If you run a business and are looking to build and sustain a customer base on which you can routinely rely, have you stopped to think if you could explain your offering in just one sentence?
The Dummies website advises you to do this; in other words, condense your knowledge into a brief explanation capable of piquing the prospect’s interest. However, if you are struggling to do this, here are a few measures that could help you to break your indecisiveness.
Educate yourself on the prospect
You can’t expect to be able to resonate with your target customer or client if you don’t thoroughly understand what they want. Fortunately, you can clue yourself up on this by surveying them, as Marketing Land advises in the case of customers, or talking to mutual associates of target clients.
If you meet a business prospect face-to-face, don’t forget to give them your business card, which you could even print in high volumes yourself with equipment from Duplo International.
Opt for targeted, rather than conventional, advertising
When you pay for advertising space on a billboard, at a bus stop or during televised commercial breaks, you could be at a loss as to how many of your target prospects are likely to even see that advert. This is why targeted advertising through Facebook and Google can be a much better option.
Such advertising will be funnelled through strictly to people who, on account of demographic factors like their age, gender or education, are especially inclined to click on the ad.
Make your social media pages fun and informative
Be honest, how many times have you actually sat back and watched the whole of a video advert shown just before a YouTube video? You’ve probably just hit the “skip” button as soon as possible, as you are unlikely to actually enjoy what is basically blatant advertising.
The trick with social media, whether YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or any other such site, is to fill your company’s page with exciting links, informative articles and so forth. This can help to prevent your efforts from coming across as advertising.
Reply promptly and professionally to customers’ messages
Whether those messages reach you through Facebook comments, Twitter tweets, emails, phone calls or any other means, reply to all of them as soon as possible.
You’re obviously strong incentivised to do so if those messages were published publicly, as other customers or clients could be watching. However, you still shouldn’t neglect to cater effectively to customers over the phone – as, otherwise, negative word of mouth could spread.
Maintain an appealing blog and regularly update it
These days, thanks to platforms like WordPress and Blogger, setting up a blog and regularly refreshing it is probably easier than it has ever been.
Include articles that address problems your target prospects are especially likely to face. That way, you can help to position your company as the answer to their problems in the way that American Express explains. This can help you to turn these people into loyal customers.
