A Better Customer Experience, part 3

What are the 4 steps to inspire your customers through creative design?  

Part 3 in my series on creating a better customer experience discusses inspiring customers to act through creative design. In Part 1 of the series, I discussed how to identify your customers. Part 2 discussed how to use customer information to reach them with innovative campaigns. Part 4 will discuss with what to do after launch, using the results to improve and sharpen the experience.

1. Remember Your Promise
Whether making bicycles, writing resumes, or distributing beer, businesses are built on the ability to make and keep promises. You attract customers through the promise of your brand’s message. Get a job. On time delivery. Remarkable creative. You keep customers based on your ability to deliver on this promise.  It is this promise that defines your company and differentiates it from competitors. And it should be evident in every part of the customer experience, including creative. Adhering to the company’s promise makes the creative relevant, which goes way beyond making things look good.  Customers should have a clear understanding of your company promise by looking at the creative.  E*trade failed this test miserably with this superbowl ad.

2. Be Clear About Your Purpose
What are the desired results from this creative execution? By focusing on the ultimate results of the creative, you bypass the tendency to jump right into design.  For example, lead generation and lead conversion are two completely different objectives.  Lead generation is concerned with grabbing a customer’s attention, creating the appropriate impressions, and motivating a response.  With lead conversion, you already have their attention.  You are trying to educate and motivate them to purchase. By establishing the desired results during discovery, you have a common direction from which to design and develop the creative. This video illustrates perfectly what happens when clear direction isn’t established:

3. Be Simple
For creative to be effective and inspiring, the message has to be clear. If you say three things, your not really saying anything. Too often companies try to get clever and cram multiple messages in a single campaign. It doesn’t work. Simple messages help people understand what’s important (see brand promise above).  One of the most famous examples of this is from the 1992 Presidential campaign. James Carville hung a sign in Bill Clinton’s headquarters that had three statements:

Change vs. more of the same
The economy, stupid
Don’t forget health care

From this internal sign of choices came the single campaign platform, “It’s the economy, stupid.” (more about it here)  Carville knew you can’t run a successful campaign platform while trying to say three things. Guess what? You can’t run a successful marketing campaign trying it either. Inspiring creative is simple in its profoundness.

4. Be Consistent
The creative should resonate clearly across different mediums because that’s how customers interact. The experience should be the same regardless of which path a customer chooses. If you have marketing material that’s bright and uses prominent hero images, but a website loaded with small type and muted colors, customers become confused on which message you’re trying to communicate.  It also reflects on your ability to manage your brand. If the customer’s experience changes from one medium to the next, they will think, “what else can’t this company do well?”

By following these steps, you will be positioned to create remarkable creative that inspires customers while planting the seeds of your brand’s promise.

This is the third part of a 4 part series on customer experience. I wrote this series based on the belief that customers actively pursue, promote, and remain loyal to the products and services that transcend their immediate needs.  But creating a great customer experience takes hard work and a lot of attention.  That’s what we do here at Marblehead.  We provide the hard work and attention to help companies create great customer experiences. You can subscribe to our strategy RSS feed here so you’ll be instantly alerted when new strategy articles are published.