Learn from P2P

I’ve spent the last three days working for a client at a recruitment fair. We did a fully integrated marketing campaign including website, newspaper ads and then the posters and flyers for the fair.

Watching people at the fair talk to each other, really engaging and speaking passionately about something they truly believe in, I couldn’t help but be impressed and caught up by the energy of the event.

With the emergence of social media there was so much talk of genuine online engagement and dialogue; however, it’s only really face-to-face that this kind of energy comes alive.

Sure, it you’re working with crisis management online or customer support you can get a sense of personality, of the passion of a customer. But it’s so much more evident in real life.

Although online communication is that bit more removed from P2P, it can still adopt a similar approach through:

• speaking directly to the customer
• listening carefully
• responding appropriately, showing an appropriate sense of personality
• discussing what the prospect or lead want’s to talk about, not what you want to talk about
• not constantly attempting to sell but perhaps just being friendly, listening and sharing information, just because it’s the right thing to do.

Don’t Shout

One thing I really noticed was that those stands that were really trying too hard, giving way too much away, faking joviality and generally being over the top, really didn’t strike a chord. I guess it’s a bit like the old creative writing adage: show, don’t tell. And especially if the telling involves shouting!

Ultimately, as digital marketers we need to foster better relationships with customers and there’s a stack of inspiration and strategy that comes from making connections between how we communicate with customers in the real world and not online.