By Stacey Ackerman, MA
I work with many small business owners who used to have small marketing budgets—now many of them have no marketing budget at all. When the budget is tapped, don’t run away. One of the best things you can do as a small business owner during down times is to work with what you’ve got—customers who know and love you already.
If you’ve been in business for five or more years, at least 25 percent of your marketing efforts should be centered on developing your current and past customer relationships. After all, these people loved you enough to visit at least once and are much more likely to buy from you again.
To engage your customers in your brand, they need to hear from you. The correspondence you have with each customer much be thought of in terms of a relationship—a series of engagements that occur over time, rather than as a transaction with a beginning, middle and end.
Here are a few low-cost ways that you can engage your customers in your brand:
Solicit Feedback
Make sure your customers know that their opinions are being listened to. This gives customers a sense of loyalty with your brand. Simply put: ask for their opinion and do something with it.
Conduct a Survey
Online tools such as www.surveymonkey.com or www.constantcontact.com are a great way to solicit customer feedback. The good comments make for great testimonials, and the negative ones give you an opportunity to improve your service. Plus, the survey will be another way to show your customers that you value their opinion.
Testimonials
By offering another opportunity to share their opinion, customers will further immerse themselves in your brand. Plus, video testimonials are easy and inexpensive to add to your web site, creating a strong message about your customer loyalty to prospective new clients.
Bounce-Back Coupons
If you’re a retailer, you should never have a customer leave your store without an incentive to return again. A coupon for a return visit is an easy, affordable way to get people to come back.
E-Mail
Sending an e-mail message is a low-cost way to communicate with your customers. I recommend using a service provider such as ConstantContact to send an e-mail with a professional template and tracking capabilities. Remember not to send an e-mail just for the heck of it. Your message must provide a value-add to your customers. Also, don’t try to put too much information into one message or you will lose your readers. Keep it simple, and get them to click for more information.
Social Media
If you’re a B2C company, creating a company Facebook page is a good way to engage your ‘fans’. To do this, invite your customers to become ‘fans’ of yours on their Facebook page. This not only spreads your company name and loyalty across the internet, it also gives you an additional tool for adding coupons, specials and event information. For B2B companies, creating a user group on LinkedIn is an informal way to share your expertise with your customers. Use your page to post articles, new product releases and news about your organization. This will keep your customers interested and engaged in your business.
By trying these tactics, you can enhance your communication with your current and past customers, therefore engaging them deeper into your brand. By doing this your company will be well positioned to make it through these tough times.
Stacey Ackerman, MA, is the director of Marketing for Small Business Builders. She has helped numerous small business owners grow their business by creating practical, affordable growth strategies that work. She can be reached at sackerman@smallbusinessbuilders.com or 651-783-5763.
Comments