[PCT on the Road] NPMA Academy: Focus on the Future

Don’t know how to start a blog? Unsure of what to include in your next viral video? Visit www.pctonline.tv for tips, plus more photos of Academy and insights from the meeting’s other speakers.

The 13th annual Academy, presented by the National Pest Management Association and sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, focused on how pest management companies can connect with the “customer of tomorrow.”

The meeting opened with a keynote address by John Jantsch, a marketing and digital technology coach and author of “Duct Tape Marketing.” Jantsch discussed how PCOs can adopt new media technologies like blogs, RSS feeds and social networking applications to grow their businesses.

He said that while the media may have changed, the basic idea behind them hasn’t: Companies are still trying to market themselves to customers. What has changed, he said, is the way customers find service companies, how they search for solutions to their problems and how companies build trust with those new customers.

“People can get the answers to almost anything they want (on the Internet),” he said. “They can test it. They can go online and find out if you’re a schmuck.”
Jantsch said companies should remember the four Cs when thinking about new media marketing:

• Content — providing customers with good information
• Context — making that information make sense
• Connection — giving customers a quality experience with your company
• Community — building a sense of belonging around your company or brand

Jantsch said new media like blogs, podcasts and social networks are a great way for companies to connect with both customers and news media. He stressed that getting involved in these new outlets doesn’t have to be expensive, time consuming or scary.

“Let’s walk before we run,” he said. “(Social media) is a long-term game. Find a way to get into it systematically.”

BUGS AND BLOGGING. As part of the 2008 NPMA Academy’s focus on how pest management companies can connect with a new generation of customers, author and consultant Ben McConnell discussed social media.

McConnell, who writes the Church of the Customer blog, talked about how companies can use blogs, online video and social networks to turn their customers into evangelists, building their brand and cachet.

McConnell, whose presentation was sponsored by BASF, said companies have to progress through increasing levels to earn customers’ trust. It starts with satisfaction, moves to retention, then word of mouth recommendations, and finally ends with evangelism.

“It becomes emotion driven,” he said. The goal is to create customers who love your company so much that they tell everyone they know (and maybe people they don’t know) about you and the great services you provide.

McConnell said many companies should start courting the so-called Millennial Generation — those 100 million people born between 1982 and 2002. People from this generation often look for their information differently than their parents, and look for more participation with the companies they buy from, he said.

Companies can increase the level of participation through the use of online video, blogs and social networks, he said.

“It’s a fragmented media world right now,” he said. “This is what the customer of the future wants. They want to participate.”

The author is assistant editor of PCT magazine.