My kids always come to me looking for some cash to go to the basketball game or some event that’s going on at school. I always give them the same answer “what have you done for me lately?” they hate it when I do that. No, I’m not talking about the 1986 Janet Jackson hit “What have you done for me lately?”. I’m talking about what have you done for your customers lately? It’s pretty simple really, in todays day and age it isn’t enough to just provide your product or service, to deliver the goods as asked, or to deliver the goods in a timely fashion, or of high enough quality. It’s a bigger issue, what have you done for them lately that would retain or keep them on board as your customers? We all know that it’s harder to get a new customer than it is to retain an old one, and you have probably heard all of the in-depth discussions about lifetime value of a customer and reserving some profit for customer retention. Some suggest it’s 10 times harder to get a new customer than it is to retain an old customer. Giving something to your customers is probably one of the best ways to retain them.
Generally when businesses think about doing something for their customers they think it has to be in the form of cash. Most business owners think “geez I just don’t have enough money left at the end of the month to be giving away more cash to my customers”. It doesn’t always have to be cash, it doesn’t always have to be a discount, it doesn’t always have to be a bargain or deal. I know as a consumer I really enjoy a good deal, but there is something else that’s easier to provide and probably fits your financial situation better at the end of the month.
An inexpensive and great gift to your customers is providing good information good quality tips and ideas that might make their lives better. Imagine this for a second, if you’re in the RV business, you could share RV information like how to maintain your RV, how to get better fuel mileage, how to winterize your RV, what’s the easiest way to do XYZ with your RV? If you think about it, this probably won’t cost you a lot of money and if you’re in the RV business this stuff probably comes off the top your head. You could sit down at the kitchen table one night and scratch out a couple of notes that you can e-mail out to your customers and do something for your customers that didn’t cost much more than a little bit of your time. It really does come down to what have you done for them lately and what have you done that would prompt them to open their wallets to you.
I know personally there are certain e-mails that I get I open immediately because I know there’s good quality information in them. I also know that I have other people who e-mail me who I know that their stuff is mostly crap, most of it is spam and I trash it upon receipt. Be really careful when deciding what it is you’re going to provide, make sure it is “open immediately” content. We don’t live in era anymore where you can just put out an advertisement and have people running to your door, we live in an information age. So the challenge I have for you is what can you do at this point time to provide good quality information, tips, hints, suggestions, humor, or entertainment that fits your particular industry in your particular niche. It won’t cost you an arm and a leg and it certainly doesn’t have to be deal or a discount.
Posts tagged marketing
What Have you Done for Me Lately?
9 Facebook Engagement Techniques
Interacting with your Facebook fans is a vital part of an effective social media campaign on this platform. By engaging your fans on a regular basis, you keep them interested in your profile page and you are more likely to appear in their newsfeeds.
When you interact with fans, and they like what you are posting to
your page, the Facebook algorithm selects your content more frequently to show up on their newsfeeds. This increases your visibility and your opportunities for delivering your marketing message. Of course, one of the great things about social media marketing is that vehicles like Facebook fan pages are entirely free of charge.
As with any marketing campaign, it is important to make regular contact with prospects and customers to keep them thinking about you and to keep them aware of your products and services. Here are some tips on how you can engage your Facebook fans on a daily basis.
1. Post interesting news articles. Ideally, these should relate in some way to your products or services, but it is also within the boundaries of social media etiquette to post news periodically on topics that would interest a general audience. For example, you could post a news story on a big storm that will be moving into the local area. Try to be the first person in your network to post breaking news and before long your fans will look to your status updates for the latest info. However, you should be careful in not posting too many articles that drift from the main topics of your page.
2. Share photos, videos and other content related to your business. Post pictures of your office, your storefront, your employees and your customers (with their permission). If you had some remodeling done, post the photos. Videos with testimonials from satisfied customers are great marketing tools. You can upload these videos directly to Facebook, or you can first upload them to YouTube or similar sites and then share the content on Facebook. By uploading your video on other sites and then sharing on Facebook, your content will have greater visibility.
3. Use Facebook’s tagging feature for your photos. If any of your fans turn up in a photo, you can tag them so that the photo appears on their own pages. In some cases, Facebook users might set their permissions to prevent or limit tagging, but most probably will not mind. By using tags, even friends of your friends may be able to see the photos and this could result in attracting more fans to your page.
4. Use tags for a variety of content including that posted by your fans. You can use tags on just about everything you post on Facebook including videos, status updates and comments. If you want to tag someone on an article that you are posting, you can add their names to your comments. Tagging is not restricted to your own content. In some cases, if your fan’s permissions allow, you can also tag their pictures, videos and other content. Tagging is a great way to lead prospects to your Facebook page and ultimately to your business website.
5. Comment on other content. Your fans will likely appreciate your interaction with them, so take the time and occasionally comment on interesting content posted by them. Make sure that your comments are polite and that you do not comment on any potentially offensive material. If you find that people respond negatively to you, the best response is probably to ignore their remarks. Try to interact with as many fans as possible so nobody feels left out, but show that you have good taste and judgment. Generally, it is not a good idea to use comments to express political, religious or similar beliefs.
6. Like your fans’ content. A simpler way to interact with fans other than commenting is simply to like their photos, videos, status updates, articles and other content. You can even like your fans’ comments. Using the like button is safer than commenting, since it is unlikely that anyone will get offended when you like something. The like button also offers a very fast and easy way for responding to a large number of fans.
7. Promote special events. Facebook allows you to post events in a special format and share them with all your fans. An event page allows users to RSVP and to interact with others who plan to attend the event. The event page is separate from your profile page and it will expire once the event is over. You might want to offer special discounts through your Facebook event page in order to entice more fans to attend. An advantage of using Facebook to promote your events is that you can set up an event page well in advance and at no cost to your company.
8. Post new products and special deals. If you have a special discount on your products or services, make sure that you post the information on your profile page. This may be one of the most effective ways to use Facebook as a marketing tool. You can also post information on new products. Make sure that you include detailed photos as these seem to attract the eyes of users more effectively than text.
9. Provide help to existing customers. Another way to keep in contact with your customers is to provide assistance to them over Facebook. You can use your profile page to handle questions or complaints. The page can become an extension of your customer service department. Many customers really prefer online customer service because it is so convenient. They can access social media using mobile devices from any location with an Internet connection. The web interface also provides visual data that is not available when speaking to someone over the phone.
Remember that Facebook is very much about what is happening in the present. An effective campaign requires regular engagement with your fans preferably on a daily basis.
Written by Darin Bushman