Why Marketing in the Digital Age Needs To Be a Two-Way Dialogue

The lesson? Each person interprets an ad differently. Why not ask customers to point companies in the right direction—and in so doing, to better understand what makes them tick and build rapport with them. The more questions we ask about preferences, the better we understand our customers’ psychology and reveal the “why” behind customer decisions, not just the what. We’re also less likely to do damage to our brand’s reputation.

Getting the Conversation Going

So how and where do we begin? It’s going to call for a shifted mind-set—a total commitment to putting customer experience at the core of everything we do. That means really paying attention to what drives value for customers. It means collecting data and designing personalized experiences using that data, then ensuring we set up feedback loops and enable agile responses in a way that fosters trust.

For companies that are collecting data directly from customers and combining it with third-party data, the new era of personalized marketing will call for more of an ongoing, two-way dialogue than we have carried out in the past. It will involve asking customers more questions, with greater frequency, and doing so in an artful way, while informing them exactly why this is necessary. This will help get them involved in shaping their own online experience and better understand how online advertising works and why it’s even needed. After all, much of the internet is, like television, ad-supported, which translates to more affordable fees that consumers benefit from. In the future, perhaps publishers and platform providers can adopt business models that support premium web-surfing experiences, which will let customers pay extra. 

This is something that could be tackled with blockchain technology, which has the potential to enable users to have more insight into the levers and pulleys that power online advertising. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies promise to allow users to make micro-transactions to pay for the sorts of online experiences they would prefer, on an a la carte basis. For instance, what if you could watch that 30-minute YouTube video and opt to skip the ads that are scheduled to play for an extra 10 cents? Or read selected articles for a small fee, rather than committing to monthly subscriptions?

All this is easier said than done, of course. Getting the customer to engage in this dialogue will take much strategic effort and creativity. This strategy has to be incorporated into a broader customer experience strategy. Consider terms-of-service agreements. Many customers complain that they don’t even know what they are signing because the documents are too long and detailed, written in jargony legalese. Customers regard them as a hindrance when they are just trying to sign up and use a service. But it is also something that they will gladly hold against a company the moment something goes wrong. Unfortunately, the onus is on the company to make the key topics of service terms readable and easy to interpret—maybe even less painless to read. It could involve incentivizing the experience of asking for data and doing things like explaining to customers what kind of customer they are, based on their profile. There are many ways to go about it.

The journey to this new era of marketing will be worthwhile. While it promises to be a bumpy one—full of trial and error—we have to start somewhere to pave the way for a better future.

CJ Bangah is a principal in PwC’s technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector, specializing in online advertising, with experience that spans digital sales and cloud-focused sales initiatives.