Times are hard, budgets are tight, customers are finicky, so think out the box to grab their attention and email addresses.
What will make you stand out from your competitors? What are customers looking for that will give you the edge? We have previously talked about respecting your customers and understanding who they are and what they seek…Now is the time to get on top of that and reach out to your potential customers.
You could try giving away an MP3 loaded with your brochure, white papers, product manuals, articles, product reviews and comparisons, links to helpful resources, even some cheery recession busting music if you feel the need! It should be valuable, unique content related to the search which led them to you.
By not forcing people to subscribe for content that may tip their decision to spend with you, but actually giving it away for free when times are hard, PLUS giving them something useful – an MP3 player – which they can use as they wish, you could be making all the difference in their minds when it comes to purchase decision time.
If your budget is really tight, and your product prices are low, reduce the cost of this marketing activity by making it digital. Offer the chance to download your white papers etc in return for their email address. And then follow up on all those who have downloaded it. Not weeks later, but hours or even minutes later. Personalise your response. Give them a customer care number to ring if they have questions, offer a once a day or once a week online chat when they can ask questions, use Twitter to offer further advice or incentives to buy from you.
Converse with your customers. Talk to them, listen to them, help them out, offer what they need, and develop relationships. It may seem to be time-consuming but it is this type of one to one business that will help sell products and services.
There seems to be a commonly recurring theme in the blog posts recently about how important it is to talk to and listen to your customers. It really is not all about SEO if you want to win business, market share and higher search engine rankings – it is about adopting a holistic policy to marketing online that hits all of your potential customers and audience’s buttons.
Do they want to talk on the phone or do they prefer email? Do you actually know what your customers prefer? Do they want to see a live person and ask questions or do they want to peruse your FAQ, manuals, How to guides etc online at their leisure? Do you offer all the potential choices so that each customer can interact with you and your company how they choose to, rather than a limited set of choices that may not be to that potential customer’s taste?
Years before Facebook etc, I fell over Cyworld – (this is the link to the US version as the original Korean site is too hard for the average non-Korean speaker to work out!). You can basically create your own virtual existence, there is a fantastic monetization method for Cyworld to generate real world cash from virtual world spending, and bearing in mind that Cyworld is now 10 years old, it was waaaaay ahead of its time.
What fascinated me was the involvement of certain savvy businesses. The site was the world’s first social network, it looks totally bizarre to our eyes – too fanciful and cartoony, and yet here were businesses playing the game. They had got in there, created mini-hompies (mini homepages) and were engaging their potential customers in live chat, video conferencing, competitions, give aways, discussions about products, you name it. (You need to remember that Korea has one of the best networks in the world so bandwidth for them is not an issue and they take things like video conferencing as a given and have done for years.)
The point is though that most Western businesses just haven’t got this yet. Still. A decade later.
You need real-time interaction with your customers. Most business websites still have an olde worlde contact number on their site. Very few have yet added Live person text chat, let alone webcams etc so customers can see who they are talking to.
So, today’s task is to investigate TinyChat. The potential of this free tool for ANY business is enormous. If you don’t get it immediately for your business, consider these options:
* Run a once a week webinar or chat where consumers can talk to a techie, a sales rep, the CEO of the company, a real live person. Let them voice their concerns, ask their questions, give you feedback on your products, service, website etc. Make it a two way conversation.
* Let existing customers persuade potential ones of the benefits of your product. Tie it in to your affiliate program so your virtual sales reps can earn money from their involvement.
* Struggling to get a focus group together to review a product? Do it online through TinyChat. Who needs to rent a room in a hotel or conference venue when they can all sit in the comfort of their own homes and talk to each other online?
* Hold a conference for your sales reps or affiliates dotted around the country so they can share what they have learnt about selling your product, the competition, difficulties with marketing collateral, strategies that work etc.
* Do you sell information products? Hold a brain storming session and find out what people actually want to know and where this overlaps with your experience. Then get writing!
I could come up with ideas of how to use Tinychat for ever, for any business. And it’s free.Set up a room, tweet to your followers that you will be holding a session on xyz that you know will be of interest, plan it so it is interesting and engaging, and have a pile of links/white papers/coupons/money off offers etc ready to share with them that meet your core goals, and away you go.
If this doesn’t create a buzz amongst your customers and differentiate you from your competition, read the blog tomorrow for another idea for any business! There are hundreds of high tech opportunities for online marketing available to play with ……..
There has been a massive sea change in marketing because of the internet. As the internet becomes even more real-time, consumers are becoming prosumers in a way that means the olde worlde marketing models are defunct.
It is no longer about CRM and discounted products or deals. Customers are looking for better value products, not necessarily cheap, but definitely the product must be worth the money the consumer is willing to spend. Before making a purchase decision, customers are getting on the Net, seeking reviews and recommendations, looking at what other customers say about the whole purchase experience, and making decisions not on price but on respect.
Do you RESPECT your customers? Do you offer the best product for the price? Do you offer add-ons such as free online support, how to use manuals, information on upgrades? Do you avoid tacky marketing emails that clog their inbox long after the purchase was made? Have you dealt with customer complaints swiftly and efficiently? Are your customers happy with their dealings with you?
Do you know how your customers feel about you? If you don’t regularly seek feedback from customers and listen to what is being said about your company and products on the Net, how can you ensure that you are winning the customers you deserve?
Today’s tips will allow you to track some of what is being said about you, much as the press cutting services used to do with traditional media.
1) Set up Google alerts for all your brand names, company name, products and industry sector.
2) Use Tweetdeck or similar to regularly scan Twitter for mentions of your company and product names.
3) Watch your traffic stats and analytics for referrals from review sites and/or forums where your company may have been mentioned.
4) Google your company name and individual product/ brand names regularly. High traffic sites will inevitably come up in the first 1-2 pages of SERPs and may give you an indication of any mentions being made of your products.
5) If selling consumer goods, keep a weather eye on all the comparison shopping sites, which often include reviews, to check for your company and product names.
What other suggestions do people have for monitoring mentions of your company? What tools do you use?
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The furore around Phorm continues. This time, it is the release of emails, requested under the Freedom of Information Act by a member of the public, between the Home Office and Phorm that are causing the bother.
The BBC report shows that the Home Office were in contact with Phorm back in 2007, endeavouring to discover the nature of the technology and
exchanges were about helping the department understand “public safety considerations and legal obligations” about behavioural advertising in general.
For any in the UK internet marketing industry who have been considering behavioural advertising, the fact that the EC started legal proceedings against Britain just a fortnight ago about the interpretration of EU laws on confidentiality of communications shoule be borne in mind.
Whilst behavioural advertising may have benefits for commercial entities and consumers alike in delivering targeted advertising rather than inundating consumers with irrelevant advertising, there has to be care taken over how it is a) implemented and b) perceived from now on.
On the second point, the PR damage done to those companies who stated they planned to use the technology is quite considerable, although when as a company you have approx 28% of UK broadband market share, the dissenters and damage may seem trifling. For smaller companies, it could cause a major problem.
We have by no means seen the last of the Phorm debacle yet, although it is highly likely that behavioural advertising will be adopted at some point in the future, as other companies are also launching their own versions and behavioural guidelines have been issued which come into force in Sept 2009 in the UK.
As we have posted before, behavioural advertising is a hot topic. And showing advertising on websites to many _is_ acceptable as long as it is there to a) bring interesting products/info/brands to your attention and b) if it helps keep much of what makes the Internet the exciting phenemenon that it is, free.
However, with all this “personalisation” news, and watching how FB have added adverts over time, and then dealt with customising them, has made me think.
Is this how we are going to see others deal with the situation? Are we going to see ads served through behavioural processes that are actually as relevant as search engines assuming that I want search results from a foreign country just because I am accessing my Google account whilst I am on holiday? (This is an increasing bugbear for many – search customisation based on mistaken assumptions).
What effect does it have on your customers when you fail to deliver what you have promised, or worse, what they want? Equally, what effect does it have on your paying advertisers if the adverts they pay you to serve do not reach the intended audience?
It seems that: FB can’t do FB.
In non-acronyms, Facebook can’t do feedback. Others may well be in non-listening mode too.
FB has attempted to ensure that the relevant ads are served to site visitors by adding thumbs up, thumbs down, asking opinions, getting reasons why an individual feels that ads are not interesting/relevant/appropriate etc but…..and this is the big BUT…..
Dear Facebook: You must LISTEN. And then act on the information that is being provided to you.
Or there is no point paying developers to come up with processes and applications which gather this feedback. And there is no point attempting to offer targeted advertising to your advertisers if the PVs that you serve up are to a non-interested audience. After all, if the CPA from the CPM is too high, the advertisers will go elsewhere. And meanwhile, your ‘loyal’ site visitors are likely to slowly but surely get fed up with non-personalised ads cluttering up their screen.
This doesn’t just apply to Facebook nor to ads – behavioural or contextual. It also applies to email marketing, to content, to PPC, to surveys, to polls, to any interaction YOU attempt to have with YOUR target audience.
If you are serving ads through your site and the clickthroughs are limited, they must be the wrong ads. You don’t need to run a poll to discover this. You don’t need feedback in a survey or on your forums or blog.
If your content isn’t leading your site visitors to act on calls to action, or to explore further areas of your site, something must be wrong. You don’t need to ask directly what it is to know there is something amiss.
And quite often, the information you require to make that realisation and then act upon it it right in front of you. Increasingly frequently, companies and websites ask for information through surveys, polls, interactive applications etc, and then seem to ignore this precious data given to them by those who ‘pay the piper’.
Is that you? Are you ignoring what your customers or website visitors telling you, directly or indirectly?
If I came into your bricks and mortar shop or restaurant and complained that the food was awful or the stock badly laid out or the signs about the sale misleading, you would react, wouldn’t you? You would apologise, you would deal with the problem, you would make sure I left a happy customer, wouldn’t you?
So, what is different in the 1s and 0s world of websites?
NOTHING!! The fact a visitor has left without exploring the site, making a sale, signing up to the newsletter etc is a clear indication that there is a problem. Or the fact that feedback has been left should give you a very definite steer as to WHAT I WANT, the potential customer, the user, the site visitor. And if you ignore it and keep serving up the same old, same old, irrelevant rubbish to me or any other visitor, then don’t be surprised when I write blog posts moaning about your website, or posting to forums about the failure for xyz company (yours) to treat me as I would expect to be treated in the real world.
Seth Godin’s post about Poisoning the Well points out oh so clearly what we are all fed up with, as people rather than marketers, with what is being done to force-sell us products, to sneakily rob our data and flog it, to constantly undermine our faith in human nature by marketers.
Just looking at this morning’s bundle of post, once again a trip to the recycling is required just to dispose of it, thereby putting the onus on us, as consumers, to rid the doormat of totally unwanted and unrequested rubbish.
Seth’s advice is to be generous. To attempt to change the bad name that has been given to marketing by being scrupulous, honest, generous, fair, just, and, in essence, let’s harp back to that goold ol’ phrase from the Water Babies (if my memory serves me correctly) to ‘do as you would be done by’.
I think it goes further than just generosity. Spring is here. The cherry blossoms are just appearing on the trees on the village green, the lambs are leaping around the fields, it is a natural time for feeling good after the long haul of the winter, wherever you may live. (Unless it’s in the Southern Hemisphere, of course!). Perhaps even love is in the air. So, on that note, think about loving your customers, and showing that you care.
Whilst we are on the subject of e-commerce and sales and all that retail jazz this week, let’s look at how to STOP people from buying from you. Because, after all, that’s why you have spent the equivalent of the debt of a third world country promoting your website, isn’t it? Not.
Ok, what are the main barriers to purchase? Once we have identified those, take a careful walk through your sales process, both on and offline, and see if you are committing any of the heinous crimes that stop people giving you money.
1) No price. Let’s face it, no matter what you are selling, people will inevitably need to know the price before they can make a step towards a purchase decision. And potentially what they will think is, “Ooh, it must be soooooo expensive,” and hence take a step back from the purchase rather than one towards it. Don’t make people ask how much it costs. After all, are you really that good at answering your emails instantaneously whilst they are still slavering at the mouth about your ‘must have’ product?
2) The wrong price. Checked out your competition lately? Are your prices on a par with theirs? Is your site visitor likely to have done a comparison check and found your products are more expensive? If you can’t be competitive, then at least make sure that all the reasons why can be found clearly in your product description…
3) No product description. This is the Interweb – they can’t pick it up, touch it, feel it, turn it over, or taste it. Describe your product down to the tiniest detail, after giving a summary for those people who just don’t care because they have finally found the item they were looking for.
4) Hidden shipping costs. Don’t hide the costs to post and pack the item. If possible, have free shipping. Amazon do and they ship far more than you ever will. Don’t underprice it and then weight the shipping costs to make up for the loss. The purchase decision is made on the price of the item, and will be almost definitely changed if they then discover that it costs 10 times as much to post it than to buy it. Especially if your competitors are upfront about shipping costs.
5) Broken shopping cart. Do you always get the shopping trolley in the supermarket with the wonky and squeaky wheel? And how does that make you feel about shopping? How often do you put far less in your shopping basket and/or leave the shop because you are fed up with running into other shoppers, or being stared at is if that unbearable screeching noise is all your fault? Make sure your shopping cart works and is very easy to use. Simple things such as if they fail to notice the tiny little tickbox at the bottom that signs them up to your newsletter should not be a reason to reload the form when they hit submit, and remove all their carefully entered information.
6) Returns policy. Many people are totally unaware of their rights when buying online so make it crystal clear. If they want to send the product back, they can – tell them where to. If you give refunds within a set time only, tell them. If their grandchildren can return it after your death, tell them. If it doesn’t fit, work as they expected, or gets broken in transit, tell them you will happily resolve any problems. Give them confidence in you as a business.
7) After sales care. Love your customers, even after they have left your shop. If you are a bricks and mortar store, they would know where to come back to, so keep in touch with them, add them to your Christmas card list, tell them about any deals you have that might interest them, send a little note asking if the product arrived safely. Tell them you have assigned them their own personal helper if they have any problems at all in using the product or getting the full benefits out of it. Send them a link to a free online manual or the support forum for their product. Answer all emails from them promptly, just as promptly as if they were your sweetheart. Coddle them, cherish them and love them. Within reason obviously – this is a CUSTOMER, after all!
Any more barriers to purchase you can think of? Let us know so that we can then all begin the process of finding them within our own companies and e-commerce set ups……
Twice recently, I have contacted companies through their websites about making a purchase. In both instances, all I needed was a simple answer to a question before sending money. One was contacted through a contact form on their website, and the other directly by email.
Two weeks later, no response from either. Sadly, this is fairly normal. In the case of small or micro businesses, there often is no strategy for checking and responding to emails, nor a single person responsible for doing so, except quite often, a very busy sole proprietor. In large businesses, there is little to no excuse for not checking emails on a regular basis, and responding to them.
The result of ignoring my emails? Two lost sales totalling around £350. Because I need the items in question, I can either chase up with a further email or a phone call, or I can go elsewhere.
If you don’t answer my emails, then am I likely to believe you can deliver the product in question on time, well packaged, and for it to be exactly what I require? Well, no, in all truth. So, I have gone elsewhere to buy what I need.
If you have put a website up, expect to get email enquiries. Read your emails regularly. And ANSWER them! Otherwise, the only loser is you and your bottom line.
And will I recommend these two companies to others? I can’t, sadly, although one of them is one of only two companies who offer this particular product nationally, and I would have liked to support them as they are Northern, like me. The other is a very large company with plenty of competition, one of whom has just got their sale because the very simple question I asked was answered promptly. The answer, was “Yes, it will”. Now how long would it have taken the initial company I contacted to type that, hit send and hence make the £150 sale?
Moral is: Ignore your inbox only if you are rich and want your business to succeed!
