How to Profit from Social Media Stay Focused on the Needs of Your Visitors (What’s Important to Them)
Everyone surfs the web differently. Some are happy to read page after page of content, while others need to be more visually stimulated through a combination of text, photos and video. Adding video content helps to put your company in front of your web visitors, allowing you to connect with them in a more personal way. Video lets you make eye contact with your visitors, putting your customers and potential customers at ease, which helps create that all-important connection that, in turn, allows you to gain their trust.
Successful business is more than just about the “hard sale” – it’s about personal connections because without them, there is no sale. With an added video element to your website or blog, it’s easier than ever to make those personal connections. Prospective clients can get a good ‘read’ on you and make a much more informed (and often faster) decision about your products or services.
Inspect What You Expect!
You evaluate your company as a customer would. Here’s a few suggestions on how to evaluate your telephone.
- What’s your impression of when and how you’re greeted on the phone?
- Is the person pleasant to speak with?
- If you have an automated system, is your options menu easy to navigate?
- If you have an automated system, is it easy to connect with a real live person?
- Is your outgoing voice-mail message professional and friendly?
- Is your outgoing voice-mail message current?
How many times have you called somebody and heard an outgoing message that was from a just-past holiday, or perhaps from their vacation two months ago? Don’t laugh. Something that simple sends the wrong message to your customers.
The Benefits of Becoming a One-Stop Shop
The concept of becoming a one-stop shop is one that increasing numbers of businesses have embraced in recent years, but what encourages companies to expand their activities from solely supplying products to the incorporation of relevant services? Here are just a few of the benefits of making the transition.
- The introduction of new revenue streams allows suppliers to make more money from the same customers.
- More comprehensive offerings set one-stop shops apart from the competitors that may not be able to offer the same extensive range of products and services.
- The convenience factor, which allows customers or clients to have everything done in-house rather than having to deal with numerous suppliers, makes the range of products and services easier to market.
- One-stop shops breed greater customer loyalty. When clients and customers subscribe to a broader range of products and services, it’s harder for them to move their business elsewhere.
Expanding business activities to incorporate a more comprehensive range of goods and services does require efficient coordination, and it does take care to ensure company resources aren’t spread too thinly. For a smaller, more flexible business in particular, however, becoming a one-stop shop that provides customized “packages” for its customers and clients can really help differentiate it from the competition.
Do You Have a Unique Selling Proposition?
Do You Have A Unique Selling Proposition?
If I were your prospective customer, why should I do business with you above any and all other options? Why would I be an absolute fool to buy what you sell from anyone else but you? That answer should be clearly articulated in the form of your USP.
What you need to know…
A USP is the single, most distinct and important benefit a business owner provides to their clients that’s different from their competition. It’s absolutely critical to not only create an effective and highly compelling USP, but to use it in every piece of marketing you develop, and in every form of communication you use with your clients and prospects.
Why you need to know this…
Your USP, working in tandem with your elevator pitch, creates a huge competitive edge for your business. Developed properly, it will separate your business from your competition, eliminate them in the minds of your prospects and have them saying to themselves that they would be fools to do business with anyone else but you.
For example, most business owners place the name of their business at the top of their business card. That’s the worst thing you can put there. No one cares who you are or what you do. They only care about the benefits your product or service offers to them.
Instead of a jeweler’s business card saying “John’s Jewelers,” what if it said this…
Discounted Diamonds – Unmatched Quality, Untouchable Price, Unbeatable Guarantee
In just a few words, would you feel like an absolute fool if you bought a diamond from anyone else but this jeweler? That’s the power of a well-designed USP.
The cost to you if you fail to act…
Do you have a Unique Selling Proposition?
Do you use it in every piece of marketing you create?
Do you have it prominently displayed on your business card?
If you don’t, you’re losing market share, a massive amount of potential revenue and the opportunity to dominate your market.
Turn Prospects Into Customers Overnight
Today I’d like to talk about how to turn prospects into customers and retain them for future marketing to. While, your marketing is doing its job, you need to be working on turning those prospects into customers. There are a few key ways to draw them in and seal the deal. You need to be:
- Inviting
- Informative
- Enjoyable
The biggest fear of most new customers is the dread buyer’s remorse. You want to avoid this at all costs and this should be mitigated if you’ve provided a quality product/service that delivers on the marketing claims you’ve made.
However, this can still occur. There are two ways to deal with this:
- Offer to refund money-no questions asked
- Offer a bonus they can keep even if they return the product
These offers alone will also mitigate buyer’s remorse because the customer will trust you more, just for offering these things.
There are number of other ways to turn a prospect into a customer:
- Offer a special price as an opportunity for you to test the market.
- Offer a lower price with the reason of pushing inventory to pay a tax bill, for your kid’s’ braces, or another tangible reason. Customers love that this makes you feel so much more human.
- Offer a referral incentive.
- Offer a smaller, more inexpensive product first to build trust.
- Offer package deals.
- Offer to charge less for their first purchase if they become a repeat customer.
- Offer extra incentives-longer warranties, free bonuses if ordered by a set date.
- Offer financing options, if applicable.
- Offer a bonus if they pay in full.
- Offer special packaging or delivery.
- Offer “name your own price” incentives.
- Offer comparative data or other comparison tools.
- Offer a trade-up or upgrade to something they already have.
- Offer additional, educational information to help them make the decision.
The options really are as limitless as you make it. You can use these or other ideas to find what works the best for your business, products/service and target market. Remember this…
“By making it inviting, easy, informative, non-threatening, educational, inspiring and fun to do business with you, you’ll loft your company above the competition.” Jay Abraham
Need help with figuring out the best strategy for converting prospects into customers? Our FREE test drive gives you exclusive access to the mountain of resources and tools, along with information from some of the greatest marketing minds on Earth.