We love our customers, but it doesn’t mean that we need to always get a one night stand when we first meet.
In your marketing and sales process, it is often getting qualified leads and customers that tends to be the most costly or difficult within your processes (your funnel). Once you have achieved that, you want to build a relationship with your customers, and nurture that. Instead of making the mistake of making it only about a pitch.
So lets take a look a a few things you should remember:
This is why you don’t want to simply have a one night stand. This means simply trying to “close the deal” with pitches without building a relationship by providing value and show them what you stand for in the market place. You want to increase the lifetime value of your customers and prospects, and have them come back to you again and again now that you have filled their need.
Your customers are a valuable commodity, to be treated with respect. You don’t want to simply continuously blast them with offers if you want them to be responsive. Yet, the truth is I see many markters doing exactly this. Provide them value, then once every few messages provide the pitch.
If you are the face of your brand, you need to be sure that it gets in front of your customers and see that there is a personal touch. Provide them ongoing value, and they will keep coming back to you within your marketplace. If not, it is still key that your brand still has a clear message to your customers, and continues to provide value. Remember the old rule of thumb that it takes 7-12 contacts with a prospect to close a sale.
If you are interacting with your prospects and customers on Facebook, know that your fans want to interact with you, not be marketed to. The moral of No one night stands is particularly important in social media. Remember it is “social media,” you wouldn’t run into a party and start trying to sell everyone, and you must take a similar approach when interacting in social media, think first about what they can learn about you to make a good decision, or interact with you, so they WANT to take further action with you.
Know why your prospect come, and why customers buy your brands product or service. This means you need to know the real full resason that your customers make that buying decision and what is the complete need you are filling. It is very easy for people to make assumptions about their customers, but lets dig a bit deeper and you will discover a lot more profit potential by indetifing your market. Just because a person decides to participate in a fat loss program doesn’t simply mean that they think they are fat. Why are they doing this? It may be that the want to FEEL healther, be more appealing to the opposite sex/spouse, or feel more confident with friends perceptions of them. This is a simple example, but whatever you provide, knowing the specifics of the need you are really filling will put you far ahead of your competion.
Understand that perception often become reality when it comes to marketing and what people think of your brand. If they have a bad experience they are likely to continue to have a bad perception, if they have a good opinion, then it is likely that it will perceive their contact with you as more positive. So be sure you have control and know what perception you are creating within your marketspace, is it a good perception or a bad one? Truth is that within marketing, how they perceive you will have a big effect on the conversion of your product or service.
No more one night stands. Start thinking about the long term relationship with your customers. Keep these things in mind, remember that you want to increase the lifetime value of your prospects, and get them coming back to you again and again now that you have them, because THEY know that you can best fill their need within your marketplace.
Filed under Brand Building, CRM, Copywriting, Editorial, Internet Marketing by on Jan 26th, 2012. Comment. 
A new study by Unity Marketing shows that in 2012 a significant percentage of affluent customers (43%) plan to spend more or even much more on travel.
This is supposed to be particularly true of led by young affluents, men, ultra-affluents, and high-net-worth affluents. So who are these affluent individuals? The report defines mature affluents as aged 45 and older, high-net-worth affluents as those with *investible assets* of $1 million or more, ultra-affluents as the top 2% with incomes of $250,000+, and young affluents as those aged 44 or younger.
Of this group, about 28% will spend significantly more, and 72% spend somewhat more. Keep in mind that men in general are expecting to spend more as well.
To me this indicates 2 things, first that sentiment among individuals is that the economy is improving and that they feel more secure in spending disposable income.
Besides this survey other indicators are also showing that the buying public is spending more and positive changes in consumer behavior. Besides the obvious opportunities in travel, this is likely to continue to mean better spending across the board by all consumers, but particularly the affluent This means as entrepreneurs and marketers we should look at how we can embrace customers with a more positive light going forward in 2012, as well as look for special opportunities to reach affluents, who appear prepared to loosen their purse strings in 2012.
Look towards your business in how you can take advantage of these opportunities.
Filed under Internet Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing Analytics by on Jan 10th, 2012. Comment.
There is a trend that you may have noticed growing more and more in marketing, where companies are featuring real people and employees in ads promoting products. It is worth taking a notice, as a recent IBR survey indicates that buyers are responding. It showed that 69% of end consumers were more likely to buy a product or have a positive impression of the brand after watching, compared to only 21% after watching similar traditional ads.
There are some heavy hitters that are testing this move besides the well known Microsoft Windows 7 campaign that uses real consumers saying “Windows 7 Was My Idea”. This includes tech powerhouses Intel and IBM, Best Buy, pizza giant Domino’s, who has not always had luck with media and employees, and conglomerate GE. All who have used actual team members, and in many cases actual customers, to evangelize their products and tell a compelling story in major advertising campaigns.
Since this marketing tactic seems to be gaining momentum, and receiving positive response, the question becomes how can your business get in on the action.
There are 2 sides of this, first in house evangelists that believe in their company, brand, product or service. Second is the powerful voice of customers or clients within the online community. Social media greatly enhances your customers ability to talk about your products and company online. Besides popular social media sites like facebook and twitter there are countless forums, and product review sites to talk about buyer experiences, both consumer and B2B. This can work either to your advantage or disadvantage.
What you want to be able to do is take control of the conversation by being the one to start it, or at least point it in the direction you desire.
Here is how:
Know what makes your company special and why you are the only solution to your customers needs? This is a great way to spread the word so that others can find out too.
Filed under Advertising, Brand Building, CRM, Internet Marketing, Social Media by on Dec 13th, 2011. Comment.
MSNBC has redone their site as a “one page format” so that they can stop the pageview metric, commonly used to value websites and banner advertising campaigns. They now have 30 different ad combinations, but banner ads are not among the offerings. Does this mean that they are dead, as stated by one MSNBC.com spokesperson?
Clearly some publishers have a reason to want them to be. They don’t get the fees they would like to charge on these ads, and from a consumer response perspective, many seem to have become “blind” to banner ads in many cases.
Many reasons are given for this, and we do not wish to speculate, however when several experts were asked for their opinon on banner ads, none seemed to believe that this format is dead. Instead it appears to be undergoing an evolution, and smart marketers are learning how to create responsive banner ads that viewers will click.
Savvy marketers have discovered that they are able to buy up these ads cheaply, and when formatted properly, for actual response rather than simply being “pretty,” “clever” or “creative,” are able to receive an excellent ROI.
Another perspective on this issue comes from the likes of Brendan Star, digital media director at McGarrah Media: “”Banner ads aren’t going extinct, but the ways they are used, bought, and served are.” He, unfortunately, was referring to for use in old school branding efforts, rather than actual sales and promotion, however it may turn out that these ads can have a good ROI when designed properly and used selectively.
In the mean time, don’t let anyone tell you that “banner ads are dead”, and most importantly that they do not work. While improperly designed banners may fail horribly, properly designed ads, in a properly executed campaign, can command response, and provide an excellent ROI on your marketing dollar.
Filed under Advertising, Internet Business, Internet Marketing, Media Buying by on Dec 3rd, 2011. Comment.
