How often is someone in your target audience grappling with the very problems you can help solve?

My wife was recently introduced to a website with information about nutrition, exercise, and healthy living. When she signed up for their e-mail list she began receiving one or two messages per day. At first we were surprised, but it occurred to me that their expertise is something people could benefit from each and every day — we are all constantly dealing with choices about how we manage our health. I am sure that they get a fair amount of “unsubscribes” because they communicate to their list very frequently. However, I am also sure they successfully become the primary source of information for many people in their target audience. They simply behave as though they exist to provide ALL of the guidance their followers crave in the area of their expertise. 

For comparison, I am not constantly faced with problems or issues related to my auto insurance. Receiving a tip every day would seem ridiculous. Once per month or so might be a better fit.

“Where” do you intend to communicate with your audience?

If you feel your clients and prospects are best reached through direct mail, monthly or quarterly frequency is more common. Via e-mail, a higher frequency may be welcomed (assuming the answer to question #1 is a higher frequency).  Through social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, frequencies of weekly, daily, and even multiple times per day are not uncommon.

You may already be familiar with the idea that sometimes e-mail newsletters, blog posts, and social media updates can work in conjunction with one another. This post does not deal with that complexity, but your answers to the above questions will give you a starting point for how often your clients and other contacts would value hearing from you.

Not only can inspiring your customers to buy from you more often reward you with higher profits, it can also translate to more predictable income.  Here are just a few tips for compelling your clients or customers to come back more frequently.

1. A time-limited incentive — ever get a pizza delivered? What is attached to the box? Usually, you will find both a menu and a coupon to buy your NEXT pizza.  The coupon, of course, isn’t valid forever — they put an expiration date on it. So you haven’t even eaten the pizza you just ordered, and they are already planting the seed for your next purchase! How can you apply this idea to your business?
2. A loyalty program — the above strategy works great for many types of businesses (you will have to put your own twist on it) but your client is probably inundated with offers from your competitors as well. How should our pizza shop combat coupon overload? Reward loyalty. In its simplest form all they would have to do is offer a free pizza for every X number ordered (“buy 9 and the 10th is free!”).  Now when holding coupons from two different pizza places, our shop owner’s clients are likely to come back again and again because their loyalty is rewarded.
3. Verify the benefit of the last purchase — you probably hear it all the time, the key is in the follow up.  But how can you call again without being a nuisance? Well your first follow up call should be to verify that your client is truly receiving the benefit of your product or service.  Delivering the computer or painting someone’s living room is not the end.  WHY did they want your product or service? After some time has passed, pick up the phone and find out if they got what they wanted.  Are they now more productive with the faster computer? Do they feel better about inviting guests to their home because of their great-looking living room? Follow up to make sure your clients are truly realizing the benefits of their purchase, and you’ll likely stir up more sales.
4. Subscription or membership — would your clients benefit from an ongoing service from your business? What if you could stop chasing them to make additional sales and instead have regular revenue on a monthly or quarterly basis that you could count on? List the kinds of ways your product or service could be used regularly, then look around you for subscription ideas.  They are everywhere: wine clubs, retainer-based consulting services, maintenance services, product replenishment, etc.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. The goal? Strengthening your relationships with your best clients, while delivering more value and receiving more business in the process.  Additional ideas?  Please share!

I have recently given a few free workshops (sponsored by the Contra Costa Small Business Development Center and the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce).  In them I outlined how to increase profits without relying so heavily on generating new leads. 

Check out the 4 minute clip above for an overview of what else you need to be doing to increase profits other than slogging it out trying to generate new leads from cold suspects.

They, in fact, don’t really want more leads.  Just like when your gas tank is empty, you may first think that you “want” more gas.  But who “wants” gas?  It sure doesn’t taste good, and I’ve never met anyone who liked to bathe in it.  You don’t “want” gas, you “want” to get from location A to location B.  There are many ways to get there – you could ride your bike, walk, get a ride from a friend, or think twice about your plan to go from A to B in the first place. Could you accomplish what you “want” with a phone call?

So back to our business owner.  Trust me, they don’t “want” more leads.  They want what they believe the leads will bring them — more revenue to pay/retain top staff, profit to bring home to their families, less stress, etc.

When I get the “can you help me get more leads” question, I usually respond with a few questions of my own:

• What are you doing to keep your current customers happy and returning to buy from you again and again?
• Do you have your current and past customers, as well as prospects, organized and segmented in a database so you know how to contact them, what they purchased, how often the purchase from you, when they last purchased and how much they spent?
• Do you have a system in place for keeping in touch with your customers to let them know about new products, improvements, changes or additions that might benefit them? How often do you contact them? When was the last time and why?
• What about referrals…do you have a proactive referral-generating system in place that produces measurable and predictable results time after time?
• When the next sale of your product or service is taking place, what steps do you have in your close process to make it attractive – downright compelling – for them to buy more or add different products and services to the order or contract? 
• After that transaction, what are you doing to make it attractive for that customer to “come back” sooner than later? Is it possible to subscribe them to an ongoing service?

I think you get the point. Step 2 of the 4 Steps to a More Successful Business is “Maximize the Current.” Get the most from your existing customer relationships and the business that is happening as you speak. Five of the Seven Levers to Profit Growth are available to you in this step! Make use of them!

• Increase the number of transactions:  present your customers with an offer to do business with you again, create a loyalty program, entice them to get a subscription.
• Increase the average transaction value:  up-sell and cross-sell. It helps you customers and you.
• Increase your profit margin: as your business grows, you likely have more leverage with suppliers, may be buying in higher quantities, and may otherwise be able to realize the benefits of scale. 
• Generate more referrals from customers:  develop systematic ways to encourage customers to refer business to you – happily.
• Extend customer buying lifetime:  for one, keep in touch. Surveys show that 85% of people who switch their purchasing allegiance due so simply because they felt their previous provider didn’t value their business!

Next week – step back, take a breath, and Set Your Marketing Strategy!

Not every TV advertiser is shooting to win a Cleo award.  The vast majority have the simple goal of gaining mindshare among people in their target audience.  So it should be with your use of social media sites.  Don’t get bogged down in the perfect approach, just get busy and “feel” your way through it.  First, let’s take a look at why people join social networking sites:

Keep in touch with existing friends
I don’t know what it is, but I over the years I have managed to always be an email address or phone number behind as my college friends changed jobs or moved around. If you connect with friends through one of these sites, you’ll never get left behind when they make a move.

Make connections with people who have similar interests or valuable expertise
Are you an avid equestrian? There is a group online for you. Amateur or professional photographer and like to check out other great pics as well as share your own? Great sites exist for you too. Need an expert to help you with a problem, subgroups are already set up or someone in your network is bound to know the “right” person to assist.

Follow celebrities, companies, or products that matter to them
Can’t wait for the next version of Guitar Hero to come out? Hoping U2 will hit your city on their next tour? Now you have a way to be the first to know whenever any news is shared.

O.k., so nothing earth-shattering going on — just AWESOMELY convenient. It is like the equivalent of having a “friends” button on your phone that ALWAYS knows everyone’s current telephone number and will just fire up a conference call for you with one touch. Or instead of just hearing a good joke every once in a while at the office, now you can be notified immediately whenever anyone anywhere says something funny, if you want (not quite to that level, but you get the idea).

How to Take Advantage of Knowing
Why People Participate in the First Place

As you know, unlike TV, print, radio, etc., social media is a two-way deal.  While the equivalent of traditional advertising (like pay-per-click) has its place, I wouldn’t recommend starting there.  You will have a positive effect on your business just by participating (or if you already are, putting more of the “right kind” of attention on these outlets).  So what is the right kind of attention?  Simple, go back to the reasons why people join in the first place:

• Keep in touch with existing friends
• Make connections with people who have similar interests or valuable expertise
• Follow celebrities, companies, or products that matter to them

So whatever you are doing in your social media communications, you will be most successful if you are helping people in one or more of the above quests — the very reasons they participate. Chances are slim that you can help them with the first item — but perhaps you have a product or service that actually ties into social media sites in that way.

It is more likely that you have the opportunity to participate in one of the other two ways.

Three Things You Can do to Put Social Media to
Work for Your Business, and Not Be Annoying

Participating in social media sites opens this opportunity to you in a few ways. Again, I view social media as primarily an EXTREMELY convenient means of communicating — so use it to do some of the things successful people have been doing forever:

1. Help people make connections with what they need
   Someone that you know able to solve a problem that you notice someone else has? Make the introduction, they will both thank you.
    
2. DEMONSTRATE your expertise
   Again, nothing new here, just a different means. For many (perhaps most) business owners it is valuable to be positioned as an expert in what you do, or perhaps have your business known as a well-run operation. Long before social media sites existed, this was accomplished through PR, speaking engagements, and the like. Being quoted in a newspaper or trade magazine is still valuable, but now there are many more outlets.
    
   Being referenced or quoted on a popular blog can have just as much impact. Speaking at a luncheon or major conference are, again, still valuable. But now you may be able to get recognized as an expert without leaving your desk. It is a much more “democratic” environment. In fact it some cases it IS a democratic environment. People with issues that they need help with post questions or challenges and others in the network chime in with suggestions. In the end, the requester, and the community at large, can rate the value of the answers provided by the array of experts who gave recommendations.
    
   Asking and answering questions is quite a “mature” dynamic on LinkedIn in particular. If you are not familiar, check out the Answers Section of their site.
    
3. Allow your “fans” to follow your company or products
   This is a bit more delicate. My guidance is to, AGAIN, recognize that social media is just a MASSIVELY convenient way to communicate, but people haven’t changed a bit. If you wouldn’t go passing around coupons at your next dinner party, or tooting your own horn at a chamber of commerce luncheon, then don’t do the same on Facebook! But you ARE missing an opportunity to make it convenient for the people (customers, partners, suppliers) who really want to or need to stay tuned-in to what you are doing if you refuse to participate.

There is a famous saying from Zig Ziglar that goes something like:

You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.

Keep this philosophy in mind with your use of social media sites, and you can’t lose!  Not sure which site(s) might be best for you?  Comment below with your questions or thoughts.  I would be happy to help you think through your options.  Think this posting would be helpful to others you know?  Use the “Share” button below to use (guess what) just about any of the social media sites to share this information.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret the trip or the expense.  (When prompted) my son (4) and daughter (6) remembered the fun we had on Splash Mountain, escaping the heat by relaxing through Small World, and soaking up parade of lights.  But some of their top memories were outside the gates of any of the theme parks.  Beside the hotel pool, my son LOVED the Lego store in Downtown Disney, and my daughter was crazy about the T-REX Restaurant right next door and the greek restaurant with the fire-eating belly dancer.  Definitely fun stuff. 

So what could this insight mean for your business?  A few things come to mind:

1) Location.  Orlando was a sweltering, sticky mess last week (as far as this Northerner turned Bay Area mild-weather-loving temperature wimp is concerned), so it’s hard to say that Orlando is a great location in general.  But the RELATIVE locations of the businesses we encountered (hotel, restaurants, stores) and the theme parks themselves all contribute to their mutual success.  There are numerous ways to analyze how that all works out.  Let’s just pick one — target audience.
 
Target Audience: Can just any old hotel decide to devote the space and expense to build a pool so elaborate that it borders on a water park?  Of course not!  But the folks at Marriott KNEW that a large percentage of clients would be families with young children who were bound to stay for 7 or more days and be looking for activities each day…giving their management a lot more confidence in making that investment.

It’s the same for your business.  Maybe “location” is a true geographic issue for your business.  If in retail, do the other stores around you attract the same profile of client that you would like?  Maybe you are a consultant and don’t have a storefront, but the question is still valid.  Have you joined networking organizations that help you meet more of the people you’d like to meet?  Have you placed your skill profile online in places that will expose you to the right kinds of prospects?

The better your “location” attracts your target audience ON ITS OWN, the more successful your marketing efforts will be.  One way to think about how good your location is — if your business wasn’t even there, would your target customers be there anyway?  If the answer is ‘yes’ — then you likely have a good location.  If ‘no’ then you probably have a marketing challenge that you don’t need.

2) What Really Matters May Not Be What You Think.  So we spend an entire day traveling (in each direction) and umpteen $ in tickets, and the make-or-break experience for the trip turned out to be the hotel pool.  If it was lame, I’m not sure what the lasting impression for my kids would be.  Luckily, it was great — a major contributor to fond memories of the trip. 

So what’s your “hotel pool?”  We all THINK we know what our customers want and CONVINCE OURSELVES that we are spending our time improving the right products, services, and practices.

If my “Disney principle” makes sense to you though, there are likely things going on in, on, or around your business (that you have never considered) that are either: 1) providing benefits you should not change because your customers value them, or 2) impeding your success by silently dragging you down. 

You’ve got great food, a nice setting, and reasonable prices — but inadequate parking keeps people away.  Still using styrofoam containers?  Forget about attracting environmentally conscious customers.  Using an automated attendant on your phone?  It might not matter that you have better prices or more experience than your competitor, if your target customers want to speak with a live person… you get the idea.

So what can you do about it? 

1. The quickest thing you can do is ask a friend (someone who will give you honest feedback!) to experience your business as a new client would.  You are not objective, so you need someone ELSE to do it.  Ask them to take note of everything possible, and compare it to the most ideal experience they could imagine.
    
   Concerned that you need more help than a friend could offer? Contact us for a detailed Competitive Intelligence Report.  We review dozens of factors that are critical for ANY business to be successful, and compare your performance to that of competitors you choose.
2. Survey your customers and prospects.  Be sure to leave opportunities for them to comment on what they like and don’t like about working with you or simply interacting with your company.  Remember, you need to find things you don’t even know you’re looking for!

FYI — we provide guidelines and examples for conducting an effective survey in our CLIMB 101 class.  Check it out now and be sure to sign up for our email newsletter on the upper right of this page (if you haven’t already) for information about our early-bird discount!

Much of what I do with my clients is shine a light on practices that they currently perform out of habit.  Why advertise in the publications they’ve been advertising in for years, why target the current customer segment (or why is there no particular target in mind)?

So this holiday season, I recommend you ask yourselves this question — why am I really sending gifts to my clients? There are good reasons and not-so-good reasons. Here are a few tips to have in mind:

• Check to see if they can accept gifts. If you have corporate or government clients they may be restricted. If the organization’s web site doesn’t publish their policy, have an administrative assistant or other employee call on your behalf and ask the question.
• Make it personal. Assuming you’re thinking about a short list of your top clients, put some thought into what each individual may appreciate. A generic gift stands a greater chance of coming off as a selfish wish that you will get more business. If you have a long list of clients in mind, rethink your plan. A card may actually be more appreciated.
• Avoid unwelcome gifts. Avoid anything of a sexual connotation, such as lingerie for a woman. Also, it’s best to avoid food or alcohol that may conflict with their beliefs or dietary preferences. When you add up people who do not drink alcohol, have nut allergies, or follow Kosher rules, you’ve got a significant portion of the population.

Great ideas abound on the Internet, so I won’t list specific gifts here. Do some searches, but start by thinking about the recipient and what clues you already have about their hobbies and interests.

The Best Gift Idea for This Year
Okay, so above I indicated that I wouldn’t bore you with specific ideas — I lied. What is one of the best gifts you can give your clients? Un-matchable service throughout the coming year; the kind of service that will make THEM want to give YOU a holiday gift next year. How will you know what you need to do for that kind of appreciation? You gotta ask them.

But wait, I thought this was about giving, not asking! Here’s what you do:

1. Pick your top customers; the ones you’d like to keep forever, do more business with, and clone if you could.
2. Write a thoughtful letter thanking them for supporting your business. In this letter, indicate that their honest input about how you could provide better service, a more useful mix of products, etc., would be extremely valuable in your pursuit of excellence.
3. Include a survey with questions about their experience with you, your staff, your products, which of your competitors they also patronize, etc. Give them opportunities to write about their experiences.
4. Close your letter by indicating that in exchange for their returned survey, you will make a charitable donation of $10 or $25 in their name to one of two or three charities that you list (ask them to check their preference on the survey).

Your survey response rate will be high and your customers will feel better about you and themselves than they would if you gave them a gift card or other generic present. Moreover, you will set up the perfect follow-up in a month or so — a personal card confirming how much you raised for the charity they chose and thanking them for their support of your business and the worthy cause they chose.

If you don’t have the kind of business with a few key clients, you can easily adapt this idea. Just use a shorter survey and a lower value donation and send it out via email to a broader group. After you make the donations, just let everybody know the totals that were raised. You and your customers will like the results.

Bottom Line
If the whole topic of giving gifts to your clients is stressful, you’re not on the right track. What has their business meant to you and your family? Start there, give sincere appreciation, and you can’t go wrong.