How to Create an Effective Marketing Moment

Effective marketing moments hinge on the positive experiences you craft for your target audiences.

We all experience moments in our lives that inspire us, empower us, and manage to alter our worlds.

Do you remember a time when a company took customer service the extra mile, convincing you to become a loyal buyer?

Do you recollect a poignant “a ha” instance in your professional career that gave you a new sense of purpose and drive?

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A MOMENT?

How does one define a moment? Chip and Dan Heath, in their book The Power of Moments: Why Certain Moments Have Extraordinary Impact, define a moment as a “short experience that is both memorable and meaningful.”

Moments in marketing can inspire consumers to act on products and brands. Powerful moments in marketing shape the customer experience, change customers’ mindsets about your company and its offerings, and convince customers to take the next step—and spread the word.

And for these reasons, all executives should work to create moments for the customers who are important to their companies.

ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE MOMENTS

The Heath brothers delineate four options for marketing moments:

• Elevation: Experiences that rise above the routine.
• Pride: Experiences that commemorate people’s achievements.
• Insight: Experiences that deliver realizations and transformations.
• Connection: Experiences that bond us.

Each moment is unique—and your company is unique. While there isn’t a magic, one-formula-fits-all answer, we can give you some guidance on how to apply the Heath brothers’ insights to creating marketing moments for your company.

CREATING A MARKETING MOMENT

Here are a few steps to get you down the path of creating heightened, memorable experiences for prospective customers that will get them to buy, keep them buying, and compel them to spread the word about what you do:

• Identify who will experience this moment. A key piece in any marketing strategy is determining who the company needs to engage. Understanding your target audience helps you craft the appropriate messaging and touchpoints.
• Identify what type of moment you would like to provide. Reviewing your audience research in the context of the Heath brothers’ elements of effective moments, you can best see what touchpoint will be the most effective. A logistics company like FedEx may choose to provide a moment of elevation for the average “mailer,” while Oracle could craft a moment of insight for its clients’ marketing teams.
• Frame the steps that will make this moment come alive. Identify who in your company will be assigned to manage each element of creating the moment you’ve defined. Determine the steps in executing the moment successfully. Who is best positioned, best suited, and best skilled at doing what you need someone to do? What extra training do you need to provide for your team to create flawless moments?
• Measure your results and adjust for your next moment. We’ve said it time and time again: Marketing is not a “once and done” activity. How will you measure the success of your moment? Do you want the moment to improve your brand reputation? Or do you want to have more sign-ups into a loyalty program? Measure your efforts continually an make adjustments for continual improvement.

Something to keep in mind: You can’t make a moment out of each time your company touches a customer or prospect. Doing so negates the effect of each moment by overwhelming and exhausting the customer. Focus your resources on creating and executing one or two truly superlative marketing moments.

HARNESS THE POWER OF THE MOMENT

Marketing possesses a unique opportunity for brand magic in crafting moments that captivate the individual.

Are you inspired, but need help piecing together the puzzle? Contact FrogDog today for a free consultation.