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How to Use Content Marketing to Retain Existing Customers

May 5, 2016 by Rosemary

When my twins were born, it was around-the-clock, crazy, unstoppable madness. For the two and a half months they spent in the NICU, we commuted every day to spend time with them, feed them, and learn how to take care of them.

It could have completely consumed our attention, to the exclusion of everything.

Except…

The twins had a brother who was 20 months old at the time.

One of the most important things we did was to make sure he was included, cared for, loved, and given his own personal time with us. Ten years later, he still talks about the special time he spent in the park with his dad while I was at the hospital.

Why am I sharing this?

Because most of the focus right now is on cranking out a steady stream of content that will attract leads. Content marketing can be a useful tool in the marketer’s toolbox, but don’t forget to share the love with your existing customers.

How to Use Content Marketing to Retain Existing Customers

Blog posts – Yes, you want to use your blog for outreach, thought leadership, and lead generation. Why not sprinkle in the occasional post that specifically addresses a need for your existing customers? It could be a how-to, could be an inspirational case study (two birds with one stone), or it could be corporate news.

Training/tutorials – Create visual content that helps your customers do their jobs better. Listen to their most frequent questions, and create training materials that speak directly to those questions.

Knowledge base or FAQ – Your knowledge base can be a place to apply content marketing skills. Concise writing, engaging visuals, and use of keywords will get your expert content found by both existing customers and potential customers.

External guest posts and articles – Typically you would think of a guest post as an opportunity to get “new eyeballs.” What if you focused your next article on the needs of your current customers? Provide insights that make your product or service more valuable in their eyes; make them feel smart for choosing you.

In-person events – If you have on-site events for your customers, are you offering them anything of tangible value? Think about collaborating with them during the event to create content they can use themselves. (Because they’re probably trying to create content the same way you are.)

Chat events, Blabs, Periscopes, etc. – Streaming video or text-based chat is being heavily used to demonstrate expertise, as a way to get brand awareness and leads. I’d suggest experimenting with these formats for customer communication as well. What if you invited your best customers to participate in a streaming event to discuss your product roadmap?

Are you using content marketing techniques to retain your existing customers? Please share your ideas with us!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Featured image via Flickr CC: rachaelvoorhees

Rent the Right Marketing Approach to Businesses

May 4, 2016 by Thomas

For businesses renting or selling equipment to other businesses, the approach to marketing is and isn’t all that different from reaching out to consumers.

On the one hand, you’re trying to sell or rent products that other businesses require in order for them to sell to consumers.

The approach to marketing your products is typically in-step with how you would go about marketing to individuals, notably demonstrating why your products are the best around.

On the other hand, renting or selling to other business owners means you are marketing to many of whom do just that, market their own products and services. Such individuals are more likely to know a good marketing campaign from an average or even bad one.

With that in mind, are you renting the right marketing approach when going after more business with other businesses?

Use All the Tools at Your Disposal

Start off by reviewing your marketing campaigns of recent times, seeing which ones soared and which ones quite frankly failed to take flight.

Undoubtedly, some campaigns were just not meant to be, whether they were ill-timed or the audience wasn’t quite right. No matter what the reason or reasons for them not working, you can learn from each and every campaign.

With that knowledge in your back pocket, consider the following:

Your audience – It is crucial that you have the right audience for each and every marketing campaign. Whether you are marketing real estate, office furniture or technology, pneumatic lifting bags, construction equipment or any other host of products or services, understanding your demographics can never be overlooked. If you spend time and money pitching the wrong audience, you have just wasted both resources;
Your budget – Given the challenging financial times of recent years, it is understandable that some businesses have had to tighten their marketing budgets. With that being the case, getting the most for your marketing dollars becomes even more important. If you have to watch when and where you spend for marketing, target which campaigns are most likely to bring you the results you want. Depending on what you sell, look at the current trends in the market or markets you work in. If there is a slowdown in need for a certain product or service, adjust your marketing campaigns accordingly. Trying to market something when the market for that product or service is slow is not going to bring you the desired results in most cases;
Your content – What you say (and don’t say for that matter) in your marketing pitches can go a long way in determining your level of success. It behooves you to be 100 percent sure of each piece of marketing content that you send out. Is it well written? Does it address the needs of your core audience? Does it offer a call to action? Will it be properly promoted on channels such as social media (see more below)? These are all questions you should be able to answer with relative ease. As for the content itself, never take a short step when it comes to this area. Along with any traditional marketing and/or mobile content you send out, it is important that your blog content is powerful too. Use your blog to help promote your brand, giving other businesses reasons to find your brand appealing;
Your social interactions – With solid marketing content goes proper promotions on social media. Use the full powers of social media to get your branded content in front of as many eyes as possible. In doing so, you are basically getting free marketing and advertising on sites with millions and millions of members. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc. all offer your business the opportunity to get noticed and make new sales.

In the world of B2B marketing, there are so many opportunities for your brand to shine.

Knowing how to reach the right audiences and give them what they want is crucial.

Whether renting or selling your products and/or services, be sure to have your marketing game firing on all cylinders.

If it isn’t, you stand to watch those business dollars go by the wayside.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Is Your Online Marketing Connecting with Consumers?

April 29, 2016 by Thomas

No matter the product or service you are marketing, connecting with consumers is always your top priority.

In today’s challenging economic conditions, connecting with consumers is as important as ever.

Face it; many consumers have myriad of choices of where to buy their goods and services from, so your marketing efforts need to stand out from the pack, especially when pitching the public via the Internet.

With that in mind, are your online marketing efforts truly connecting with today’s consumers?

Use the Internet to Make a Connection

In order for your online marketing efforts to hit a home run with consumers, you need to cover all your bases.

These would include:

Email marketing – Although some marketers have pulled away from email marketing to some degree or another, countless others still rely on it to state their cases to consumers. If you’re using email marketing, keep the messages short and sweet. Keep in mind that consumers are typically bombarded with pitches from marketers and businesses on a daily basis, so don’t add to the frustration they sometimes feel by getting yet more marketing messages in their in-boxes. Also make sure your pitches come across as informative and worthwhile, not just looking for a sale and nothing else. Lastly, leave a positive but not over-bearing call to action to end your message;
Mobile marketing – More and more marketers are putting their time and efforts behind mobile marketing. With this version of marketing having exploded in the last few years, mobile marketing is a great means to reach consumers in an instant. Whether you are marketing real estate, legal services, vehicle maintenance products and services, home furnishings, children’s products, or hundreds of others goods and/or services, mobile is where it is at today. Mobile marketing gives you a great opportunity to reach shoppers when they are in the decision making process. You should also use your mobile opportunities to offer consumers discounts and rewards programs, both of which are likely to encourage them to make a purchase or two. Just like with email marketing or any other form of marketing, don’t be over-bearing when it comes to trying to make a sale;
Social marketing – Marketers who shy away from social media are leaving themselves without one of the best means with which to reach consumers. Your social efforts should be concentrated on the major players in this market, among which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. Keep in mind that you may not be even marketing a product or service per se, but instead an invitation to attend a seminar, conference, open house etc. LinkedIn is a great venue to do just that given the countless professionals using the site on a daily basis. Also be sure to regularly engage consumers on your social media sites. Unfortunately, some marketers pay little or no attention to their social venues, thereby missing out on great opportunities to market their brands. You, on the other hand, should not be one of those marketers. When consumers come to one of your social venues with a question about a product or service, engage with them as soon as possible. Your ultimate goal should be to send them away satisfied with your time and efforts, leaving them with the idea of doing business with you. Lastly, always stay positive on social media. The last thing you want to do is to get into a negative conversation on a social venue, a conversation that could ultimately end up hurting your brand;
Being a good listener – You might stop and ask, why is being a good listener part of my marketing needs? Simply put, those businesses doing too much talking and not enough listening are typically the ones struggling to make inroads with consumers. With millions and millions of consumers flooding the Internet, take a few moments to step back and hear what they are saying. What do they need? What do they like and don’t like about your industry? How can you be their go-to brand? These are but a few of the questions you should be mulling over and having answers for. As great as your marketing campaigns may be, it is listening to the consumer that ultimately wins you the prize, most notably their business.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers marketing topics on the web.

Stop being productive, you will get more done

April 28, 2016 by Rosemary

Planners, calendars, bullet journals, Trello boards, post-it notes, Moleskines–are supposed to make you more productive.

Newsletters, books, podcasts, e-books, blogs, live events– are supposed to teach you how to use those things to become more productive.

You’re a busy little bee with your productivity studies.

Tell the truth.

How deep is your productivity “to read” pile right now?

How would you feel if you could purge all of that for a while and just do your work?

That article on “sleeping habits of super-successful people?” Delete it and get an extra half hour of sleep tomorrow.

That blog series about “becoming super-productive in seven days?” Unsubscribe and write some original content yourself.

Those five weeks of podcasts on “super-charging your morning” that are stacked up in your “unplayed episodes” stream? Get real and delete the old episodes.

In fact, stop reading this article right now and go write/create/do something important.

Then you’ll feel super.

Once you’re feeling all super, come back here and share what you accomplished!

Featured image via Flickr CC: Garry Knight

Your Business Success Depends on Protecting Your Assets

April 27, 2016 by Thomas

Is there anything truly worrying you about your business?

Some business owners fret over not being able to maintain a regular revenue stream.

Others, meantime, worry that their customer service initiatives will not always please some of their clientele. Still others have concerns over hiring the right talent (for those companies that are more than one person shows).

With those factors in mind, what (if anything) has you concerned about your brand moving forward?

Maintaining a Safe Business Identity

In order to keep your business humming along, it is imperative that you never take for granted how even one episode of identity theft can throw your company for a loop.

Stop for a minute and think about how potentially devastating it would be if an identity theft thief got his or her hands on your personal financial information. Imagine all the damage they could do in such a short amount of time.

Now turn that imagination to your business dealings.

If you think an identity theft thief can’t bring your brand to its knees, think again.

If customers see their data stolen and feel like your reactionary time and/or actions are less than acceptable, your business could suffer greatly.

With that being the case, are you making sure your business data (specifically that of your clients) is safe and sound at all times?

If you’ve been a little lax at times, you need to close those loopholes as soon as possible.

There are a number of ways to do this, so don’t feel like it can’t be done.

To start with, make sure you’re operating with a sound Internet server.

For the company providing you with a server, how thoroughly did you vet them when deciding to choose them as your provider?

Your server provider must be operating with a zero tolerance rule for allowing online mishaps to occur. If the server you are working off of is susceptible to being compromised, your company’s data (both personal and that of your customers) can be compromised too.

Are Company Financial Transactions Protected?

Another of area concentration needs to be on the transmission of sensitive customer data, especially financial transactions.

Whether you operate an online store or need a customer’s financial details for other reasons, make sure such transmissions are securely protected. If the information is exposed for even the least amount of time, it can end up in the wrong hands.

Just as you would use a site such as www.lifelock.org to monitor your identity, making sure it is properly being used, the same holds true for all of your business data.

Speaking of exposed data, it is also important that your employees handle customer data (and business financials etc. for that matter) in a professional and protective manner.

Only those employees that truly need to handle such data (accounting, customer call centers etc.) should he having access to it.

Unfortunately, there have been too many stories of business owners discovering that it was actually one or more of their own (including departing workers) employees caught stealing sensitive data.

One way to nip this problem in the bud is laying out the consequences of such actions the day they are hired.

All employees should know under no uncertain circumstances that your business does not for an instance tolerate identity theft amongst its workers. Anyone caught and proven to be guilty of of such crimes could not only lose their job, but also face criminal action by law enforcement.

It is also critical that your business reacts quickly and decisively to any identity theft breaches of your brand, thereby preventing a major hit against your long-term business success.

While you may lose some business due to such attacks, some customers will be more likely to stay with you if they see you are reacting in a professional and prompt manner, this opposed to being unable to handle the matter and/or looking slow to react.

Given the perils identity theft can cause to your brand, preventing it from happening in the first place is always your best line of defense.

When you take such crimes seriously, you stand to be better prepared against them.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.

Will Your Restaurant Eat up More Profits?

April 22, 2016 by Thomas

In the restaurant business, image and appearance are both as important as the food one serves.

Yes, the food is what patrons come to eateries for, but if the appearance of the restaurant and/or the image of the food or customer service are bad, restaurant owners won’t be eating up very many profits.

That said how would you rate your eatery when it comes to image and appearance?

Don’t Let the Wrong Image or Appearance Sink You

When you have your own eatery, the image and appearance you give off can mean the difference between packed houses day after day or lots of empty tables.

So that those tables are filled as much as possible, make sure you are:

Selling your brand – It might seem rather easy to want to sell your brand, but it should be done with more than just a little thought behind it. For instance, you want to know what the demographics are for your customers. Do you service mostly adults? Are your customers primarily families? Do many of your customers like a drink or two with dinner? Are you typically busiest during the breakfast, lunch or dinner hours? Do you get a sizable amount of business during the work week or primarily on the weekends? These are just a few of the tidbits you want to know as a restaurant owner. There’s no sense in trying to market your brand to families if you primarily just have adults only stopping by. On the reverse side, if kids are a major part of your customer base, you need to have meals that appeal to them;
Keeping your look fresh – Even the best food in the world will sometimes get overlooked if your restaurant’s interior/exterior appears too drab for patrons. Yes, it costs money to renovate your eatery, but it can be (and oftentimes is) the best investment you will make. Whether it is the need for new indoor tables/booths and chairs, seeking online restaurant patio furniture, improved lighting, better flooring etc., make sure you do the investing and purchasing sooner rather than later. In holding off on such needs, you actually may end up spending more money over time, something that can prove costly down the road. Another means to keep your look fresh is making sure the walls have a welcoming look to them. Pictures of paintings of happy people or enjoyable locations will dress up a restaurant faster than most anything else. One especially good tactic to use is showing through artwork and pictures the history of your eatery. If it has been around for decades, not to mention has been visited by celebrities and other notables, displaying their pictures (perhaps they’re autographed too) on the walls is a nice feature;
Presenting a positive image – Face it; some customers will come to your eatery and leave with a bad taste in their mouths. Whether it is the food, the service, perhaps even the décor, you’re not going to please everyone that walks in the door. With that being the case, it is how you react to such an experience that can sway customers one way or the other. Showing concern for why they did not enjoy their experience allows you to perhaps get them back for a second try. Maybe you will even lower the prices or give them some other form of incentive to give you one more shot. If you simply write-off the experience as a bad one without any remorse, you are likely to never see those patrons again. If you think that isn’t such a big deal, it will become an even bigger deal when they tell their family, friends, and even co-workers about the experience. Show your cause for concern and listen to what they have to say in order to increase the odds of having a second chance to woo them.

In order to eat up more profits, your restaurant must always be looking to keep its image and appearance up to date.

While the food is of course the main dish, your restaurant’s image and appearance are more than just casual appetizers.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers business topics on the web.