Posts Tagged ‘email newsletter’

Be Regular

If you are going to engage in conversation marketing techniques, you are going to have to learn how to keep talking. Regular communication from you is essential. Customers and prospects aren’t very likely to strike up conversations with you out of the blue, so you have to put something out there that they can latch on to.

As far as frequency, you want to sit somewhere between chatterbox and mime. Put enough out there so that you are consistently a presence, but don’t overwhelm people either.

What is Talking

Lets talk about talking. What is it? Talking is any communication that goes out, but specifically it is communication that is targeted toward your regulars. This may be in the form of an email newsletter, or it may be your Twitter feed. Talking isn’t pushing ads. Its providing information and tid-bits that your listeners will find interesting or entertaining.

If you only communicate on a sporadic basis, you won’t have a lot of listeners. You need to get into a rhythm with your communication. You will get the best response when you are regularly communicating, so keep talking.

Email Like You’re Friends

Mike Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, has a great piece of advice when it comes to how often to email. He says that he thinks of his emails as communications with friends. He did a test to see how often he emails his best friends, and also what kind of voice he uses. Turns out, it was about 1 to 2 times per week. So that’s what he does for his newsletter.

Think about it for a moment. Many small business owners are afraid of sending too many emails. They think once a month is probably appropriate. Who do you email only once a month? Not people you are close with, that you care about and love to communicate with. You wait a long time in between emails for people you don’t have a great relationship with, or those you feel obligated to stay in some contact with (ie. relatives). Is this the kind of relationship you are going for with your customers?

If you want to engage in customer conversations, you need to be more frequent. Remember, a conversation is two way communication that leads to you solving a problem or them buying a product. Good, ongoing conversation also leads to more sales and a growing network of future-customers.

Gauge Your Frequency

So, when it comes to email, forgo the long, multi-article monthly newsletter for a quick weekly note, like you would send to a friend. Gear your other frequencies to the medium. For instance, its a good idea to blog once a day. That’s not overkill. Superstar bloggers like Seth Godin and Chris Brogan even blog more than once a day. For an interesting conversation on blogging frequency, check out this post and then this one by Jim Connolly. Twitter can be updated frequently throughout the day.

What about phone calls? I believe that you should build phone calls in to your conversation marketing. One on one phone calls don’t allow you to communicate with a group, but they give you a quality of conversation like nothing else. Schedule in calls to your customers. Frequency depends on what you are selling. Here’s my best advice. Call at least one more time than you need to. If you need to make one phone call a year to book a sale, then start making two. The second call is not a sales call. Its a conversation about the customer’s needs, about how well you are helping with those needs, and just about catching up and saying hello.

Break Through the Barriers

If you keep talking, you will find that the barriers that keep you stiff and stand-offish with customers will start to fade. You will also notice a consistent buzz of conversation and sales that are happening around your efforts. And once you get comfortable increasing your frequency, you will find yourself becoming a part of your customer’s life, which is a very good thing.

If, on the other hand, you choose to only speak up occasionally, you will have to break through the wall of trust over and over again. Your message will be missed. You will be seen as an opportunist looking for a sale. You’ll be providing info only when its convenient for you, when you want a sale. It doesn’t matter if these are your intentions or not. This is what it will look like. So, your best intentions of not being a bother to your customers could actually backfire.

Keep talking on a regular basis. Provide useful information. Don’t dump too much stuff at once. A few paragraphs per email should do it. 500-800 words in a blog post is just fine. 120 characters on a Tweet is perfect (leaving room for a retweet). And in all of your communication, make it easy for your listeners to talk back. Always be prepared to listen.

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photo credit: tibchris

Bradford Shimp helps small businesses figure out their communication frequency and approach at BroadRiverCreative.com

How many businesses do you hear from after you make a purchase? All to few, I would bet. And the ones you do hear from are usually larger businesses and all you get from them after a sale are catalogs and advertisements.

The moments during and after a sale are when you are closest to your customer. He or she has decided to trust you enough to buy from you. You are having a meaningful interaction, one that could and should lead to a growing relationship. And then you never call until you want another sale? How rude is that?

Keep the Conversation Going

You did a lot of work to get your customer to the point of making a purchase. It took a building of trust, among other things. So why would you want to waste all of that effort by ignoring the customer after the sale?

This is the best time to start a deeper relationship with the customer. By this I mean that you can become a more important part of your customer’s life, not just a company that he or she bought something from once. This all starts right around the time that you make that sale.

You should have some kind of plan for staying in contact with your customers on a regular basis. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to do this is with an email newsletter. Invite each customer to subscribe to the newsletter at the point of sale. That way, you have an outlet to keep in touch with them regularly.

Remember to Be Personal

While email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with a large audience, don’t ever forget that the decision of a customer to purchase from you is a personal one. Keep that connection alive. Plan on several personal connections throughout the year. This could be anything from hand-written birthday cards, to phone calls just to say hi, to regular face to face meetings (perhaps at a nearby restaurant).

By being personal, you are showing the customer that you remember them and are grateful for their business. Don’t be pushy on getting new sales on these contacts. Just be friendly. Throughout the conversations you have, you will learn the customers needs and can lead them gently to new sales.

Reap the Rewards

No customer is a one time customer. Whether or not they ever buy from you again, each customer is an extremely valuable resource for your business. There are three things that I talk about your being able to tap past customers for. They are repeat sales, testimonials, and referrals. But there is also a fourth thing that shouldn’t be ignored. That is, feedback. Each customer can help you get a better picture on how you are doing and how well you are meeting customer needs.

By staying in contact after the sale, you are giving yourself a much better shot at bringing in new business as a result of a customer.

Provide good information, consistently, and the customer will be more likely to remember to refer you to the a friend. By the way, that referral is most likely to happen when that friend is in need, which is exactly what you want. If you just ask for out of the blue referrals at sale closing, all you will get are cold leads. Stay in contact, and you are bound to get some very hot leads via referral.

Staying in contact also helps to keep your business in front of the customer, so if they are going to buy again, they are much more likely to buy from you. You already have the trust factor since you closed one sale. Now, you just need to maintain awareness. But please note, just sending postcards doesn’t cut it anymore. Provide your customers with valuable information on a regular basis.

Having the relationship also makes it possible to get honest answers from customers regarding your business. It makes asking for things like video testimonials easier, as well.

There are great depths to plumb with any old customer, and you are letting a lot of potential go to waste if you just disappear after a sale (only to reappear when you want another sale). Find ways to stay in contact. You can provide great value to your past customers. At the same time, you can gain great value from them.

photo credit: Lucy Boynton

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

I am a huge advocate of blogging and a weekly email newsletter. I think every small business should employ these tools, for a bunch of different reasons. Perhaps the biggest thing that stands in the way of accomplishing this is that small business owners don’t think that they have enough to say.

The truth is, there is always plenty that you can talk about with your customers. As you start to do it, chances are pretty good that your passion will be reignited and that you will be able to think of new things each week or even every day. Here are a few things that make good conversation with customers. As you practice talking to your customers more regularly, you will discover what works best for you.

Educate Them On Your Product

If you sell a product that has any kind of complexity at all, you might be able to talk to your customers about it. By providing eduction on how to use the product more effectively, you are providing a serious service. Don’t just hide your information in a user manual. Be proactive and highlight uses for your product and provide trainings on how to use it.

Smartdraw is a company that does this very effectively. They sell a software program that allows you to make all kinds of charts, mind maps, and really a ton of different visualizations. They use their blog and email newsletter to teach customers how to use the product better. They also include case studies of customers and how they are using the service. It is all very helpful and turns Smartdraw into more than just a software provider. They are also an information provider and an asset to each of their customers.

Provide Related Information

When you are looking for topics to talk about with customers, don’t just focus on your product or service. Instead, think about how your business intersects with customers’ lives. You attract a certain type of customer. Your customers probably have similar interests with other customers. Find out what these interests are and start writing or talking about them. If, for instance, many of your customers are teachers, talk about topics that would be interesting to teachers. Sharing news, tips, and event information with customers is a great way to connect as well.

Stevco Fundraising is a company that does a lot of work with school parent groups and youth sports organizations. So, instead of blogging just about fundraising, it provides advice and news of interest for this type of customer. What’s really nice about this is that a company can easily speak to a wider audience, beyond its existing customer base. By speaking on wider issues, your small business can attract new customers.

Talk About Issues They Face

Your customers have unique concerns and issues that they face daily. They may not be the same issues that you face. Find out customer needs and then talk about them. In this way, you can become a trusted advisor for your customers and for others who face similar issues.

The point is to connect with customers where they are at. This is sometimes in the sales interaction, where they need your product or service. But your customer is probably thinking about that need on a limited basis. Find out their other needs and help with them. In some cases, you may be able to provide an answer with your business. Other times, you will just need to be there. Building trust builds loyalty and will lead to sales.

Give Them an Insiders Look at Your Business

Okay, so if it is killing you that you can’t talk about your business all of the time, this one is for you. By being transparent and interesting, along with a bunch of other stuff, you can actually get customers interested in you and your business. If you can create that dynamic, you can talk about the inside baseball of your business. Fans will always want to hear what is going on inside. The trick, of course, is to create fans. In order to do that, you need to do the stuff from the other suggestions and always focus on your customers first.

Don’t spill all of the beans. Always keep your fans asking for more. At the same time, be transparent. Talk about your challenges and invite feedback from your customers. By bringing customers in to your story, you are creating a family. You will supercharge your fan base and they in turn will do more for your business in terms of sales then you could ever do by yourself.

Talking to your customers on a regular basis is not really that hard. The biggest trick is to just do it regularly. When you do, you will be inspired. As you can see, there is plenty to talk about. Just take the focus off yourself and plug in to the world of your customers.

photo credit: Silveira Neto

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

Knowing what your customers think about your business is of great importance. If you know early enough that there is a problem, you can fix it. If you find out that needs are changing, you can be the first to get there and fill that new need. But getting a good read on customers true thoughts is easier said than done.

The Customer Satisfaction Survey

Take the customer satisfaction survey for instance. You send this out after a sale. A small percentage of your customers take the time to fill it out. Those that do are usually give glowing reviews, and it is easy to think that everything is perfect. But what about all those customers who didn’t fill out the survey? Why didn’t they? Were they unhappy but didn’t want to complain? Perhaps its worse than that. Maybe they are just ambivalent. If your customers don’t care enough to fill out the survey, that could be speaking volumes right there.

But I will give you and your customers the benefit of the doubt. One customer satisfaction survey isn’t going to give you a clear picture of what customers are thinking anyway. What you need to do is engage your customers on deeper levels so that they feel comfortable sharing their true thoughts with you.

Ask and Keep Asking

If you want to find out what customers think about something you need to ask them. But you can’t just ask once and take the few answers that come in as the final truth. You need to keep asking, and ask in different ways. I suggest a question of the week routine to consistently engage customers. Build it in to your weekly email newsletter.

Open Ended Questions

If you want to get the truest thoughts from customers, avoid the “poll question dynamic.” When an agency asks a poll question, it is usually worded in such a way as to bring about a desired answer. You can accidentally do the same thing, thus clouding the truth. If you ask a series of specific questions, you will get specific responses.

If you want to find out the heartbeat of the customer, ask open ended questions. One of my favorites is “what could we have done better?” Allow your customers to think a little in their responses. In this way, you can discover things that you would have never thought of on your own.

Interactions

Asking questions is just one way to find out what customers think. Another way is to have interactions with customers on a regular basis. Whether you throw parties, host seminars, or just pay visits to the customers, interactions can bring about great information. As a relationship grows, customers will be more willing to share their true thoughts. Also, you will gain a much better understanding of your customers’ needs and wants.

A great example of a business interacting with customers is BatchBook. An online CRM company, they have created a small business Twitter chat, called #sbbuzz. Each week, a bunch of small businesses get together and chat about issues and ideas. Sure, not everyone on the chat is a customer, but everyone does fit the demographic that BatchBook serves. The neat thing is that BatchBook does not use the chat to promote their product. Instead, they have created a community that can share ideas and thoughts, and BatchBook (and other businesses that know how to listen) can glean important information about what small businesses think.

Applying Thoughts

Finding out what customers think is a long and involved process. It pays off though. If you know what customers are thinking about when they buy your product, you will have an easier time finding new customers. You just need to find people that are thinking the same thing. Also, you will be able to customize your product or service so that it fits perfectly into your ideal customer’s life.

Further, you can take your knowledge of the customer and expand with it. You might be able to become a speaker, or a blogger, on the subjects that matter most to your customers. Then you can make money by getting the customer, by teaching others how to get the customer, and by building up a following that goes beyond your customers to like minded individuals throughout the world.

The ultimate goal is for you to start thinking like your customer. In order to do this, you need to know your customer. Spend time with them, ask lots of questions, and keep the conversation alive.

photo credit: Vikram Vetrivel

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with the All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

As we move back toward a more personal approach to business, thanks to trends in social networking, I believe that the customer relationship is growing more and more important. The goal of your business should not be just to get the sale, but to develop a relationship with each customer that will lead to more sales, testimonials, referrals, and mutual gratification.

Its time to treat customers as friends, and perhaps even discover a few amazing new relationships in the process.

Friends Communicate

In order to start and maintain friendships, you need to communicate. You can’t build a friendship by calling someone once or twice a year to ask them to do something for you. Yet, that is all the communication many small businesses offer, the sales call. Likewise, a card every year on Christmas will not a friendship make.

To make friends with your customers, you need to communicate personally with them. Now, since you will not be building deep relationships with most of these customers, it is okay to use a tool of mass communication such as an email newsletter or blog. Even then, commit to breaking out with a few personal notes or phones calls each year.

I believe you should offer some kind of communication at least once a week. This is ideal because it will keep the conversation alive with the customer and also force you to talk about deeper things than your latest sales push. Customers will appreciate the constant stream of communication if it is valuable to them in some way. Make your customers feel like insiders, teach them about something, offer them something, etc.

Friends Stick By Each Other

The nice thing about friends is that they are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Really good friends will slap you around a little when you screw up, but they will never leave your side. By developing friendships with your customers, you will be increasing their loyalty factor greatly and you will benefit from more honest communication from them.

A customer will be far less likely to leave you if he or she feels a deeper connection with your company. It is your job to make this connection happen. There are lots of ways to do it. It starts with the communication. From there, it moves into being personable and caring for your customers. Be a giver, and you will be appreciated.

Here are a few things I suggest that will help you make that deeper connection with customers. Consider organizing customers into focus or advisory groups. Ask them for their opinions on things related to your business. You can do this on the small scale and formally meet, or on the large scale and sign up customers to receive emails surveys throughout the year.

Another thing you can do is to throw a party for all of your customers. A good, cheap, way to do this is by having a family picnic. Invite your customers and their families. Depending on your budget, you can even ask them to pitch in on the food.

You could also use social networks to connect more with your customers. Engage with them on Facebook and Twitter. Consider setting up a Tweetchat just for your customers. Build community with the people who buy from you. From community comes loyalty.

Friends Share a Common Story

The hallmark of friendships are shared experiences. By building communication and connection into your customer relationships, you are allowing for the creation of a shared story line. Customers want to be part of a bigger story. They don’t care about being a number on your financial report. They don’t care nearly as much as you do about the ins and outs of your business. Your job is to find something that they do care about, and work to make them a part of that story with you by their side.

Sweetriot is a candy maker with a story. They have built their whole business around fixing the world with chocolate. A customer doesn’t just buy from them, they join the story of saving the world. The same is true of Tom’s Shoes, where one pair of shoes is given to the poor for every pair that is bought.

You don’t have to make your story about charity. Companies like Apple and Google have a narrative that customers feel they are a part of. You just need a singular focus. You need to make your customers feel like they are part of something when they buy from you. Whether they are helping save the world, joining an elite club, or bettering their lives, the story needs to impact them.

When your customers buy in to a story, and not just a product, they are much more likely to share that story with others. This leads to more customers and more friends, and soon, your business is growing in ways you never thought possible.

Before you get overwhelmed about how to create a unique story, I want tell you about MemberHub and Matt Harrell. Matt and his dad created MemberHub with a team of people. They have designed what I think is a pretty sharp group collaboration and communication tool, which is perfect for large organizations like churches. I know a lot about Matt and MemberHub and feel like I am part of their story. Why? Because they share their story openly. They have a blog, use Twitter, and are happy to talk to customers on the phone. They haven’t invented an elaborate story. They have just been open and committed to communication.

You can do this. You don’t need to have the best hook in the world. Just be yourself and let it show. The right kind of people will be attracted to that. Before you know it, your business will have a narrative that others can plug in to.

So, what action should you take now? First of all, create a regular communication outlet. I suggest a blog and email newsletter combination. The blog can feed the email. Don’t like to write? Then record video or voice. Just make it happen. Until you start opening up this stream of communication, you will not understand how much it can impact your business and life for the better.

photo credit: constantly_Jair

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com