Jeanne Hopkins has over 30 years of sales and marketing experience. She is currently working with OneScreen as Chief Revenues Officer, a position that follows a long stint as a trusted advisor to this startup. She has held a variety of senior executive positions at various companies, such as Continuum, Ipswitch, Lola.com, HubSpot, and others, bringing growth, sales, and increased customer engagement through efficient tactics that center the customer experience. Her experience at HubSpot allowed her to make it the second-fastest growing company according to the Inc. 500.
She is the co-author of the best-selling mobile marketing book Go Mobile, one of the hit books in the marketing category on Amazon.
Hopkins has been mentioned multiple times as a marketing expert to watch over the years and has won multiple industry awards that recognize her unique work and expertise. In addition, she has hosted her own podcast, Table Fries, and has done a lot of work in marketing that has been recognized for its innovation and putting the customer front and center to achieve quick results.
Personalization in marketing
Personalization is one of the main keys to Hopkins’ success. Personalization is a great way to engage more leads and find more customers, and while 85% of companies feel like they offer personalized experiences, only 60% of their customers agree. So, how can brands use personalization in their favor, according to Jeanne Hopkins?
The first thing to consider is omnichannel, using multiple channels to engage customers, as they should be met where they are and on the devices and platforms that they are using. Privacy is the second concern, as individuals often describe feeling invaded by the brands, especially if they felt these had access to data they had not shared. Personalization should respect privacy, and not all customer data is equally useful and applicable in a marketing context. Customers can find specific types of data being used for personalization creepy rather than engaging. For instance, geo-based notifications can come off as invasive. Customers still draw the line, even if they are willing to share some information for personalization purposes, but not all information. Invasiveness is not a good trait.
Context is another keyword. Personalization should take into account the way in which a customer interacts with the brand and the product. Individuals might be looking for one or another solution or some type of information or the other. For instance, clicking on a product should take them to the product site rather than to a general web with info about the company. Context matters.
Personalization can help maintain customer loyalty by creating a way to improve poor experiences and offering customers what they want to see. In addition, it offers a solution to create long-term bonds that will bring the customers back time and again.
Personalization can feel invasive when done too much or seeks to benefit the brand rather than the customer too. Customers want to be treated as people and want to engage on their own terms. This means that personalizing often is not just tailoring the site or app or experience to a specific client but also sharing one’s own story and building an interaction that feels more meaningful than dehumanized.
Thanks to the big data available and the possibilities embedded in the current technology and approaches, personalization is currently possible. However, Hopkins reminds all brands to put customers first and consider their experiences from their perspective. Not every strategy for personalization works.
Offering real value
Another key insight from Jeanne Hopkins is that brands should offer real value. Marketing often relies on communicating the brand to the customer, but that is not by itself enough to make them feel invested or interested. However, brands have an easy solution to offer value.
Every brand has experts that can communicate something of value, be it practical advice, tips for the customer’s problems, or information that customers will actually be interested in. This helps create a sense of trust and loyalty because the marketing is centered around customer needs rather than just the brand’s own goals. The two align and offer significant profit.
The customer experience meeting
One innovative tool in Hopkins’ arsenal is the use of a meeting that centers on customer experiences and provides tremendous value. Meetings get a bad rap, not an entirely unearned one either, but this meeting on its own has the potential to revolutionize the company and the direction of its brand.
The idea of the meeting is very simple. It places all key individuals in a meeting with representatives of customer-facing departments to deliver feedback. They will offer information about everything that they have heard directly from customers.
This seems very simple but can lead to big changes, as it provides a direct channel of communication. The meeting has been described as uniquely useful by the participants. It has led to significant changes within different organizations and how products and services are delivered to the customer.
The humanity of marketing
Marketing is often employed and viewed as a tool that does not take people into account. However, Jeanne Hopkins’ professional success is a clear testament to the contrary. Marketing serves its purpose best when it takes into consideration the customers as people and is mindful of their needs, desires, and even boundaries.
Considering individuals can help any brand build long-term connections and ensure customer loyalty that endures. This is an effective approach that can provide quick results and also show good outcomes over the years.
Hopkins offers an effective view of marketing and strategic thinking in the field that she shares through her articles. As a top-notch professional, her expertise is certain to help big and small brands to create long-lasting relationships with their customers and drive their sales in a way that is sustainable rather than merely focused on short-term results.
Jeanne Hopkins can be found on LinkedIn. She publishes articles there and in various specialized marketing publications. In addition, you can find a lot of her work online and take advantage of her advice.
You can follow her on Twitter @jeannehopkins and LinkedIn.
