It’s interesting to see how marketers look more at consent – and intent – in ever more touchpoints and channels. The customer wants to be more in control. He wants to be the center of your universe, regardless of touchpoints and even individual touches. Their agenda corresponds less with your marketing campaign agenda.

Permission or consent is merely a foundation of interaction. What ultimately matters is the individual preference and purpose. Permission is not an eternal contract. It has to be deserved over and over again by optimizing the customer experience and taking consumer preferences into account. This requires a ‘de facto’ personalized approach that connects the dots of the customer journey, with content as the glue and social object.

More companies are moving from a pure and often isolated campaign-centric approach to a customer-centric viewpoint where content, consent, connection, continuity and the customer life cycle are key (which doesn’t mean campaigns are not good obviously).

The campaign mindset and content marketing

At the Fusion Marketing Experience conference 2012, Stefaan Claes, CRM & Digital Marketing Director at the Kinepolis Group, explained how his company uses a personalized and customer-centric approach across channels by using a smart mix of:

  • Surveying methods.
  • Cross-channel marketing automation.
  • A Customer Satisfaction Index, including the use of the Net Promoter Score system (NPS).
  • Social listening.
  • Continues improvement/optimization.

Of course all this is strongly based on content. It’s even at the core of the proposition of the company.

A good content marketing strategy takes into account intent and consent as well. Yet, it’s about much more than that. In the end it’s about customer experiences and value, emotions, persuasion, answers, benefits, a quid pro quo, etc. Content marketing is “channel-agnostic”. It’s not about campaigns (alone), it’s much broader.

Usefulness needs to be earned

In some channels it doesn’t require explicit permission as in email, for instance. But it will only work with (silent) consent and most of all perceived value. And that can only happen when the content stratey and content itself are bloody useful and if you take into account intent, regardless of the nature of it, as well as the overall journey. Just like permission, content-based interaction, great customer experiences and the perception of the usefulness of your brand and content has to be earned. Helping as selling. Helping before selling. Selling by helping. By facilitating. Enabling. Empowering.

Are you ready to take the next step and have a lifecycle-based approach that takes into account consumer preferences, in your marketing approach? Are you ready to listen to the voice of the customer and act upon triggers and customer needs and expressed intent instead of only focusing on an (isolated) marketing campaign view?

Are you ready to deploy content marketing across your business goals, channels and all touchpoints and touches with the nonlinear connected buyer’s journey in mind?