Content Marketing Today

Why Being Tuned In to Your Customers is Vital to Your Success

New Book Co-authored by David Meerman Scott Reinforces Content Marketing Principles

Too many companies develop products based on their own inward looking approach.  According to the new book “Tuned In,” that’s exactly backwards.

They offer as a delightfully disastrous example: The introduction of the Susan B. Anthony dollar in1979. Between the misguided efforts of the US Mint and vending machine lobbyists, the government managed to introduce a product nobody wanted.  In fact, as the authors point out, extensive research had showed that such a coin would be a colossal failure.  Why the failure?  Simple.  Nobody wanted a dollar coin, particularly one that would look almost exactly like a quarter.

To succeed with product development, it is essential to take the opposite approach.  Determine what your customers want and provide a product or service so compelling that your customers will sell it for you. Of course, this approach is at the very heart of successful content marketing best practices.

As the authors say:

“You shouldn’t have to wave your arms around and shout at people to convince them to pay attention to your product and service.  The tuned in, market-driven company understands market problems and builds products that resonate; these practices drive both sales and customer satisfaction.”

Here’s their diagram of the simple, six step process you need to follow to create just such products and services:

Coincidentally, NextBus, which we write about separately today because of their Google success, has done exactly what Meerman Scott & co. recommend. They created a solution to a nagging customer problem. 

Frustrated bus riders desperate for a solution to wasted time

Transit riders have been frustrated for decades because there was no way to know exactly when the “next bus” was coming. NextBus solved the problem by providing real-time information that told riders where ever they were and whenever they needed the information, exactly when the NextBus would arrive.  Not only was this a solution for transit riders, it was a solution for transit management because it made both for happy passengers and for much more efficient operations.  Best of all the company chose exactly the right name, “NextBus” because it described perfectly the core of the benefit that their service provided.  The result was what the book describes as a “resonator”.  That is: a product or service that sells itself.

Tuned In can teach your organization how to replicate the kind of success enjoyed by NextBus or FedEx or Nike.  The book is loaded with examples that illustrate how the process they recommend works in practice.  And, it doesn’t apply just to large organizations but to entrepreneurial startups as well.

Unless all of your products and services are resonating with your customers, you need to buy this book.  Click here to do just that.