Customer relationship marketing is growing in popularity, thanks to the advent of the internet and social media. It is definitely going to be a ‘people’s favourite’. Why? That’s because, unlike traditional marketing, it does not focus on acquiring customers and selling products. Instead, it focuses on building customer relations and engagement as the first priority.
Relationship marketing concentrates on creating brand awareness, and not only attracts new customers but also retains old ones. Customer retention is a by-product of relationship marketing. Retaining your old customers can result in 15-20 % increase in annual revenue. So how do we do it?
To generate trust, you need to engage with your audience on a regular basis on social media. You need to be consistent in your social media postings. The nature of postings must be varied and interesting. It should generate engagement.
Your fans comments must be acknowledged. Make sure that you address each of them by name, while answering them on social media. Your social media postings should provide value to your fans and customers. Your social media posts can also be linked to your blog where you provide your subscribers with exhaustive information in your field of expertise.
Once you generate a buzz online media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and blogs via out of the box posts, the word will be out and your brand will get talked about.
People don’t just want a product, but an experience. Give it to them and they will love you. How to give them a brand experience? It’s simple!
Make them feel special. Answer their queries through social media comments, email or even telephone. You can go one step ahead and make a database of your customers along with their special dates (anniversaries, birthdays). You can send personalised greetings to them and make them feel special.
And suppose they want to buy a product you have, will they go to your competitors? Will they refer their friends to your competitors? The answer is ‘NO’!
Loyal customers don’t go shopping around, even if the price is less, because they are more focused on the value they are getting. It goes without saying, that when they are getting value, they don’t mind referring your product to their friends and family. Returning customers, are also less costly to acquire, because they know how your product works.
Let’s summarise the essential elements of successful relationship marketing:
Customer Support: Have a great customer support team, which provides personalised service to your customers.
Educating Customers: Make sure that you provide value to your customers through your blog. Let them know about the latest trends and technologies in your field. Give them something to think about!
Social Media: Engage with customers on social media. Answer their comments and solve their issues (i.e., issues - concerning your product or field).
Email Marketing: An e-mail is still one of the most powerful ways of marketing and re-marketing to your customers. So, you need to have an email marketing strategy also in place.
In this video Michael Stelzner the CEO of Social Media Examiner interviews Mari Smith, author of “The New Relationship Marketing and Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day”. Mari Smith is one of the world’s leading social media thought leaders, who is also Facebook’s designated “Small Business and Facebook Marketing Expert” and Forbes’ “#4 Top Social Media Power Influencer”
Have Loyalty Programs: A loyalty program is worth its salt, only if the rewards are outstanding. Have your loyal customers sign up for the loyalty program and reap its benefits. It is also a good way of re-selling to existing customers, by offering great deals.
You can thus cement your client relations by means of A customer relationship marketing strategy; also make sure that your product or services are of top-quality. Once you follow the above guidelines, your customer relations get a boost and business success won’t be far away.
The visibility of your Facebook fan page is not what it once used to be. A very less percentage of your fans actually get to see what you post every day. This wasn’t the situation prior to 2012, when you could expect your posts to be seen by a huge number of your fans. However, the number declined from 16% to 7% in 2014. Now in 2016, only 2.5% of your fans are getting to see your posts.
According to Post planner, Facebook is coming up with another algorithm, which will further curate, what your fans are going to see in their news feed. By now I’m sure you are aware that, if there is one thing that’s constant on Social Media, it is ‘change’.
However, we all know that every problem has a solution. With Facebook curtailing our reach, how do we reach out to our fans? The answer lies in posting videos to Facebook.
More than 100 million videos are watched daily on Facebook, while the number touches 5 billion on YouTube. Yes, Indeed! 5,000,000,000 videos are watched everyday on YouTube!
Videos are something which deserve to be shared; you need to upload videos to Facebook on a regular basis! This is the best way to promote your Facebook page for FREE.
Use Facebook LIVE
Facebook LIVE, helps you to reach out to a large number of viewers without having to pay for it. However, make sure you have a plan. Going live, when you have nothing valuable to offer would be a waste of time; so prepare well in advance about how you are going to make best use of your available time to keep the online audience ‘glued to their seats’. Facebook helps you reach a massive audience, and the longer you are live, more will be your reach. You can expect the numbers to be in the range of 400-500K by the end of your first hour of live streaming.
Use Slideshow Videos
Follow the above steps to create a simple video.
Use Video making Apps to make quick videos
Vine: This is a cool app which makes you create video for 6.5 seconds. Your video can definitely look eye catching and cool when it loops almost every seven seconds.
Artisto: This is again an amazing app, which enables you to create great looking videos using new video technology. This is FREE and available for both Android and iOS devices.
Adobe Spark: This is a simple video app, which creates amazing videos. There are times, when all you have is just text and nothing else. This app still helps you create nice videos out what’s available. Presently, it is available for Android users; however and iOS version may soon be on its way.
James Wedmore has been featured on numerous sites such as Entrepreneur.com, Rise to the Top, Mixergy and many more. He has been the Guest Instructor on 3 CreativeLIVE Workshops, and today, he hosts James Wedmore TV, his YouTube Channel that’s been viewed over 1 Million times.
In the above video ,James Wedmore gives us invaluable tips and tricks on how to use Facebook video to grow your business.
I’m sure some of the apps mentioned above will definitely make you feel that making videos is not such a difficult task after all! These tools will surely help you to promote your Facebook page online. Do you have any favourite video apps which you use to post videos on Facebook? If so, do let us know in the comments below; we would love to hear from you.
In this age of content marketing and smart devices, it goes without saying that your small business needs a blog. Even you are directly not selling online, an interesting blog page will have a positive effect on your customers and website visitors, who will definitely want to know more about you. It thus attracts traffic and builds authority. Here are the various reasons why you need to blog regularly.
Direct Communication Channel: This is a direct means of communication between you and customers. It enables you to get in touch on a more personal level. Small business blogs help you to exchange views and discuss the trends in your particular field. It enables the customers to look up to you as a source of valuable industry-specific information.
SEO Friendly: Business blogs always attract a good SEO ranking. A well-written blog provides valuable content. As we are aware, search engine bots are always looking for fresh content to crawl. A website with fresh and unadulterated content is a favourite with Google and other top search engines, who will obviously elevate its page rank.
User-friendly: Having a blog doesn’t require you to have programming or designing skills. You may choose user-friendly platforms like WordPress and get the images from free sites like Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr Commons, PDPhoto.org, Publicdomainpictures.net, Free Stock Photos and Good Free Photos.
More Customers: According to a survey, it has been found that more than 50% of businesses that have a blog get more customers. In this era of online marketing, people do not watch self-aggrandising advertisements and buy their products right away. They will check out if the business they are dealing with, is online, in the first place. They will also trust a website which has a blog displaying the company’s expertise in their respective field, before trusting them enough to do business.
Share your Expertise: A blog gives you a voice which will be heard by thousands, if not millions. People will seek your opinion as they will begin to regard you as an expert in your respective field.
Blog is a two way conversation: Blog c comments by your readers, result in a to and fro exchange of thoughts leading to a healthy conversation. You can thus invite users for giving their insights regarding a trending topic and see the diverse view and angles to that particular topic. You may thus get to know how people’s views differ from point to point regarding the same topic.
Creativity and Entertaining: Blogging need not be a chore. It can be something you look forward to doing regularly. Your love for blogging can make your blog entertaining and much sought after by your subscribers and daily website visitors. And your blog doesn’t have to be serious; a dash of humour when added appropriately can be like an icing on the cake.
Expand your Horizons: When you have a blog to write, you need to seek out new information regarding current affairs, and trends in your chosen field. As you go about your daily life you may get inspiration from movies, talking to friends, or taking a stroll around the block; you need to jot them in your notepad.
Blog and Content Marketing: Having a blog helps you in making a content marketing strategy. Accordingly you may plan your blog posts, as part of a strategy. You may thus have a blog, to get you business leads as well by capturing interested subscribers by means of a form, offering them value, giving freebies and finally putting up an irresistible offer!
Free Publicity: Business blogs, along with social media are the best way to advertise your products or services. Many people can get to know about you. In fact many bloggers are interviewed by the press, which gets free publicity.
Confidence and Rapport: A blog builds confidence and rapport between you and your subscribers. Your subscribers will begin to trust you and your opinions.
Stay on top: A blog helps you to stay on top. Search engines will obviously keep you on top of their results and you will definitely get more web visitors than your competitors who don’t blog like you do.
In this video, “The Introduction to blogging” Eli the Computer Guy, talks about why we need to blog and what are the advantages.
On his YouTube Channel, Eli the Computer Guy provides in depth information about IT as a profession. All his videos, are created with an eye towards ROI, and TCO.
Let the world know about you: Your small business blogs can also let the world know about your company, and the kind of business you are into. You may also let them know about the key persons who run the company and the staff who are the life-blood of the company. You may let them know what happens behind the scenes, through your blog pictures.
Analytics: Last but not the least, you will get to know more about your visitors through the blog analytics. This will help you know what kind of postings draw the majority of the audience, and you may use this knowledge to your best advantage.
It is thus very important for any business to have a blog, which is up and running. Make sure you are consistent in your postings so that your followers know when to expect your next blog and eagerly await the same.
Reach Out to your Specific AudienceWhen you place Facebook ads, let it mention the name of your city. This way, people reading this ad will immediately notice that it is meant for them in the first place. For e.g., if your ad title is “Web Design Services in Melbourne”, then it will have a greater impact on your target audience, who will then realize the Facebook ads are meant for them and that you are based in the same town.
Boost Post OptionWhen you choose to boost your post, you may start as little as $5. Select ‘people you choose through targeting’ and choose your city as well as the age group of your audience. You may choose to boost different kinds of posts. If you are into Facebook marketing, you may promote your blog. If you are a restaurant, then you may promote your new menu or restaurant pictures.
Create an EventAnother way to attract people is through an event. If you are dealer of cars, then have a ‘Weekend Test Drive Extravaganza’ planned on a weekend. Advertise this event and drive traffic to your social media page, as well as your website. If you are a restaurant, you may perhaps arrange for a special ‘Recipe Class with a Celebrity Chef’, and create an event on Facebook.
Offer a DiscountIf you are a restaurant, then you may offer a happy hour discount to boost sales. If you have a clothing store, you may offer a buy 2 get 2 offer. The kind of offer will depend on the type of business.
Value Added Content for Local MarketAlways provide content which caters to the local market. If you are a restaurant, you may write blogs about different cuisines or ‘Special items’ on your menu. If you are a website designer, you may write blogs about ‘Web-design trends & techniques’. Giving value added content will help you gain credibility as an expert in your particular field.
If you are a martial arts expert, you may post a video of everyday self-defence techniques. Likewise, if you are a yoga expert, you may post a yoga routine to start the day. So instead of asking people to buy your services all the time, you can shift gears and provide them what they want, and that is – providing value via blogs or videos.
Darrel Wilson is a WordPress expert, who has dedicated his time to help others learn how to create their own business’s and start something on their own. Here he talks in detail about “How to use Facebook Ads for beginners”. It’s a must see video for small business owners who want to learn and master Facebook ads.
This is how you market your products to your target audience. If you are a local business, make sure to mention the name of your city in your offer. Last but not the least, make sure that your offer is enticing enough for people to click through it. Thus, Facebook marketing has the potential to take your small business to the next level.
