Do You Know Your Customer’s Story?

From the moment you are born until the day you die, your life is jammed packed with stories. The first time you rode a bike, your childhood adventures with friends in the park, your first date, the death of a loved one – these are all chapters in the story of your life. Your customers have similar experiences that make up the stories of their lives.

In a world of sales objectives and quotas that need to be met, it’s very easy to lose sight of the humanity of customers. By understanding your customers’ stories, you will be able to relate to them on a deeper level.  If you listen closely to them and understand their challenges, you can help solve them together as a team.

Customers Are People Too

Forget for a moment that you are selling or marketing for a minute.  It’s easy to see customers as check marks on a spreadsheet or targets on a dartboard. Keep in mind that your customers have families, relationships, issues and challenges just like everyone else. They have to get up in the morning and go to work with all of the pressures and stress that go with it.  They may have a spouse and children or perhaps they are single. Some sales people treat customers as nothing more than a sales objective for a firm, failing to see and relate to the humanity of each person with which the firm interacts. This is a profound mistake and one that companies cannot afford to make.

Relationships  

Understanding human behavior is a key to success in business. I spoke with an entrepreneur once who told me that when you make customers your friends, the dynamic between seller and customer changes significantly in the business transaction. Successful business is all about relationships. Customers like to do business with people they trust.  When you want to buy something online, do you go to e-commerce websites that you have never heard of before?  If you do, don’t you first check them out through customer reviews, people you know who have used them, or the BBB?  It is unwise to do business with people that you don’t trust.

Be Real

I have found throughout my career that honesty is still the best policy. My success has been directly connected to being honest and open with my customers. If my colleagues and I made a mistake by unintentionally shipping the wrong product or a defective product, we quickly admitted to that mistake and rectified the situation, which in turn strengthened our relationships with customers who saw us as honest and reliable. Being open and honest in business builds trust and long-lasting relationships.

Early in my career, I went on a sales call with a seasoned advertising professional.  When he sat down with his customers to solve a problem, he was very careful what language he used when talking with them.  He didn’t say “you” or “your” once. It was always “we” and “our”. He acted like one of them and was accepted as one of them, not an outside agency.

Technology

There are several Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms that can help sales and marketing people “manage” their customer’s stories.  Capturing birthdays, anniversaries, special events, customer concerns and solutions in this platform are very helpful especially during transition times when a sales or marketing person moves on and another may need to take his or her place. Documentation is very important.  I have a beautiful wife and 5 wonderful children.  With all of the activities in everyday life, I struggle remembering birthdays and key dates. Multiply that by 50 key customers and that’s a ton of information to retain.  Leveraging technology to organize this information is very helpful.  Remember, technology will not replace personal contact, but it can help keep you organized so you can be more effective.  IBM has released a series of commercials that show celebrities interacting with IBM’s Watson.  Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language and machine learning to reveal information and insight.  Their commercial regarding storytelling with Stephen King is a unique and entertaining way to tie storytelling with technology. Leveraging technology to help you manage your customer’s stories should be strongly considered for your business.

Do You Know Your Customer’s Story?

How much do you really know about your customers?  Do you know why they like doing business with you? Do you know their needs and expectations?  What are their challenges in business?  Can your company help them achieve their goals? Do you have a personal relationship with them or are you just another supplier to them?

Knowing each of your customer’s stories is important, however being part of your customer’s story is critical to your success.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website, my Twitter account and my blog.

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Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Snapchat?

In order to be competitive in an increasingly globalized world, social media needs to be at the forefront of your company’s marketing strategy. For millennials, the introduction of social media had the same impact as the introduction of cell phones did to baby boomers.  Technology is facilitating rapid, easy dissemination of information worldwide, generating new business opportunities and widening corporations’ potential client and customer base.  For marketers, social media is another channel to help brand companies and products, capture competitive information, and listen and respond to the voice of the customer.  In this article, I want to concentrate on one popular social media channel, Snapchat and how you can use it for business.

Created in 2012 by three Stanford University students – Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown Poster – Snapchat is a photo and video platform that allows users to share brief images or videos lasting 1 to 10 seconds.  After those images or videos are shared, they are no longer accessible. There is also a “story” feature where you can link several segments in chronological order.  Stories are available for 24 hours before they disappear. Several media outlets participate within Snapchat as “teams” that offer their content to share. Some of these outlets include CNN, Comedy Central, ESPN, and the Food Network.

Today, the company boasts a $10 – 20 billion value with over 7 billion daily video views online and 200 million daily users.  Snapchat’s predominant user demographic is 13 to34 year-olds.  If your company is targeting this demographic, I strongly suggest considering incorporating Snapchat into your marketing strategy.  Here are some business applications that you should consider.

Branding

Snapchat stories can provide prospective customers with a quick view of a company’s personality and mission without the expense of creating flawless corporate videos.  Some companies have used Snapchat as a tool to give customers an inside look at the company.  For example, one company told several stories on Snapchat showing sneak peaks at new products before they were officially introduced.

Promotional

Other companies use Snapchat as a promotions tool.  For example, if your company manufactures clothing, you can encourage your customers take a Snapchat of themselves wearing your products and send the images to your company’s social media team.  As a reward, you could automatically send participating customers a discount for their next purchase.  This would build support for your brand and expand your customer base.

You can also create a promotional code and “Snap” it to your customers.  They can then get their discount using this code online or via your call center.

Another popular promotion is to send customers a story and have the last frame of the story be a redeemable coupon that they can take a screenshot to be used on their next purchase.  Alternatively, you can use the private chat feature built into the application to send a promotional code.

Announcements

Snapchat is a great medium to announce new products, trade shows and events.  The NBA has used Snapchat during the draft, the All-Star Game and the Finals, to allow attendees of the games to add to the Atlanta Hawks “story” as events were unfolding.

Deliver Special Private Content

You can also use Snapchat to deliver special private content and to convey a sense of personal investment in individual customers. For example, actors Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson appeared at the Paris Fashion Show as their characters Derek Zoolander and Hansel to promote their new movie “Zoolander 2”. They documented their Paris Fashion Show adventure using Snapchat to help followers feel like they were involved in a special private event by creating behind-the-scenes snaps.

Acquiring New Customers

Customer acquisition is always on the hearts and minds of marketers.  You can utilize Snapchat to gather new customers by uploading prospect lists from your address book or utilize a QR code in your digital and print marketing that invites customers to be part of your Snapchat network. Snapchat enables your company to target a younger demographic and build new customer support through innovative outreach strategies and promotions.

Building New Relationships

Customers do business with companies they know and trust.  Use Snapchat to help build relationships. How can you build relationships in 1 to 10 seconds?  By stringing a  series of Snapchats together in a story or a series of events that showcase your products and services, you provide customers with personal insight into your company and help them feel connected to your products and brand.

Conclusion

If you are marketing your products to 13 to 34 year-olds, you should strongly consider Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy.  I recommend that you don’t just settle for one social media channel; synchronized marketing strategies utilizing Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other tools will enable your company to achieve its goals.  You can leverage Snapchat along with Vine, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter for example, to create a multi-pronged marketing approach that creatively tells your story to attract new customers.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website, my Twitter account and my blog.

Photo credit: business.teenlife.com

Social Media – A Game of Strategy

Monopoly is a game of strategy.  When you play the game, you need to evaluate different options and understand that the choices that you make are critical to your success.  Social media is also a game of strategy.  The social networks that you use can help your company grow through brand awareness, promotions, and customer feedback.

When determining which social media networks work best for your company, there are a number of things to consider.  Before we go there, let’s make social media a bit easier to understand by categorizing the various types of networks. By doing so, we can more easily determine what social media networks work for your company and which ones you don’t really need to invest time in.  It’s time to play the game of social media to keep up with your competitors.

Social Networks

Social networking sites fueled the rise of social media. These networks were designed as a platform for online social interaction and means of sharing similar interests, connecting with artistic groups, and personalizing Internet space. Facebook, Google +, MySpace, and MeetUp are a few examples of these networks. Social networks are an effective channel for business to build credibility, and company and product awareness. Here are some examples of successful business Facebook pages. Zappos uses discussion posts, wall updates and Fan of the Week contests to engage with their customers. Burt’s Bees uses spotlight videos to build product awareness and allows customers to buy products from their Facebook page. Skullcandy leverages music, videos, and blogs to encourage customers to purchase their products.

Professional Social Networks

Unlike the original social networks, professional social networks are focused more on business-related networking and information sharing.  LinkedIn, SlideShare, Xing and Viadeo fit into this category.  You typically wouldn’t share family photos at the zoo on these sites, but would instead reach out to expand business relationships. Businesses create LinkedIn pages to build brand awareness, share corporate information and announcements such as Coca-Cola, Mashable and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.  Like many social networks, the lifespan of professional social networks is sometimes short, so be sure to pick a reputable and established networking site.

Private Social Networks

Although the name sounds like an oxymoron, private social networks – or private enterprise networks – are a useful tool that an increasing number of companies are utilizing.   Private social networks operate like normal social networks but can only be accessed behind the firewall within companies – hence the term “private”.  Yammer, Salesforce Chatter and Ning are examples of these networks. These networks enable companies located in numerous domestic and international locations to share sensitive information and collaborate on projects more effectively.

International Social Networks

Similar to other social networks, international social networks have originated outside of the US.  These sites offer networking platforms in multiple languages and are customizable to the user.  These networks include QZone (China), Netlog (Belgium), Vkontakte (Russia) and Sonico (Japan).

Social Media Monitoring, Management and Tracking

Social media monitoring is a method of tracking what is being said on social media about an individual, product or company.  These networks or software have become very popular to help companies dispel rumors, bad press and incorrect information.  Some of these networks are Tracx, BuzzBundle, HootSuite, Postling and Lithium.

Content Discovery and Curation

Content delivery and curation networks offer interesting and entertaining content for the purpose of sharing information and providing news content outside of traditional news networks. Sites include BuzzFeed, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg and HubPages.  Often users will forward these stories to their networks via other social networking sites, facilitating the quick dissemination of information through multiple Internet platforms. Use these networks to reach younger demographics (millennials) by creating funny and entertaining content that can go viral, which can become an effective branding tool for your company.

Blogging

Blogging sites allow their users to write and post articles and share information relevant to specific topics.  Some networks like LinkedIn have incorporated blogging within their site to allow users to share opinions, new trends, and current affairs in the business and professional world.  There are several blogging sites on the internet, but the most well-known are WordPress, Posthaven, and Blogger.  Even though I post articles on LinkedIn, I also use my blog on WordPress to share my information on different platforms including Facebook, Google + and Twitter.  These articles can contain links to your products driving traffic and sales to your website.

Microblogging

The only difference between blogging and microblogging is the limitation of content.  Microblogging involves sending short messages, announcements and links instead of paragraph-long posts. Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous and Disqus are best known for these applications.  Three companies that use Twitter very effectively are McDonalds, Delta Airlines and Nike.  McDonalds promotes new items on the menu and have giveaways when followers tweet about what they love about McDonalds.  Delta Airlines introduces their latest offers and special packages.  Nike doesn’t use Twitter for sales.  They send out tweets that motivate and inspire their followers, which strengthen the Nike brand.

Photo Sharing

It is said that “A picture is worth a thousand words.”   Photo sharing networks allow individuals or companies post photos including images of products, family, personal interests, hobbies, and so forth.  Instragram, Pinterest and Flickr connect communities of various interests and allow them to post images.  SnapChat is a similar platform for photo sharing and also allows you to post short videos. Photo sharing networks are an important tool for improving branding and marketing images of your company. By connecting with influencers and innovators, sharing their posts, using hashtags, tag names, comments and links in your posts, you can expand your brand visibility quickly.

Video Sharing

YouTube has put video sharing networks on the social media map.  Since its inception, YouTube has transformed into a global repository of videos that are searched like Google.  Other video sharing sites that have grown in popularity include Vimeo, DailyMotion and Vine.  Businesses use this network to show corporate, product and how-to videos.  According to Wired.com, YouTube is one of Google’s biggest successes outside of search and YouTube now reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any single US cable network.

Which Social Media Network Should You Use For Your Company?

Determining which social media network to use for your company is important for your marketing and branding strategy. Choosing only one network is not sufficient for your company to get noticed.  I believe that every company should be, at the very least, on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or Instagram and HootSuite.  These networks or their competitors will provide you with networking and blogging opportunities (LinkedIn); microblogging (Twitter) to announce new products and company updates; social networking (Facebook), which expands your audience to a wider variety of  potential new customers; video sharing (YouTube) to post product and corporate videos, including community service; photo sharing (Pinterest) to expand your brand by providing images targeted to the appropriate communities that buy your products and services; and social management and tracking (HootSuite) to monitor what your customers, prospects and competitors are saying about you on social media.  Even if your business is more service-oriented, you can still take advantage of these networks.

Conclusion

Like Monopoly, social media is a strategy game. You need to decide what social media networks are right for your business.  Research options, see what your competitors are using and make sure that you have dedicated resources (internal or external) to respond to the market conversations that are happening on social media about your company and industry.  This is a strategy game that your company cannot afford to lose.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit:  Emilie Ogez via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

 

Why Isn’t Your Entire Company On LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is best known as the place where professionals network with other professionals.  With over 400 million members, LinkedIn has built a very large network that you can take advantage of.  The concept is pretty simple.  I’m sure you’ve heard of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.  The concept is that any two people are six people or fewer acquaintance links apart from each other.  By creating this large network of professionals, you have the opportunity to connect with any professional that you want to using LinkedIn.  This tool allows you to easily find contacts at other companies and discover who you are connected with that may be able to introduce you to those contacts.  Here are some suggestions on how you can benefit from having a LinkedIn presence for your company and how your employees can help your company grow using LinkedIn.

Create Your Own Company Profile   – If you haven’t done so already, create a company profile on LinkedIn.  It’s really easy to do and along with your other social media networks, you will have more visibility to more customers.  If you don’t know where to start, I recommend reviewing some very impressive LinkedIn business pages including Microsoft , Google, Salesforce, and Harvard Business Review.  According to LinkedIn, these companies have a few things in common that have made them very successful.

• 99% of the top global brands have employees sharing their content to their networks
• 97% of the top global brands have employee posts contributing to their content efforts
• 99% of top brands regularly share updates on their Company Page
• 73% of top brands are utilizing Sponsored Updates
• All of these top brands post an average of 12.6 updates per week

Although you don’t need to have your content machine in place on day one, these are great practices that should be emulated.

Sales – It is a very good idea that each of your sales staff has their own LinkedIn profile. Companies like to do business with people that they know.  Having a professional photograph and information about each sales person will help your company’s professionalism online and help them by having an “online business card”.  By the way, having a LinkedIn profile URL on your salespeople’s business cards is another way for your customers to learn more about them and you.

Sales should use LinkedIn to find key contact names of targeted prospects.  A word of caution –  many salespeople say they want to network and connect with professionals, when all they really want to do is turn that networking opportunity into a sales pitch.  Presenting your products and services to targeted prospects subtly is one thing, but don’t use LinkedIn as a tool to hound them for sales.  The better approach might be to see who you know on LinkedIn who might be able to introduce you to that contact.  Referrals are much more effective than cold calling on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn offers advertising opportunities to present your company’s products and services which is respectable way to get noticed.

Marketing – As mentioned above, there are some successful companies using LinkedIn very effectively.  Your marketing team should research these LinkedIn companies for best practices.  There is much to be learned about effective methods of leveraging LinkedIn and other social media networks.  The more updates that you can post on LinkedIn, the better.  Keeping your updates flowing, keeps your customers and prospects interested and updated on what is going on with your company.  I also recommend that your marketing team sign up for different LinkedIn Pulse channels.  There are millions of marketing professionals on LinkedIn and these groups love to share ideas that have worked for them.

Human Resources – Job seekers use LinkedIn as an online resume with the added value of providing recommendations from colleagues, skills, endorsements, volunteer information, blog posts, videos, photos, slide presentations, and documents. Your HR department should comb LinkedIn to find new talent.

Administration, IT and Production Staff – Having your administration, IT and production staff on LinkedIn can help build the company profile to your prospects and customers.  Not only is it important to have them create their own profiles, but also having them provide content for your corporate LinkedIn pages and sharing that information with their contacts spreads the word exponentially on social media.

Executive Team – The average number of connections that CEOs have on LinkedIn is 930.  Executives need to leverage LinkedIn for peer and new business relationships, partnerships and strategic alliances.

If you don’t have a corporate LinkedIn profile, build one.  Encourage your staff to create their own LinkedIn profiles and whenever you have a company update, make sure that you get your staff to share that information with their connections.  Leverage the power of LinkedIn to give your company more visibility and to expand your brand through networking.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: A Name Like Shields Can Make You Defensive via Foter.com / CC BY

Statistics: LinkedIn and DMR

How to Acquire New Customers

The challenge that many companies face is acquiring new customers.  You can “shotgun” your marketing by mailing tons of direct mail to a large, untargeted database, but I recommend having a different tactic.

Profile Your Customers

Who are your customers?  Who is buying from you?  Have you looked at the types of companies that purchase your products?

Do some analysis as to the types of companies or consumers who are your best customers.  I recommend that you look at demographics, SIC codes, company size and other attributes. If you understand the profile of our existing customers, you can match their profile and find other prospects that look just like them.

Building Your Acquisition Database

There are several database management services that you can hire to pull company names, addresses, contact names and phone numbers. Some databases may have accurate mailing addresses, but contact information may be dated.  Utilizing LinkedIn is a good resource for verifying up-to-date contacts.  Find the supplier that can provide you with the best list to reach your target prospects and hire them.

Some database companies also offer email addresses, however it has been my experience that email databases for rent are unreliable.  A better way of capturing prospect and customer emails is to offer downloads on your website like white papers that web visitors can get by just entering their email address.  You will need to make sure that you offer an opt-out process from marketing emails due to CAN-SPAM compliance rules.

Create a Customer Acquisition Campaign

Some companies really like to use direct mail like postcards, letters and fliers to acquire new customers.  Others like to use email, banner advertising on other websites and social media, and Google adwords.  I am a strong believer in synchronized marketing campaigns utilizing multiple acquisition techniques. Certain programs may work better than others.  A/B testing is another great way of finding out what works and what doesn’t.  Keep doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

Finding New Customers Outside of Your Existing Customers’ Profiles

In addition to matching existing customer profiles with prospects and attempting to acquire them, there might be a group of prospects that you never thought would be your customers. Market research through surveys is a great way to find out what types of companies or end consumers buy your products or who want your products.  For those who have purchased yhour products, ask them to explain how they use your products, possibly even provide prizes for the best ideas. This information might help you target new customers.

You can also do some testing pulling contact information from other SIC codes and mail or email them as well.  Track the response and conversion rates for each test.  If you discover that a new customer segment is interested in your products or services, expand your reach within that segment through brand and product marketing using direct mail, email, social media and the web.

Conclusion

Profiling your customers to find new prospects, building the prospect database for both direct mail and email, launching the campaign to include the new profiled targets and testing new market segments are all very important steps in acquiring new customers.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: flazingo_photos via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Customer Acquisition and Retention – The Keys to Growth

Retaining existing customers is a goal that every company needs to have, however getting those customers to purchase more is also extremely important.  Those customers already know you and your products, you just need to get them to purchase more of your products.

Just keeping existing customers buying and hopefully buying more is important, but if you really want your company to grow, you need to acquire more customers.  Here are a few recommendations on how to grow existing customers and acquire new ones.

Customer Retention and Growth

Do Your Customers Know That You Listen To Them ? – When your customers make your brand their brand, you win.  Do you listen to your customers?  Customers want you to listen to them and provide the products that they want, not the products you think they want.  A great place to listen to your customers is social media.  When you do something right or wrong, social media is where your customers let other potential customers know how they feel about you.  Use existing customers as a focus group to grow your business.  When your customers feel that you are listening to them, they will feel an affiliation to your brand.

Customer Loyalty – Do you have a customer loyalty program?  I have a keychain with 27 customer loyalty cards on it.  Why do I do have so many?  I have them because I get points, discounts or other benefits for having them.

Encourage Your Customers To Buy Other Products That You Offer – Most people are creatures of habit.  When they like a brand, they become loyal to it.  If your customers are buying Brand X from you, offer them related products to that product.  Since your customers may not be buying the related products from you, they are buying it from someone.  Make it easy for your customers to buy related products.  On your website, those related products should appear when they are checking out. For example, “Don’t forget to buy batteries” when they are purchasing a flashlight.

Cross-Sell vs Upsell – Amazon has done cross-sell and upsell effectively for years.  Amazon has used some very sophisticated algorithms that offered products that are normally purchased together, not necessarily related products.  I know this because I implemented that same referral engine at a few companies where I worked. It was amazing how it worked. When you go to the grocery store to buy milk, do you always buy cereal at the same time?  You may buy milk and ammonia because you run out of them at the same time.  Amazon figured out those buying patterns and offered those products as upsells in addition to related products.  Look at your customers buying patterns and you might find some very valuable information.

Customer Acquisition

Understand Who Your Existing Customers Are – It’s really easy to get a mailing list and blast out tens of thousands of direct mail pieces hoping someone will read the flier, see the light of how great your company is and immediately become a customer.  Realistically, that prospect is someone else’s customer.  Your job is to get them to become your customer.  The best way to find those prospects is to first profile your existing customers.  As I stated earlier, you want to retain your existing customers and encourage them to purchase more.  You also want to find prospects that are like your best customers.  It requires analysis, research and homework, but it’s worth it.

Branding – Prospects may not be existing customers because they may not know who you are and how you can help them.  I have found great success creating and implementing branding and awareness campaigns using direct mail fliers, print and online advertising, email marketing and social media.  People do business with people they know and trust.

Networking –   LinkedIn is an excellent networking tool.  Once you have determined the companies that you want to target, use LinkedIn to find the contacts.  Connect with them on LinkedIn.  If your company doesn’t have a LinkedIn profile, create one and include information about your products and services, as well as your value proposition.

Community Service – Yes, I said Community Service.  There is no better way to let prospects and customers know what your company really stands for than reaching out and helping in the community.  Get some t-shirts made up, give them to your staff and go out in the community and help someone.  My company, Positive Promotions, creates custom t-shirts for a wide variety of charitable causes.  It makes you and your staff feel good, builds morale and teamwork and it shows everyone in the community that you are there not just to sell your products but to give back to your community.

Listen to your customers and give them the products they want and upsell/cross-sell them other products that you sell.  Profile your customers and find prospects that match that profile.  Expanding your brand, network and reach out to the community will help you grow.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: Krypto / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA