One of the main ways to sustain a healthy and growing business is to keep a steady customer base. A company doing well will typically see the 80/20 rule; 80 percent of its business coming from 20 percent of its customer base.
If you are looking to grow your business and to see it thrive well into later years, you need to start building loyalty with your customers and building relationships to keep them happy.
Communication is key
Keeping customers informed of what’s happening within your business, offers and up to date information will allow your customers to feel part of the life of your business. This could be via a number of mediums including newsletters, emails, social media or even a phone call but the fact that you are telling your customers about the latest news goes a long way.
You don’t need to be pushing sales at your customers all the time. Communications can be friendly, informative snippets along with a “how are you doing?’ every once in a while. People appreciate communication and it goes a long way in building customer relationships.
Always go above and beyond
This goes without saying in business, if you have a customer then you want to treat them right and maintain that customer for future potential sales. By going above and beyond in what you do for them at the start of their customer experience with you, they will know that you care about them and that you want their business.
It doesn’t take much to do a little extra, as Tesco’s motto says “Every Little Helps” and yes that might be in a different context but it’s the same principle – every little bit helps for your customers and you have an opportunity to show each and every client that you are there to serve them, along with wanting to provide 100% and beyond.
Be a problem solver – Be positive
It’s great when things are going well, but how do you deal with situations when they go slightly pear-shaped? How do you react with customers when they have a complaint or something to share?
As you build your business, you will come along characters that will test your patience and try to get something for nothing. But you are the face of your business and your reputation matters. Building a good reputation can take years but it only takes one or two customers to not like your practice to tear that reputation down.
Therefore, try to solve or defuse a situation rather than rise to it. Always try to show a positive attitude towards all customers, whether you like what is happening or not. You are more likely to have a positive outcome and a good response if you act in a positive manner and show professionalism.
Promote brand awareness
This is number one in a business marketing strategy but it can often be put on hold or forgotten about when other aspects of business take over. By promoting your brand and showcasing what you are about, you are building a base of followers who will get to know, love and understand who you are and what your business is about. Building a business takes trust and people need to trust your brand in order to feel comfortable buying from you. When you build on your brand awareness, they are given opportunities of seeing more and more about what you do and how you can benefit them or provide a service for what they are looking for.
Always target your brand awareness campaigns to people who are really going to want to buy from you. It’s vital to understand your target audience and to know what it is they are looking for so you can provide the solution for them. Understanding your audience will bring you closer to them and provide a way in to build relationships that build customer loyalty and longevity.
Show who you really are
It’s great to showcase your business and everything that it has to offer, it’s one step further to showcase who you are, as the business owner. People love stories and customers feel connected when they know there is a human behind all the technology. You may not feel comfortable speaking on video or promoting yourself but it will go a long way in building customer relationships and allowing customers to know the real you behind the business.
Video marketing is definitely the future. And if you’re not doing it now, you need to be very soon! It doesn’t have to be long drawn out videos, it can simply be you saying hi and and introducing yourself as the business owner. Pin a video post to the top of your social media posts so that each new customer can see the voice and face behind the company they are looking to engage with. It will go a long way – try it today!
If you’re still unsure on what impact your video marketing could have, check out these 100 video stats you should know – and see how you could integrate them into your marketing objective.
Get engaging!
We say it all the time but the key to building a loyal customer base is by engaging with them on a daily basis. This falls in with the communication point but it goes a little deeper. If you’re using social media to attract new customers and to retain your current ones too (and if you’re not using social media for business then please get in touch!), your followers are looking to engage with your business. Give them posts that they can reply to or share with their friends. Post articles that relate to their situation. Get your writing head on and create some posts or articles that really speak to the heart of your audience. When they see that you are actually speaking to them on a personal level, they will share that with their friends and family, they will recommend your business to others and they will start to love who you are which in turn leads them to be a loyal customer.
Take these points on board and use them to grow your business. Building a loyalty with your customers is so important if you want longevity in your business. Sustaining and maintaining your client base doesn’t have to be hard work but it does need dedication and commitment to see it work.
If you’re looking to reach a wider audience through social media or would like to know more about creating an effective marketing campaign, get in touch today!
Online marketing is moving at a fast pace and in order to be noticed and to be seen as business owners we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to stay up to date and inline with what is happening. Social media channels are evolving, new initiatives are being added regularly and it’s vital that we stay on the pulse when it comes to social media marketing.
Any form of marketing strategy needs to ensure that it attracts the right audience and is speaking to the relevant people for that market. It’s all well and good having a fantastic marketing campaign if you’re targeting the wrong people. As a business reaching out to consumers, you need to be right where they are and speaking the same language as them.
A Customer Journey
We all know that customers research before they buy and what your brand looks like across all its platforms will sway a customer to pursue or to move on. This ranges right from your website, social profiles, LinkedIn staff profiles to your listing on the search engines; Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Everywhere that a customer will see your brand, it needs to be consistent and providing a clear message throughout.
The first contact a customer has with your business will be the first impression they have of your brand. You can’t guarantee where that will be, will they land on your website, on your Facebook Page or stumble upon you in LinkedIn? Whichever place they see you first will be their first impression of you. What does that look like? Is it professional? Does it speak of you and your brand personality or tone of voice? Does it showcase what your business has to offer?
If you’re not sure as to whether they all give the same, clear message – they probably don’t!
Getting Started With Your Brand Identity
But don’t worry, now you’ve established that there needs to be some changes, you can get started. Putting effort and thought into your branding is important. You might have started your business on a whim and whizzed ahead in order to fulfill a purpose and that’s fine but if that’s the case, it’s now time to stop, put your thinking cap on and to get creative.
Spend time giving thoughtful and meaning answers to these questions:
Who/what is your target audience?
What are their needs?
How can you provide a solution?
What message do you want to give and be known for in your business?
What style and tone of voice represents your brand?
Your brand is your identity. Your brand is who your business is and it needs to reflect your mission and your purpose, telling a visual story along the way.
It’s about getting down to the nitty gritty of your business and the values and personality behind it all. It’s about understanding what the customer is really looking for and providing a solution to that which is full of value and substance.
Having a clear branding strategy and plan differentiates you from the crowd and other competitors.
Making Your Brand Unique
Your branding needs to be memorable and unique
Your brand needs to give your business a personality
Your brand will enable you to build relationships with customers and help engagement rates
Your brand will add value to your marketing strategy giving your direction
Once you have your clear brand guidelines in place, it will be much easier to keep everything consistent and brand all your marketing material as you go alone.
Keep a shared folder that all team members can have access to which provides templates for all common-used material. This can be set up for all social media posts, for each platform, along with reports, stationery, email signatures and any other material that you may using for customer’s eyes.
It’s important that your clients see your professionalism and consistency in anything that comes their way, it’s all part of their customer experience and journey with you. And also leads the way in them recommending or referring your business to people within their circles. If they like what they see, they’ll recommend you.
If you’re looking for guidance on branding and advice on putting together an online marketing strategy, then we’d love to help. Use our Contact Page to get in touch and let’s take your business to the next level.
In a busy chaotic world there is so much competition with brands trying to be heard, that it’s vital you offer something which is unique and engaging to your audience.
If you provide a service or a product where there is a lot of choice to obtain that particular service, then YOUR brand needs to stand out and be seen. You could have the best product in the world but if you don’t have an audience, you won’t see the sales.
1) Understand
Understanding your audience and truly getting to know them will give you edge in the competition. Find where they hang out, what their interests are, where they engage the most. Speak to people in those areas and ask questions (we would call it research!) and all the time learning more about them.
If you can understand what would make a client purchase from you rather than another brand, then you can work towards achieving that and providing a service that is 100% accurate.
2) Address the needs
What are the needs of your ideal audience? Are you able to fulfill that need? If so, that’s where you need to start. Understand the audience and address their needs. Once you understand what they need, you will be able to provide a better level of service targeting exactly where they need it the most.
3) Be honest
The worst thing that a business can do is promise something that they cannot deliver. Therefore, always ensure honesty and transparency. If you’re clear from the start in what you can provide and how you can provide it, people will know where they stand.
If you’re struggling to meet a deadline date – let the customer know.
So many businesses fail because they are not upfront with their clients. Just be honest and clear in all your practices and your clients and potential clients will thank you for it.
4) Provide excellent customer service
Customer service can make or break a brand. And people remember from experience once they’ve had a bad one! Therefore your customer service is so important to ensure good client retention. Always be on hand to help. Always be on hand to answer questions. Always be ready to get stuck in and solve a problem. Your customers will see what you do for them and whether you care and this will result in them purchasing from you or going elsewhere.
If you provide a memorable and reliable customer service experience, people are more likely to recommend you to others.
5) Be personal
At the end of the day, what’s going to make your brand unique is by being personal. Just be yourself. People learn to trust and like a brand that they can relate to and can engage with on a personal level – a brand that makes them feel special and unique and gives them time and energy to communicate. When you offer a service like that where people can rely on your service, THEN you will see your business grow.
When you get down to the details of what your business is about and what you have to offer, this can really be broken down to a human level. You can use your personality and strengths to provide a 1st class service that people won’t easily forget!
How do you get your brand to be known? Get down to be being personal!
Love your business, love your brand, love what you can be and show it off – and let people learn to trust and respect the real face behind your business. Be true to what you believe, don’t go with the flow because you think it’s the right thing to do, but stand out and be different and follow your dreams and the plans that you have for your brand. Every step you take is a step in your journey. You can make the choice to either make that step count or to get lost in the crowd.
We’d love to help you get noticed in a busy digital world where every post or comment matters. Let us help you get the engagement and reach you need to target your specific audience and don’t waste time doing an ‘ok’ job – do it right and do it GOOD!
Get in touch if you’d like to find out about our social media marketing packages.
