How Long Did it Take Your Organization to Respond to #BlackLivesMatter? Try an OLR Audit.
Organizations still spend too much time thinking only about outbound marketing and communications strategy. WHAT we are going to say, WHO are we targeting, and WHEN are we gonna launch it all? They furiously toil to proactively define their brands and products and often stop there, like that’s the whole game. It also makes them very unprepared to react quickly when it’s important. In some ways, it’s like that person at the party who spends all the time thinking about what to say next, instead of listening to what people are actually talking about, or responding to what people actually ask. You met that guy once, so you know how unattractive and very 2001 it is to spend all your efforts on the outbound stuff.
Major corporations, small businesses, non-profits or foundations: it’s really the same for everyone.
I bet anyone reading this article could immediately describe the last 5 major campaigns their organization “pushed out.” They can list off the posting, media and production strategy for 3 or 4 platforms, the kinds of earned media they placed. Yet, I bet fewer of you could honestly describe the last 5 listening campaigns you launched (with effort, analytics and investment equal to the outbound campaigns), or list the 5 technology platforms you use for managing consistent on-brand responses. Doesn’t that feel unbalanced in today’s world?
We are operating in a sophisticated, saturated environment full of media and technology savvy humans, and it’s overdue for some organizations to shift thinking from a 100% outbound mindset to a solid balance of true MULTI-DIRECTIONAL MARKETING. (Some people love to say “Omni-channel” or “integrated” which basically means “pushing out on every platform” but that’s a dated outbound-first perspective.)
Come on, embrace authenticity. It’s time to move into the modern day and turn your 1-dimensional marketing plan into something that resembles the very 3-dimensional world we live in.
We believe every organization needs 3 solid communications strategies on paper. Not 1 or 2, but all 3, because they are more interrelated than ever before. We build our clients a TOTAL OLR PLAN. (OLR= Outbound, Listening and Response). And, yes, we encourage them to start to align their marketing budgets in an OLR balance as well. If you’re a math person (I’m not), that’s only 33% of your marketing plan focused on “pushing out” (O) with 66% that include “pushing in” (L+R).
Thoughtful responses to questions and the world around you, not your statements, define who you are.
Let’s break down the OLR and explain:
O is for OUTBOUND. (Push Out)
This one is easy. It’s the marketing and PR you put (push) out into the world. It’s the guys on Mad Men. Easy to understand, pretty easy to get right even while drinking heavily. Thousands of LinkedIn posts about this so I won’t bother. I will say though, when you add in LISTENING and RESPONSE to a 3D plan, your outbound will improve dramatically, and you’ll avoid embarrassing insensitive out-of-touch missteps that come from a lack of L&R.
L is for LISTENING. (Push In)
Please note, LISTENING is different from HEARING. So many organizations will say,”Oh yes, we have a rich ‘social listening’ practice,” when what they mean is they have a “social hearing” practice. Companies literally manage 5 times the data they did just 5 years ago, and likely in 10 years that will be 10 times the data. This is about what you DO with the data. How you listen to it. I like independent agencies like Fullstory who are closing this gap; they are taking the data and deeply listening to what it actually says. Yet data insight is only a tiny piece of listening.
How are you capturing one-on-one conversations with people? Are you looking them in the eye and listening to them? Are you making sure you are hearing from a diverse audience? Are you learning and improving from each interaction? I love the work that ZenDesk is doing, truly love it. You can read their 2020 trends report. They are a technology company helping organizations structure how they listen to customers, citizens and stakeholders and just human beings in general so that actionable insights (product improvement, proactive answers, future marketing) can be authentic and empowering. Being a strong listener can make you a brilliant responder and conversationalist (more on this later).
Never underestimate the power of small informal focus groups as well. The people you need on your side are just that… people. And people will always tell you what they think if you give them the space. Focus groups really help give you actual language and emotions around opinions in a way that data never can.
In fact, people (customers, grantees, philanthropists, your own staff) will flat-out tell you the kind of organization they want you to be, the kind of products and services they want and need (or that they know your customers are asking for). The trick is to turn your whole organization into an active listening enterprise so you find that out rapidly. And if you Google “active listening techniques”, you’ll probably get some concrete ideas. Hey, when was the last time you asked people what they think and then turned around and built a whole campaign to let people know that you heard them versus pushing out what you want them to think? That’s one solid active listening technique. “Oh, so what you’re saying is…” could be your best new tagline.
R is for RESPONSE. (Push In/Push Out)
So, how long did it take your organization to create a Black Lives Matter statement or to get involved? The answer to that should give you a sense of your response strategy infrastructure. If you had the right people in place, the right listening, the right response plan and processes you’d have been prepared to take critical action. You can take this cool Customer Experience Performance Scorecard (scroll down that page a bit), again from my beloved ZenDesk (yes, our company is a proud ZenDesk partner). This will give you a sense of the strength of your response strategy.
The point is, in today’s authenticity-or-die world, your response to people and the world around you defines you more than any and all of your outbound marketing. According to this Edelman COVID-19 special report, 71% of people said if a brand's response to the pandemic is putting profit over people, they will lose trust in that brand forever. You need just as much investment, expertise, analytics, brand guidelines and decision making structure in your RESPONSE strategy as you have in your traditional advertising media plan. You don’t wait for the tennis ball to be flying at you to buy a racket, practice and learn techniques… you get ready and you train so you can send it back strong.
Think about it. You spend all this time, energy and money trying to get the world interested in what you’re doing. You hire agencies. You find like the hottest influencers to create sexy content for you. You hire a Director that costs $20,000 per day and worked on a Star Wars project one time. Then, when you finally get people interested, you have no plan on how to keep them on board because you blew two legs of a three-legged stool.
Don’t worry. Even the absolute best marketers on the planet haven’t nailed this yet. Just Google “My Diet Coke tastes funny.” Does it seem like anyone has a clear handle on the RESPONSES here? Does it seem like anyone is LISTENING to the 4.7 million-ish versions of that question? Compare that Google search to the 46 Million results for “My underwear doesn’t fit,” which seems to be much more managed by savvy online marketers who are working three-dimensionally.
Lexicon Strategies Co-founder Brian Tolleson was previously CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, founder of renowned advertainment studio BARK BARK, and former Marketing and Creative executive at Viacom.
Brian has spent his career working at the intersection of human rights, media and social justice while managing billions in partnership marketing initiatives, multi-platform branding and content strategy for distributors like Sony, NBC Universal, and Google, as well as marketers such as P&G, Unilever, Clorox, Chase, Target, Microsoft, Starbucks, Mercedes Benz, Chevron and General Motors.