Your marketing is awesome.

Your website looks great. The descriptions are descriptive. The photos are top quality. The colors are realistic. And the e-commerce piece is working without a hitch,

Your marketing may be awesome — but is it effective?

Here’s a quick case study.

I purchased two gorgeous bottles from Iconiq recently. I loved the bottles so much that I took a new Amazon gift card and converted it into a third Iconiq water bottle.

Then I ran into a problem.

Iconiq left out a critical piece of information.

When I received bottle number 3 it had a completely different finish than the first two bottles. Where the first two were smooth and shiny, the third was rough and sandy. (And off it went back to Amazon.) I went back to Amazon to figure out which colors had which finish. Nothing. Then I went to Iconiq’s website to try to figure it out. Nothing.

Next, I reached out for help.

Iconiq gets kudos for responsiveness.

The company has a Twitter feed, but only a few tweets. But their Facebook page says that they respond within a few hours. (By the way, I love how they set the expectation up front.) They explained that they have the polished finish I lucked into and a “super grip” finish. To my query about which bottle features which, they added:

“I am going to fix that by making it very clear on Amazon and our website
what finishes they include. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.”

The one thing I wished they’d done: told me who I was talking to. Since we were having this conversation via Facebook Messenger, there was no character limit and it would have been nice to have a name or even initials to personalize the conversation. Yes, all the little things matter.

That said, this is a great reminder: While we often provide all the information we think is important for our customers to know, it’s useful to also listen to what questions your customers are asking. Iconiq did that, so I’m walking away happy. And, eventually, with another water bottle too.