Imagine yourself as the creator of a terrific product that is about to launch into the virtual marketplace. Your product, one that can ultimately assist people all over the world, is an original. You’ve spent several years and thousands of dollars on the research, you understand the ups and downs of launching a new product, and now you’ve begun uncovering a marketing strategy. Through Discovery, you feel confident that your product and new brand will be well received.
Now, Launch day is here, and your expectations are high.
Ok. The results are coming in . . . The outcome? Not too shabby. You definitely met your expectations even though you did hope for more. There’s nothing to complain about. So, where do you go from here?
Your business is always moving, changing, and evolving. It requires constant attention to ensure it is smoothly transitioning into each phase. This process is commonly known as Optimization, the time to fine-tune what you already have in place. And it’s just where things get exciting.
One of the ways to optimize your business is to seek out, through Social Listening, the information from people who know of, utilize, or have an interest in your product or service. Social Listening differs from Social Media in that it lets you hear first-hand accounts from consumers around the world, even if your brand has only a national reach. It uncovers the desires and necessities of your current and potential consumers. For example, suppose you have just launched a platform for renting out bicycles and mopeds and have a network in Florida, Texas, Colorado, Northern California and Washington. You know, too, that there are terrific businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Sweden that do the same thing. You are tracking everyone.
What, however, do you do with all that data?
You move through it in cycles, as though each aspect of your business is a wheel, as and one wheel turns it powers the ones adjacent to it. They all need to work in sync.
As your Discovery phase evolves,you may find that something affects the flow that requires your attention. Optimization is the process of uncovering the glitch and renewing the flow. For example, you’ve launched your business, your marketing strategy is in play, and then, through a series of Social Listening reports, you discover that there is a new element of desire evolving in your online tribe of influencers. Here is where the process of Optimization will assist you to fine-tune your product to match the requirements of your consumer as closely as possible. However, before we give these few what they want, let’s rewind this for a moment and look at the picture as a whole.
The process of Optimization is not without Discovery. The two work in tandem and are reliant on one another. Think of these two as yin and yang. When your consumers have a desire and/or necessity, it may be essential to revisit the Discovery phase to determine the validity of this base desire.
- Measurable Outcomes: When your marketing efforts play out, Social Listening can provide you with measurable outcomes for your strategy. Perhaps your efforts attracted more followers, or you saw an immediate increase in sales.
- Subtract Inconsequential Elements: Consumers are pretty transparent when it comes to things they do not want. This is an area of Optimization that ought to rely on market surveys, testing and fine-tuning of your product or service.
- Clarify Your Approach Based on Your Audience: Your marketing strategy has an audience that you are targeting; however, that’s not to say your audience will not grow and expand once your product or service launches. Social Listening gives you a measurement of whom you are reaching and how well your brand is being received. Once your feedback is measured and recorded, it may be time to clarify your target market based on what your data reveals.
When you’ve got Discovery and Optimization under your belt, your brand is on its way to a steady presence online.
