How to create a 360-degree marketing flywheel

Customers expect brands to be always-on. To connect strategically, think proactively and reactively.

Have you ever been on hold with a customer service hotline for so long that you hung up before receiving any assistance? Perhaps the experience was so bad that you wrote a complaint on social media or a review site. It doesn’t take too many experiences like this to realize that some companies are not prioritizing customer communications.

Today's customers expect communications from brands to be timely, relevant, and easy to engage with. On the other hand, if a customer experience is poor, 51% of consumers will stop or reduce spending with that business. For brand communications to hit the right note, they need to be two-way — a mutually beneficial dialogue between your brand and your audience.

For marketers, this requires a strategy that meets people where they’re at. Synthesize all of your consumer research and map your customer’s journey across digital and physical touchpoints. Which channels are being engaged with? Where are prospects showing intent? Where are they making complaints, or dropping off? These are the moments that matter.

Mapping those journeys is just the beginning. Truly customer-first brands know that successful communications means showing up everywhere your customers expect to find you. The way to approach always-on communications is to create a marketing flywheel. The flywheel is a key component of resonant marketing, or marketing based on the customer’s needs and wants rather than organizational-centered goals.

There are two ways to meet customer moments with brand communications that make an impact — proactively and reactively.

Being proactive simply means anticipating needs

Proactive marketing strategies are planned in advance of customer engagement. Channels include owned media (website content, social), paid media (ads, paid search), nurture (email), and earned media (press coverage, campaigns). Messaging strategies are rooted in research and are created before the customer discovers you.

Take a look at your external-facing communications and marketing efforts. Are you showing up in the places customers would expect to find you? In B2B, your website is the first place prospects would expect to learn more about your business, followed by industry conferences.

One of the most effective places for proactive marketing is social media. While Facebook and Twitter’s popularity may be questionable, platforms like LinkedIn, Youtube, and TikTok (mainly for Gen Z) are bustling with activity. Are your priority audiences showing up on these platforms? Tapping into influencers who speak their language and other methods of sponsored content could be an opportunity to connect.

Think of how proactive the staff are at a five-star hotel. The front desk is welcoming to all, with helpful concierges ready to ensure a smooth experience and offer recommendations. Maps and menus are handy, as well as brochures that show guests which popular attractions are nearby. AI tools can help your brand take a hospitality-inspired approach to proactive marketing — personalized recommendations, chatbots, and targeted campaigns can increase the likelihood of relevant engagement. 

Similar to running a hotel, once you’ve got your customer “in the building,” you’ll want to check in early and often to see how they’re doing — the last thing you want is to find out they switched to a competitor because of something you could have addressed. After their initial engagement, deliver personalized experiences like retargeted ads and email sequences to help keep your brand top-of-mind and bring them back into the conversation.

By reactive, we don’t mean defensive. We mean reciprocating with customers.

How you react when your audience needs you shows them that you value their business and are willing to go the extra mile to meet their needs. Reactive marketing builds trust and fosters a positive relationship. This is particularly important to Gen Z audiences, who expect brands to be ready to interact with them 24/7 on their preferred channels and devices.

Let’s go back to the front desk. There’s an operator available 24/7 — except with your business, it’s not just one phone line you have to monitor. There’s email, social media, community forums, review websites, media coverage — the list of channels customers engage with goes on and on.

How are you talking back in the moment? Do you have an automated listening platform monitoring your most-used channels? Are you answering questions and resolving complaints in a timely fashion? Does your organization have an omnichannel view of customer experience data, so that sales knows which customers have made complaints before trying to upsell them? This level of customer intelligence requires an agile, data-informed approach.

We know what you’re thinking — that’s PR’s job or the customer experience team’s job, not marketing’s. While that may be true, the customer doesn’t care which team is behind the interaction — all of that communication reflects your brand. A seamless customer experience is critical to the success of your business. And getting those micro-moments right is what leads to true customer delight.

Proactive and Reactive Marketing: Symbiotic strategies for customer delight

Here is a table breaking down when to use proactive and reactive marketing communications:

Remember that today’s buyer journey is non-linear. Prospects move back-and-forth from channel to channel as they assess their needs and explore their options. This is particularly challenging in our increasingly digital world, where a customer’s attention span is minimal, and competition is just a click away.

Having a flywheel at the ready with a balance of proactive and reactive marketing techniques can lead to the best results so that your brand is ready for what your customer needs now, and what they’ll need next.

Do you need support creating an always-on brand-to-demand marketing strategy? Partner with an experienced digital marketing consultancy like Modus. Reach out today, we’d love to hear from you.