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How to Modernize Your Marketing Without Losing the Personal Touch

IN A WORLD OF WATER BREAKS, BE CONTINUOUS PLAY

It’s officially that time No, not Pride Month (but happy Pride!). The other thing.

The time that comes around every 4 years when I suspend my disregard for men’s soccer in order to watch the World Cup (Otherwise I’m an avid NWSL fan with Thorns season tickets.)

It’s nothing personal. I just find the constant flopping a mainstay in men’s soccer thoroughly annoying. Flopping is when a player overreacts to an injury in order to sell the referee on a foul; it can happen in women’s, too, but the men are fully writhing on the ground and rolling three or four times to look convincing Like, I’m not paying for your theatrics. I’m paying for you to DO THE JOB YOU GET PAID MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO DO.

But if it’s a big high-stakes tournament where everything is on the line, sure, yeah, I’ll watch that.

There’s something notably different (and controversial) about this year’s World Cup: Mandatory hydration breaks. Normally, a soccer game consists of two non-stop 45-minute halves; hydration breaks are only mandated if the temperature is above

a certain point, so critics are pointing out that this is essentially a cash grab for the broadcasters as the breaks provide a lucrative commercial window.

As a viewer, it’s pretty fkn annoying. Continuous play (with no commercials) has always been the beauty of watching soccer, and now I’m being forced to sit through even more ads like I’m watching the NFL or NBA when I am decidedly not.

On a deeper level, it’s this feeling of being overlooked and taken advantage of by a force that I’m powerless to stop. It’s The Man realizing that there’s an opportunity to optimize for profit without regard for those on the receiving end, those who don’t have another alternative.

I’ve been feeling that feeling a lot lately, and it probably has something to do with the fact that everything is being “optimized” with AI and that corporate (and Presidential) corruption seems to be off the charts with no accountability in sight See: Amazon’s AI layoffs, FIFA ticket prices, the J6 slush fund, and pretty much anything from The White House It’s brutal out there

We’re living in a world that’s increasingly overrun with mandatory water breaks, and my guess is that people are getting pretty tired of it. I think that the brands that are going to win their race are the ones who can optimize while still making human connection a genuine priority.

I was recently talking to a client who has hit such a point and is looking to elevate their digital operations and install systems that will make their organization more efficient At the same time, they’re concerned that systematizing too much will take the personal touch out of the brand experience, when being a relational organization has always been a point of pride and competitive advantage for them

To be clear, I think that systems are excellent for business. Systems are scaling! Systems are efficiency! They’re literally all the layers you need built into your business in order to take on higher volume.

This isn’t an issue about systematizing I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that automating and standardizing processes makes life a lot easier.

What it is about is the balancing act of making good choices for your business while keeping your customers front and center of every brand experience. It’s about using systems as a marketing channel to make your brand stand out

It’s about being the option to watch continuous play in a sea of mandated water breaks.

Which brings us to the issue at hand...

Read on, Macduff, to discover the art of optimizing business while infusing all the grace, authenticity, and warmth of businesses of years past, before computers made everything oh so easy yet oh so complicated

STRATEGYSECRETS

Soulful Systems

One doesn’t really associate the word “systems” with heartfelt connection. It’s usually used in the context of engineering with other concepts like ‘interdependent parts’ and ‘processes’ and ‘outputs.’ In business, systems are your operations, your automated funnels, your customer relations, your organizational flows. Tactical infrastructure that enables you to grow up and out from within The science rather than the art of your brand

Building a digital system inevitably removes a layer of human connection because it institutionalizes your processes, which is the opposite of how you want your customers to experience your boots-on-the-ground brand But it doesn’t have to be… if you’re intentional about it. Scoop up this set of secrets to building thoughtful systems that imbue the heart and soul of your brand so you can scale without losing the charm of authenticity.

THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST

A derivative of “the customer is always right,” starting from your customer’s POV for any system you build ensures that their needs, motivations, and pain points are at the center of your design process. In fact, this is the underlying principle of User Experience (UX) design.

2 S E T B E F O R E S C A L I N G

Systems are meant to help you grow, and the whole point is to get ahead of the volume curve by automating your operations. But before you build up, establish the soul of your system when you’re still on the ground level so you can find out where and when it matters most to your customers to genuinely connect with your brand.

SYSTEM ≠ RUTHLESS MACHINE

Efficiency is part of your brand image, too. If you take days to get back to a prospect when the systematized version might have only taken 1, your customers are still having an experience with your brand, just maybe not the one you want. Having a thoughtful system in place doesn’t make you a machine, it shows respect for your customer’s time and needs.

3 4 5

USE DISCRETION

There’s a time and a place to automate. If you’re shipping an order, sure, go ahead and automate that confirmation email If you’re onboarding your high net worth client who is about to sink big bucks into their relationship with you, you should probably be making some personal touchpoints for that level of engagement.

THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Human connection is the currency of a functioning society, and just because YOU love AI doesn’t mean everyone else will. In fact, as many businesses adopt chatbots and AI-enabled funnels, a competitive advantage is going to be human connection. If you’re AI-ifying everything, at the very least, keep an option for a personal contact point so customers know there are real people behind the curtain that they can talk to and build trust with.

CRM PLAT

The ultimate one-for-all and all-for-one marketing tool, a CRM platform gives ‘organization’ a whole new meaning

WHATISACRM?

CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management, is like a digital address book on steroids It manages interactions with customers, clients, and prospects, and streamlines processes like sales,

marketing, customer service, and support to improve relationships and increase efficiency.

WHYUSEACRM?

“Organization like no other.”

You may be able to handle a few contacts on your own, but once you get to hundreds/thousands/millions (!) of contacts, you’re going to want a system that can handle that at scale CRMs are designed for businesses to perform marketing activities in bulk without losing a personal touch.

...INACTION!

A popular, national law firm gets hundreds of client inquiries a week To manage all of their new inbounds, they use a CRM platform to automatically track inbounds and add important contact information location, age, case notes based on their intake survey. When contacts receive a ‘medical inquiry’ tag, the lawyer specializing in medical lawsuits gets a notification She reviews the case information in the contact list, sends a personal follow-up email, and changes their contact status to ‘in progress.’ Later, when the client signs the contract, she changes their status to ‘current client’, and eventually ‘past client’ when the case is resolved.

NESS GADgETS

INSTRUCTION

MANUAL

1. Import and organize your contacts.

Master list

Segments

2. Build your sales pipeline(s).

Marketing funnels (email campaigns) + intelligent automations

3. Track behavior & customize follow-ups.

Clicks, opens, purchases > personalized content

4. Track performance and calibrate.

Dashboard > analtyics reports ...any changes in lead conversion rates based on activities?

Solution on next page

ACROSTIC

The art of pleasing your customers...

Hidden Word: USER EXPERIENCE

People may ‘like’ social media less.

A report from Ofcom (a British communications watchdog) revealed that UK adults are less active on social media, with 49% of users now posting, sharing, or commenting, compared with 61% in 2024. They attributed this to the fact that social media platforms are morphing into entertainment portals, and that popularity of video features means that people consume social media more passively and are less likely to take an active role compared to a few years ago. In other words, the content teams have to work even harder to get a ‘like.’

Clipping smut is a golden strategy.

With yet another smutty hockey show/book adaptation having ), it’s hting ging a osting them ws you sense , but it

may be helpful for content creators who post multiple times a week and have viral (or otherwise notable) content that they want to keep higher on their page (beyond just the 3 pins).

Project Project

You can find all of Marove Agency’s current client collaborations on these pages.

Viewable work is linked via the icon.

MARKETING OPERATIONS

Monthly services to help grow the national brand and provide a seamless member experience with efficient digital operations.

WEBSITE

SOCIAL MEDIA OPERATIONS

DIGITAL MANAGER

Monthly services to digitally optimize the organization with efficient systems and processes.

MARKETING

Volunteer work with WIFS PDX as a co-chair on the marketing committee.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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MEME OF THEMONTH

tech companies making the decision to downsize their customer support service and launch an AI version instead and make it impossible for people to get in touch with a real person