January 2005 Issue:

-Where Are You Going in 2005?
-Making Advertising Work for You
-Five Ways to Improve Customer Service

Archived Issues

Where Are You Going in 2005?

Do you have a plan that details where you expect your business to be next year? In three years? In five years? Do you have a strategy for how you will meet those expectations?

Reaching your business goals takes good planning, especially when thinking about your marketing and public relations efforts. Building awareness and credibility for your business is the first step to increasing sales and meeting your objectives. Making sure that the right messages are reaching the right audiences is key to planning a successful strategy. When creating your marketing and public relations approach for the new year, consider these three basic elements:

1. Positioning – Make sure you include large-scale market influencers such as newspapers, magazines, and industry analysts in your marketing plan. This should be in conjunction with your regular, local-focused marketing initiatives.

2. Awareness – Activities such as sponsoring community events, advertisements in local publications, or handing out flyers at local events will help get your name in front of the public and build awareness of your company.

3. Outsider Credibility – Customer testimonials, press coverage like articles or photos, or partner endorsements will verify to your customers that your company is qualified.

Tailor Your Message
Think Big - Building credibility with large-scale media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) creates a positive reputation for your company. A good reputation makes it easier for you to land meetings with sales prospects and partners, and helps build brand recognition and general familiarity with your company.

Think Small - You also need to focus a narrower, tailored message to your key customers and partner targets. Try to develop messages that show a specific relationship between your business and your target customers. Make sure you answer the “why” questions: Why invest in us? Why buy from us? Why work with us?

By developing both a large-scale media message along with a more targeted, focused message, you can reach a very broad range of important targets. You will not only build overall credibility, but will also present yourself as an authority that customers will be eager to work with.

Making Advertising Work for You

Advertising works, but it works best when you know how to make it work for you. If you are interested in making your advertising initiatives more effective, follow these guidelines and watch your results improve!

Address a Need
Addressing a need will make your product or service appeal to customers because it can offer them something of benefit. Showcase the value of your product, and focus your advertising on why your product is wonderful. Let customers know what you will do for them. Emphasize the customers’ needs rather than their wants, and they will quickly see the benefits your product offers that the competition doesn’t.

Know Your Goal
You may be surprised to know that the goal of advertising isn’t to “propose a sale” so much as to establish name and brand recognition for your company. The best way to do this is to associate your name with your ability to meet unique customer needs. Connecting your products with solutions will help establish your credibility, which will then instill confidence among past, present, and future customers. Past and present customers will become repeat customers, new customers will discover you, and satisfied customers will readily recommend you to friends, family, and associates.

Create Credibility
Show your customers that you understand their needs, and that you have a fabulous product/service to meet those needs. When you do this, you gain invaluable credibility for your company and demonstrate expertise in your industry. Often, you can establish this in subtle ways, such as using careful phrasing or purposeful design in your advertising. Make sure your advertising reflects your company image, and don’t be afraid to add some of your credentials. Give your customers enough information to establish that your company is exactly what they are looking for, but don’t list your entire resume or portfolio. You can always give customers more examples of your experience once they have responded to your ad.

Using these simple guidelines can improve the success of your advertising efforts, while also promoting your company’s credibility and expertise. Make sure to focus your ads on meeting your customers’ needs or solving their problems. Finding the right message for your audience will help your advertising be more effective, ultimately increasing your sales and your bottom line.

Five Ways to Improve Customer Service

One of the best ways to turn customers into repeat customers is to provide quality customer service. Aside from providing customers with multiple ways to contact you – such as a phone number, email address, and mailing address – what can you do to become customer-friendly? These five tips will help you improve your customer service!

1. Commit to Quality Service
Everyone in your company should be devoted to creating a positive experience for the customer. Decide that in your customer service, you will always try to exceed expectations and go above and beyond what your customer is expecting of you.

2. Be Courteous and Respectful
This one seems like a no-brainer, but often people forget how far phrases such as “sorry to keep you waiting,” “thank you for your order,” and “it’s been a pleasure helping you” can go. Going the extra mile to be especially kind will help your customer feel appreciated and taken care of.

3. Keep Your Promises
If you say you will send a replacement part the next day, be sure you do it in a day or less. Failure to meet your word will lose you hard-earned credibility. If for some reason you can’t meet a timeline you set, be sure to apologize and let your customer know why – as well as offering compensation such as a discount or free expedited shipping.

4. Put Customers First
With new product offerings, or a business that encourages repeat sales, it becomes easy to put too much pressure on existing customers to become repeat customers. Bear in mind that it is more important to keep a customer than it is to close a sale – especially since research shows that it is six times more expensive to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.

5. Make it Easy to Buy
The purchasing experience in your store, on your web site, or through your catalog should be as simple and streamlined as possible. Eliminating unnecessary paperwork makes it easier on everybody, and making it easy for customers to find what they need, understand how your products work, and feel comfortable with you as a company will go a long way toward making a sale – and a satisfied customer.

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Copyright 2004 Five Sparrows, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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www.fivesparrows.com