OPINION: Is it possible for clients and agencies to really provide an ‘always on’ presence and is it really necessary?

Well think of it like this. Today more than ever the future of your business is in the hands of the consumer. They decide when they want to interact with your brand, where they want to interact with your brand and increasingly at what price. The reason they come back is because they like the brand experience, they like the service. You provide value and you live up to their values.

So what happens if you’re suddenly not there? Well think about going into your favourite coffee shop one morning and no one speaks to you. They don’t serve coffee and in fact they ignore every customer in the shop. No chat, no ambience and no wonderful smell of roasting beans. How many times would you put up with this before you decide to try another coffee shop that a friend has recommended?

An odd story you may think, but now relate that to your digital persona and your digital behaviour. If as a client you are running campaign lead strategies this is exactly what you are doing. One moment you are all smiles and all over the customer the next you don’t even speak to them.

You put it out there, then you take it away. And each time you go out to market you have to rebuild your presence. Because while you were away three new coffee shops opened up with really friendly staff and amazing coffee!!

So what do agencies and clients have to consider if they truly want to have an ‘always on’ strategy?

First, they both need to look internally as both run campaign operations. How to change this? You become consumer advocates and you appoint a consumer champion of the brand.

Second, review your annual budget allocation and set your objectives.

Then look to understand the digital persona of your consumer and scope out what it would take to be part of their daily or weekly lives throughout the year. Your scope should review the type of interaction necessary, platforms, media (all forms) and cost of engagement.

The scoping exercise will then help formulate your content strategy/calendar. Content isn’t just page after page of words, its pictures, games, video, blog, applications, tools and audio. It’s strategic and it’s tactical. But remember for it to be relevant it should be one or better still several of the following, valuable, usable, useful, desirable, accessible, credible and findable.

And the reason a content strategy is so important is that this builds your persona, the persona that drives traffic to a destination, builds value, develops conversation, shows empathy and importantly threads a continuous engagement. It’s the back bone of your ‘always on’ presence.

Then layered on top of all of this, to be truly ‘always on’ there is context and this is the scary one.

This is where we need to understand everything about the consumer along with what he or she is currently experiencing. It means highly targeted media and more relevant brand engagement. Context isn’t just geo targeting it also looks at attitudes, situation and preference.

Oh how we long for the ease and simplicity of the TVC. The problem is it’s an out of favour coffee shop.