Are you making your customers feel left out?
Have you ever gotten excited over an advertised offer only to read the fine print that says something like “offer available to new customers only”? Many businesses focus their marketing efforts on generating new customers while forgetting the golden opportunity that repeat customers provide.

Nearly every sale has a repeat potential. It is not only easier, but also more cost-effective to market to an audience who has already done business with you (hopefully their experience was positive). Not only are they familiar with you and your business, but they have already shown interest in your products or services.

In addition to repeat product sales, up-selling is a great way to target current customers. For example, “if you like XX product, you will love QQ.” Customers who are educated about their purchases feel more confident making informed decisions and will view you as the expert. Avoid being pushy, or you will drive away your current customer base. Instead, offer a lucrative discount that will do the selling for you.

In addition to increasing sales volume, current customers are also a potential goldmine when it comes to referrals. Customer referrals will not only help you build stronger relationships with your current customers, but will also help you expand your customer base through increased awareness to prime prospects.

There are many ways to generate customer referrals, but one of the easiest occurs throughout day-to-day conversations. If a loyal customer compliments your business in casual conversation, ask if you can use that statement as a customer quote.

Repeat customers offer stability and predictability — a must for any successful business. After all, happy customers can sell your business just as well as your sales team.

What’s your response time?
In today’s fast-paced business world full of instant technology, most people expect an answer to their email messages in one day or less. This can become challenging when you consider the volume of email many businesses receive.

If checking your email throughout the day isn’t ideal, consider blocking a chunk of time on your calendar each day to respond to email messages. Even if you don’t know the answer or need to find additional information, you should acknowledge the email and let the sender know you are working on it. If you plan to be away from the office, remember to use an auto-responder. Include information such as how long you will be away and when you will return messages. Also provide your contact info or an alternate contact for those who need an immediate response.

If you’re looking for an even faster way for your customer support team to answer questions and interact with online shoppers, you may want to consider a live chat support service. Visitors who receive quick answers and responses are more likely to stay longer and buy more products. The personalized interaction will also help them develop more confidence in your business.

The speed in which you respond can easily affect a potential buyer’s perception of you and your business. Always remember that the sender emailed you for a reason and is expecting your prompt response. Don’t give them time to find the answer, or a faster response, elsewhere.
Contributed By: Brenda Clifton

I’ve always wondered how fancy coffee shops could charge so much for a product that is worth pennies on the dollar. But I recently had an eye-opening experience that caused my opinion to sway. While feeling slightly impatient waiting for a cup of joe, my attitude was shockingly transformed by the laid-back atmosphere, the enchanting aroma, and the unique boutique-style tables and chairs at my favorite coffee shop. For a moment, I forgot why I was in such a hurry. Time stood still, as I was engrossed in a coffeehouse state of mind.

I now understand that the value of coffee, like many other products we buy, is contingent on how it makes us feel. Sometimes when I close my eyes and smell a fresh cup of coffee, I recall my coffeehouse state of mind… and smile.

While other products might not offer the same memorable feeling as a good cup of joe, we should all strive to offer a memorable experience for the customers who walk through our front door. How can you make customers think of your business and smile?

As business owners, we’re all looking for new and innovative ways to connect with customers. NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” managed to do just that with a well-placed QR code held up during last Friday’s broadcast. On the show, host Jimmy Fallon, guest Stephen Colbert, former “American Idol” Taylor Hicks, and a bevy of others (including house band, The Roots) sang an over-the-top rendition of “Friday,” a song which came to fame recently in a viral video by Rebecca Black. Near the end of the performance, a staffer held up a card containing a QR code.

QR (quick response) codes are special barcodes you can print anywhere that “translate” from a simple block pattern to a predetermined website address when photographed (or scanned) and “read” by QR-code-enabled devices, such as many smartphones. They’re kind of like a graphic version of a bit.ly or tinyurl.com link.

Anyway, observant viewers, who photographed the QR code on their smartphones, were treated to a video in which Fallon thanked fans for helping raise money for the charity DonorsChoice.org. But it didn’t end there.

At the beginning of this “hidden” video, Fallon held up a QR code, which he led fans to believe was the same QR code his staffer had held up during the show. However, it wasn’t the same code, and those who photographed that second QR code were treated to another video, in which Fallon provided a quick “tour” of the contents of his desk.

A third QR code (held up by Fallon in the second bonus video) led to a final video, again featuring Fallon at his desk. In this video, Fallon offered a sneak preview of some upcoming features on the show and thanked viewers for their loyalty.

So, could you or I recreate this kind of elaborate media campaign for our own brands or companies? Probably not to the same extent Fallon was able to. After all, we don’t have the funding of a major media company (NBC) at our disposal. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find equally innovative ways to use technology to our own advantage. All of the basic tools Fallon used — QR codes, video, and social media — are available to us, as well. We just need to find ways to use those tools to reach our own “audience” and grow our brands.

This week, Google unveiled a new, simpler icon for its Chrome web browser. In a blog post explaining the change, Google designer Steve Rura wrote, “Since Chrome is all about making your web experience as easy and clutter-free as possible, we refreshed the Chrome icon to better represent these sentiments. A simpler icon embodies the Chrome spirit — to make the web quicker, lighter, and easier for all.”

Whether you love it or hate it, the new Chrome icon provides an important lesson to corporate marketers: When creating logos, color schemes, and icons to represent your brand, make sure those symbols represent the core values you want people to associate with you.

Another lesson comes in the way Google went about creating its new Chrome icon. “Redesigning the icon was very much a group effort,” Rura continues. While you probably should put together a core team of designers and marketing people who will have the final say in creating your corporate brand, don’t overlook ideas from “outsiders” in your organization (customer service people, salespeople, product developers, etc.) who might bring a different perspective to the discussion.

And finally, make sure your new identity translates well both online and off. “It was important to maintain consistency across all media,” Rura concludes, “so we kept print, web, and other possible formats in mind.”

One way to ensure a strong print-based presence for your new logo, icon, or color scheme is to involve a printing firm, like ours, early in the design process. As print professionals, we can help you choose colors that are attractive, cost-effective, and easy to reproduce, so you don’t wind up spending more than you hoped to for less-than-ideal results.

You’ve just released a great new product you’re sure will be a hit with customers… if only they’d give it a chance. So how do you convince skeptical buyers who may not know you or your business that your product is worth a chance? Here are a couple of ideas to help you put their minds at ease.

If practical, provide a free trial period of 30 or 60 days. Let the customer try your product, risk free, before committing to purchasing it. This may not be practical for all products or services, but if it is, it might be worth a try.

Offer a full money-back guarantee — no strings attached. If, for any reason, a customer is not completely satisfied with their purchase, they can return your product — no questions asked — for a full refund. An airtight guarantee like this lets your customers know you believe in what you’re selling and are willing to put your money where your mouth is. Sure, a few people might take advantage of your offer, but most will only return the item if they have legitimate concerns.

If something does go wrong and a customer returns your product, let them choose whether they’d like a refund or to have the item replaced. If they opt for a replacement, give them something extra as a free bonus for their troubles, as well. Remember, a happy customer is worth far more than the cost of the free item you’re giving away.

I was looking for a potential customer phone number. Someone I haven’t done a lot of work with (I think I talked to him a year ago). Let’s call him Fred Fredson, and let’s pretend he lives in Nashville. I couldn’t remember his business name, so I did a quick Google search on his personal name: “fred fredson nashville” (it’s Google — no caps needed). I was shocked. People had been reviewing his business using his personal name and saying some not very nice things. I then Googled him by business name, and it was a different story. All I got was his nice business listing.

It made me realize that people are saying things about businesses in ways that had not occurred to me…and that while some of them are neutral or even flattering…some of them aren’t. So I encourage you to Google yourself by name with your location and see if there are any surprises out there waiting for you!

As an entrepreneur and small businessperson, I enjoy stories of other entrepreneurs who overcame obstacles to realize their dreams. One such story involves Bette Nesmith Graham, a secretary in the early 1950s, struggling to support herself and a son. Frustrated with having to retype entire documents because of simple typing errors, Graham invented a white liquid paint that would cover those mistakes, dry quickly, and allow her to type over the affected area once it had dried.

According to the website Famous Women Inventors (http://women-inventors.com), Graham was inspired in her work by painters who were decorating the windows at the bank where she worked. As the painters worked, they would cover over any mistakes they made with another layer of paint — saving time without compromising the quality of the work they did. Graham wondered if the same idea could be applied to her secretarial work.

As Graham perfected her concoction and started using it at her job, the other secretaries in her building took notice and began asking her to share her liquid, which she dubbed “Mistake Out,” with them. By 1956, demand had grown so much that Graham started a company (the Mistake Out Company) out of her Dallas home. Within the next dozen years, her renamed company, Liquid Paper, was a thriving business, requiring its own manufacturing plant and selling more than a million units per year.

In 1980, Graham sold Liquid Paper to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million. That’s a far cry from the income she earned as a struggling secretary in 1951… and further evidence that a good idea and an entrepreneurial spirit can accomplish just about anything.

Do you believe in your product?
Are you wearing clothes? Do you own clothes? If you do then you are like 100% of the people that you know! And every single item of clothing that you are wearing was bought somewhere, by someone. It was sold.

Ever get talked into going to a birthday party you weren’t 100% thrilled about? You got sold. Ever feed a kid an ice cream cone before dinner because of a look on a face? You. Got. Sold.

Selling makes the world go ’round. It happens in just about every single transaction between people that you can think of. From your teenager talking you into staying out late to the car dealer convincing you that you need the expensive oil change.

What made that ice cream cone sale work? Well, a lot of things actually, but one part of it was the deep sincerity on the part of the seller. Same for the person trying to get you to go to the birthday party. Those people believed in the product they were selling.

So…can you bring the same sincerity? Take a moment to see where your passion is. If you find yourself bogged down in the details and feel like you’ve lost the feeling of the sale, then take a step back and look at a kid who wants an ice cream cone. Then make the sale!
Contributed By: Jennifer Adelman

Appearances are critical in business… especially online. Your potential customers want to know if your website looks trustworthy. We’ve all heard the phrase “the appearance of impropriety.” The last thing any of us wants is to have that phrase linked to our companies and their websites.

I saw a quote in Website Magazine that sums that feeling up pretty well. The author wrote, “People make snap decisions when they browse the Web. They look for the familiar and the trusted and are equally concerned about fraudulent websites and viruses. To maximize traffic to your website, you need to quickly establish credibility and trust for your company and stand out from your competitors.”

I know a perfectly good company — a carpet cleaner — with a completely sketchy website. I KNOW these guys. They are upstanding, honest people who do a fair job. But their website plays strange music, things are disorganized, and you just get the feeling that they aren’t 100% on the up and up. My best guess is that they lose business because of it.

Take a critical look at your website and some of the things you do. Do you use trust seals in search results? Do you provide customer testimonials, complete contact information, and a detailed “About Us” page? Is your information well-organized? Does your site look friendly, warm, and inviting? How do YOU show your potential customer that you are trustworthy on the web?