The document discusses the importance of understanding customers in the current digital era, emphasizing that businesses should focus on providing experiences that prioritize customer needs rather than self-promotional content. It highlights the necessity of mapping customer journeys and leveraging data to create relevant, engaging experiences. Companies that adapt to consumer behavior and expectations will thrive, while those that remain lazy and indifferent will face failure.

1. Path Finders
or Why You Can’t Trust Billy from Family Circus
March 28, 2013
* Most images stolen off the first page of Google Image results because, frankly, the free ones just didn’t tell a good story. I’m a bad person.

2. What This is About
• Why we’re being lazy and ignoring opportunity
• What’s the opportunity we’re ignoring
• Why it’s dangerous to ignore the customer
• Finding the paths
• Wrapping it all up
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3. If I Knew Then What I Know Now
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4. In 1960 advertisers used the research available to them to learn about their customer.
Who are they? Where are they? What do they want? What do they need?
A product was built, a campaign was created, and ads were purchased.
If a campaign was live, they checked sales. Sales up? Ads worked.
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5. What if we had given them access to every bit of information about every customer?
What if they could know where their target is? What they want? What made their minds up?
What if we’d given them access to every moment they interacted with their brands?
What if they could have used them to persuade their friends – and watch it happen?
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6. = PROFIT!

7. It’s 2013!
We have all of this AND MORE! We all have access to everything we need!
And what do we focus on?
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8. HOW MANY LIKES AND FOLLOWS DO I
HAVE AND HOW DO I GET MORE?
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9. HOW CAN I MAKE THIS POST THAT HAS
LITTLE TO DO WITH MY COMPANY OR
PRODUCT MORE ENGAGING?
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10. PEOPLE ARE ON SMARTPHONES, AND THEY
MOVE WHEN THEY USE THEM. HOW DO WE
OPTIMIZE OUR SITE FOR MOVING PEOPLE?
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11. 11
WE’RE DOING IT WRONG

12. Your customers don’t care about you.
They don’t care about your Fans. Your milestones. Your accomplishments.
The customer cares about the same thing you actually care about.
Themselves.
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13. And customers don’t fall into neat piles like you want them to.
Example: Your mobile strategy that targets consumers on the move?
68% of smartphone data usage happens in the home.
Most tablet usage happens before 8am and after 7pm.
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14. BUT I CAN KEEP DOING THIS BECAUSE IT’S
WORKING AND YOU JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT
YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT DIGITAL GUY
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15. That’s possible. But there are warning signs.
Like 82% of customers abandoning a company after a single bad experience.
Like the disruptive influence of companies that do get this.
Companies that understand consumers, and work for their business instead of expecting it.
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16. We’re in the era of the customer.
The era of customers demanding utility and entertainment.
The era of smart experiences created to satisfy these demands.
The era of failure for lazy businesses with bad experiences
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18. “In most organizations, change only comes in two flavors:
trivial and traumatic.”
Gary Hamels, Wall Street Journal, September 2009
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19. The Path Finders
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20. 20
Smart companies are mapping, and guiding, their customers.
Where are they? Where are they going? Are there stops in between?
What are their needs at each stop on the journey?

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Just because you’re not mapping a journey doesn’t stop a journey from happening.
It just ensures you don’t participate.
“We just missed him.”
Ah, but the smart company didn’t.

22. Understanding customers isn’t just selling, it’s giving people products they want.
Are you understanding the consumer and recognizing demand?
Are you creating something great that satisfies them?
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23. Or are you just making a faster horse?

24. NOBODY WOULD BUY A ROCKET HORSE

25. RIP Mobile Strategy,
Welcome User Strategy
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26. 26
People are mobile, all day, every day.
And the fact they’re moving doesn’t change their intentions.
The problem with a mobile strategy is mobile isn’t a channel.
It’s a state.

27. 27
“Ok, I’m pretty much ready to buy a car, time to
shift from my laptop to my smartphone.”
- Nobody Ever

28. 28
We use the device closest to us when we need a device to use.
We use smartphones for less time, tablets for more time.
We use smartphones more frequently.
But more importantly – we continue sessions started one place somewhere else.

29. How Do I Get Started?
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30. 30
Ask yourself:
“Would I care if this didn’t belong to me?”
Then eliminate everything that wastes someone’s time.

31. 31
It’s become seamless for customers to share their experiences.
It’s become almost impossible to control your message.
Owning great experiences is the closest you can get.
Great experiences = great recommendations.
Harness: True Influence

32. 32
All companies have access to enough information to know everything about their customer.
Most won’t bother.
True targeting allows a message to reach with extreme relevance.
Measure, learn, and optimize from customer data.
Harness: Customer Data

33. 33
We’re all perpetually connected now, with information an arm’s reach away.
Understand the context of an information request and satisfy it.
Track the new touchpoints and build strategies and tactics against them.
Harness: Always On

34. In Conclusion
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35. 35
Ask yourself if you’d care if it didn’t belong to you. Eliminate the waste.
Know your user, map their path, and be there to guide them.
Create amazing experiences for them.

36. = PROFIT!

37. Thank You
rickjessup@gmail.com | ca.linkedin.com/in/rickjessup