Category: Marketing

Recapture Inactive Customers

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Image: Reengaging Customers

A lot of focus in business goes to capturing new customers, but what about previous customers who you already know like your product. It’s common for companies to abandon previous customers when they stop buying or responding. But according to invesp it costs five times as much to attract a new customer, then to keep an existing one.

Recapturing inactive customers isn’t as hard as it would seem. Especially since your chances of selling to previous customers is much higher than capturing new ones.

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With recapturing being cheaper and having a higher success rate, it’s a no brainer that you should be targeting this market. Below you’ll learn some tips and tricks on how you can recapture your inactive customers.

Email Retargeting

What is it? A high-return marketing channel that tailors marketing messages to people who have either shown interest or previously purchased something from you online. Browser cookies keep track of individual visitor’s activity on your site, working to retarget those customers.

After finding and installing the best retargeting software, you’ll upload your inactive users into their own email list to start a campaign just for them. The program will then place ads across the webpages and/or social media sites your inactive customers visit.

You will also want to send emails tailored to inactive customer’s specific needs. Split these customers into categories based on similarities and retarget each group in ways specific to them. Abandoned carts and searches, products viewed, and ones they spent the longest looking at, are a great way to narrow down an email. These methods are more likely to capture the inactive customer’s attention.

As always, take time to go over the data and figure out what emails are getting inactive customer’s attention. Adjust your campaign and always continue to improve it.

Get Personal

Follow-ups are important in keeping your customers active and reenacting inactive customers. After customers make a purchase, follow up with personalized messages that reflect their desires and adds value to their experience. Send a thank you message, highlight uses for the product, suggest items that would go well with the product, etc. to add value while you try to plant yourself in their life.

Use the data you already have on your inactive customers to send them targeted messages. Remind customers of why they chose to buy or visit your site in the first place. Send them suggestions of the products they could repurchase or try for the first time with a discounted offer.

Using geo-targeting you can send specific messages to inactive customers when they are in a specific city, close to the store, on a certain IP address or device ID, through GPS signals, geo-fencing, and more. This strategy will help you deliver the right message at the right time. The location data also helps to define the who and what of your audience. This proves to be effective when targeting consumers who have purchased in the past.

Use customer’s names when sending them messages. The more personalized the message, the higher chances of a customer, past or present, opening and clicking through.

Deep-Linking

You always want to make sure you make it as easy as possible for a customer to take a desired action, especially when wanting a customer to reengage. Deep links are used to send users straight to specific in-app locations. This strategy saves users time and energy from locating a particular page themselves – significantly improving user experience.

Deep links provide a seamless user journey and increase the likelihood of an install and purchase. Creating campaigns using deep linking provides a better user experience, moving them onto your purchasing page in a single click. It drives inactive customers right where you want them to be.

With unresponsive customers, it’s even more important to remove all the obstacles and lead them directly to completing a purchase.

Direct Mail

As digital marketing seems to be the future, direct mail is still here to stay. Direct mail response rates outperform digital channels by a long shot, achieving a 4.7% response rate as compared to a 0.62% response rate for all digital channels combined.

Using targeting and segmentation send unresponsive customers something different. Receiving a gift in the mail is sure to spark inactive customer’s attention. This leads to not only gaining your past customers back but also building up better brand loyalty.

Prospecting Strategies – Infographic

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Many business owners and salespeople dread having to prospect. There are many ineffective and outdated prospecting techniques that people are still using. With the right techniques, your prospecting can guide you to better-qualified leads. Better-qualified leads means higher growth rates.

Hubspot found that in 2020 “the top priority for marketers [was] generating leads.” With an understanding of the strategies involved in prospecting, you can gather and turn high quality leads into clients.

Prospecting Infographic

Adapting your sales to fit 2021

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Adapting Sales

While we’ve been constantly moving towards a digital world, the pandemic has surely accelerated society’s transition to online buying. With more people working remotely and relying on online buying, it’s time to shift our selling practices towards the new age of online buying and selling.

With this adaption comes some new rules we should follow. Many practices that will be popular in 2021 we’ve already begun doing it’s just a matter of adapting completely to the change to maximize on the new sales age.

Create a Digital Customer Experience

Researching online before buying is becoming a popular thing to do. That means your website needs to be top-notch, supplying consumers with all the information they need to know to decide to buy.

With face-to-face interactions lessening during the pandemic, it’s even more important that your website is set up to give customers a great experience. Your website should be creatively designed to capture visitor’s attention with information that will convince them to engage and buy.

Customers want validation, and your website should be where they go to get it. Online buying is different than in-person buying. Users online want the information they’re seeking to be upfront. This is an advantage for you as you don’t have to use subliminal marketing online. You can be direct with your customers and not turn them away.

People respond to brands that understand their needs. So, you must give users an experience that’s relevant to them and your lifetime value. With comprehensive and compelling messaging, users can gather the information they need.

Most importantly for creating a compelling digital customer experience is being there. Listening to your customers and monitoring how they navigate your website will help you curate your digital customer experience. Try out different landing pages and calls to action to see how your potential and current customers react and direct your website towards that.

With the pandemic moving more people to online buying, it’s all about building connections digitally now.

Use technology to build curated experiences

With creating a digital customer experience it’s important you make it curated to your customers. We’ve already begun to understand the power of personalization to gain consumers’ attention and close more deals. What we need to capitalize on in 2021 is hitting that personalization hard. With digital customer experiences, it’s easy to make this goal a reality.

AI allows us to gain insight into our most valuable customer’s daily lives and understand what they want most. Data and analytics can tell us when and where to engage our customers and how. This technology gives salespeople the ability to use engagement tools that target the best day and time to call someone in each industry. By leaning more heavily on technology salespeople can learn about buyers to develop customer relationships that pay off.

While using this technology to increase sales volume, you have to make sure your messaging is still personal enough to make the customer feel as though the message was made just for them. The sales experience needs to be individually curated for each market and segment of your target audience.

Build connections

With a pause on in-person selling, upping your connection building will be important in the new year. A great way to create value for your buyers is to build a connection with them. However, with online selling, this task becomes more difficult.

A sales rep must now build that connection solely online or over the phone. It’s important that you have the basic principle of doing your research but that you also apply a different approach and adapt for each contact you’re trying to build a connection with. With in person connecting, it’s easy to read a person’s reaction but in shifting to online you’re not as easily notified as to the other person’s reaction to your pitch. This means you need to do a lot more asking and listening. Listen to what they have to say in order to read how they’re taking your pitch. Phrasing your questions and comments better can also help give you the insight you need. Without those physical cues, it’s important to key in on the verbal ones.

In building connections with your customers, you’ll associate great customer experience with your product, something others will be hard-pressed to beat. In doing your research and understanding how you can connect with your client, salespeople can up their game.

Empathize and Understand

This goes for both sales leaders and sales reps. Sales leaders need to understand that sales reps’ jobs just got a heck of a lot harder in some areas. In certain markets, people are buying a lot less. Sales leaders need to embrace empathy and provide personalized, detailed coaching techniques to help get teams back on track and confident.

Once back on track and confident in their selling, sales reps need to empathize with their potential customers. With the pandemic hitting businesses and consumers hard, it’s important sales reps understand each client’s situation and take a different approach to sell.

Don’t be afraid to ask how the pandemic is affecting your customers. You can use this information to craft custom-tailored solutions to their specific challenges. Offering discounts, deals, and delays can help you win the client’s business this time around and even push them to continue to do business with you in the future.

When you help people at their lowest, it builds customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Integrate sales and marketing teams

A major trend for 2021 will be integrating your sales and marketing teams. COVID-19 has driven sales to distance selling forcing us to blur the line between the sales and marketing department. It’s critical in these new times that sales and marketing function as one to create a plan that works towards the overall business goal. You must almost fully integrate these two departments to succeed.

Intertwining every aspect of the two departments will be critical to its success. You must share not only people among that two but also data. Don’t keep sales data and marketing data separate, integrate it into one and even consider making it transparent to everyone on the marketing and sales teams.

Both sides must know the overall goal and the part they play in working together to achieve it by practicing consistent processes. Marketing brings in leads and sales converts and upsells those leads. The two go hand in hand which explains why integrating them into one can drive revenue for your business.

Bringing both departments together should be an easier task than you think. As long as your goals are clearly stated and the basics of how to get there are laid out the two departments won’t have much trouble working together to make selling online a success.

Important takeaway

COVID-19 sped up the shift towards a digital approach to buying and selling. Many haven’t even begun the shift, and therefore the new year is a great time to get started. It can be a whole new world for some, but nothing you can’t learn to tackle. There are many advantages not only for the customer but for you too in switching to or even just adding an online community. Digital transformations are becoming the new selling point.

Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season

Posted on | by Emi Lesser | Leave a Comment on Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season

Image with title: Stand Out During the Holidays

With every business competing extra hard during the holiday season it’s critical that you make your business stand out. With a little extra holiday cheer you can compete with top businesses. Here are a couple simple but effective ways to make your business stand out.

Holiday Drive

The best way to engage with the community while giving back to it is through a food, winter clothing, or toy drive. Choose a holiday drive you want to participate in and market it to your community. Getting the community involved in helping out others in need is sure to make your company stand out and show you care. Make the drive something personal to your company or your community.

To make your drive even more popular, you can also throw in a discount on items with a donation, such as 20% off your entire purchase with a donation. An example of a discounted drive that Credit Unions participate in all the time is for each can of food donated, they wave one overdraft fee. Customers feel as though they’re giving back to the community as well as gaining something from a business they’re a part of. It shows the company wants to do good in their community. Social responsibility plays a big part in consumers’ decision-making processes.

Send Out Holiday Wishes to Clients

Sending a note to clients during the holiday season can show clients you value them. It shows that even during the busiest season, you’re thinking about them and appreciate that they choose to do business with you. It humanizes your brand and builds loyalty between you and the client. The holiday wish can be as simple as an email saying happy holidays or as personal as a written letter thanking them and wishing them a happy holiday.

Give a Holiday Gift

Along with holiday wishes, holiday gifts are also a good idea to win over customers. Adding a little something extra to your holiday wishes brings even more delight to a customer. You can also choose to add a gift with purchase. It not only entices current customers to buy, it might also bring in new customers who love a good deal. Adding something extra to your already great deals will surely make your business stand out among others.

Give Holiday Discounts

During the holidays, consumers especially are looking for deals. Even if it’s just a small discount or added incentive, make sure you’re participating in the holiday season specials. Consumers will hold out looking for the best company with the best deals. With holiday discounts you’ll gain more customers than you’ll lose in profit. Holiday discounts are also a way to get consumers into the store enticing them to buy even more than just one discounted item. It also gives those who wouldn’t normally buy your product a reason to try it out.

Be Available

You’re obviously going to close down the office or store a couple of times during the holiday season and you should but be sure that you’re not restricting your hours so much that customers get frustrated. Customers want to be able to order at any time and receive customer service during normal times.

The holiday season is the one time a year you should be even more available than normal. Extend your customer service hours during the holiday’s to plant trust in your customers. The more a customer can trust a company to be there and meet their needs when they need it most, the more loyal that customer will become. The holiday season is a very stressful time and having a company that is there to solve their problems at the click of the button is something every customer wants.

If you’re an online store you also want to make sure your business is available without hiccups 24/7, being sure to fix any glitches as quickly as possible.

Charitable Contribution

Going along with social responsibility, a company’s contributions to charity also helps make them stand out. Ask your customers for ideas on what charities to donate to. Asking for their opinions will make them feel like a part of the decision, allowing them to help give back to a charity they strongly believe in. Making donations during the holidays is always a big deal and something people are proud to participate in. Customer’s knowing that their support in your company leads to you giving back to others will make you stand out during the holiday season.

Get started now on your holiday efforts to stand out among others and check out Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales for even more holiday ideas including, holiday-themed offers, discounts, and content.

Understanding What Customers Want

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Three Tips to Understand Your Customers

If we could understand what every customer is thinking, we’d be selling left and right. Of course, it’s very rare that a customer tells us how they’re feeling. With the constant bombardment of advertising and everyone wanting them to buy, customers are a lot less trusting and require more time and effort to convince to buy.

customer service image

Understanding what drives an individual to want to buy is a key factor in selling today. If you don’t get lucky with that customer who willingly tells you their wants, needs, and concerns for your product/service, it means you must figure it out on your own. Knowing how to figure out a client’s wants, needs, and concerns and use it to your advantage is something every good salesperson understands how to do.

Here are three ways to understand what potential customers are thinking.

Be the guinea pig

Go through the customer experience process. Follow the paths they would take on the route to buying from you. Act as though this is your first time coming across the product and note what value you receive. What key information do you take in, is there something not mentioned that you can note in your sales pitch or a key factor you can build off of? It’s important to understand the process and information the customer is taking in before they reach you. This way more value is being added to your product instead of just highlighting what the customer already knows. The more value you can add, the more likely a customer is to buy.

Learn as much as you can about your client’s job and life

It’s important to focus specifically on those who will be using your product/service. Learning about your customer’s job or life often helps bring to light key factors your customer wouldn’t think of if asked what they wanted from the product. The more you know about a customer, the better you can pick out key things the customer would enjoy. This tactic takes more time and empathy from the salesperson, but the more personal you can get, the more likely a customer is to buy from you specifically.

Understand what customers want

Personalized service, consistent answers, and optimized user experience.

Personalized service. Customers don’t want to be treated like a case number. As you want to learn as much as you can about your client, you also want to create an experience that’s personalized to them. Work with the client to figure out the best package for them, making sure to pay attention to their needs and wants. Giving them an experience different than the usual sales pitch will get them much closer to buying.

Consistent Answers. Seventy-six percent of customers receive conflicting answers from different support agents when asking the same questions. Make sure your sales team is on the same page. Consistent answers throughout the buying process will increase the likelihood of completing a purchase more so than receiving different answers to the same question. It shows you have your stuff together and that a customer can rely on each representative to give a good deal.

Optimized user experience. User experience is a huge factor in choosing to buy. Non-responsive and hard-to-use websites turn people away. Make sure your website is user-friendly through the navigation, homepage, and cart checkout. You want to make it a fun, easy experience. Aside from online experience, you also want to make sure customer support services are optimized. Using quality sales skills, salespeople can make for a troublesome user experience, one that will keep customers coming back.

Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales

Posted on | by Emi Lesser | Leave a Comment on Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales

Image with holiday items and title

When it comes to the holidays, we are all looking for that special offer or bonus to go along with our shopping. As a business this is the best time to pull out all the stops. To reap the benefits of the holiday season, businesses have to pull out all their best offer saving discounts and go total marketing on them.

As a business you’re going to want to take advantage of the holidays. Here are several ways in which you can rock the holiday season and boost your company’s sales.

Once November 1st hits let the holiday marketing begin. We suggest not going full blown Christmas quite yet though. Start out with thanksgiving themed marketing, leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales before heading into Christmas.

  1. Offer and Discount Ideas

    • Offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and promotions. Black Friday is huge and for online only businesses and services so is Cyber Monday. Capitalize on this opportunity.

    • Give out holiday-specific discounts or coupon codes such as entering code TURKEY30 to receive 30% off the order.

    • Offer time-limited sales to convey a sense of urgency. Example: Save 40% on Cyber Monday.

    • Offer free or low-cost shipping. Many people are turned away with the added cost of shipping. Close more deals by shipping for free or giving a discounted shipping price.

    • Create holiday gift packages – packages you can’t get any other time. Put together a package that includes items customers usually buy together or different items you offer that customers could then try out.

    • Offer a free holiday themed gift with a purchase. This will give buyers an extra incentive to buy and entice hesitant buyers.

    • Offer 2-for-1 products. The buyer gets to keep one for her/himself and give the other one as a gift.

    • Send out discounts on future purchases for all items bought during the holidays. Set yourself up for post-holiday success.

    • Team up with another business to create Christmas gift bundles. Combine your product and their product into a gift package.

    • FSL + Infofree offer

    • Send small gifts to your loyal customers. An inexpensive gift like a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine can show you care and puts your business at the top of their minds.

    • Offer flash deals and expedited shipping for last-minute shoppers.

    • Run a 12 Days of Christmas holiday promotion. Offer a different sale or discount or promote a different product each day leading up to Christmas.

    • Hold an advent calendar campaign. Offer a discount on one product per day throughout the entire Christmas season.

  1. Promote your holiday offers repeatedly. Don’t be afraid to share your sales and deals more than once. You want to make sure your promotions reach your potential customers.

  1. Content Marketing

    • Provide holiday-themed information to your target market. Direct social media posts and blog posts to holiday-themed information.

    • Create a holiday landing page where you can display gift ideas or discounts.

    • Update your social media covers to show some holiday cheer.

    • Thanksgiving FSL Header

    • Capture the holiday related search engine traffic by publishing content optimized for the season on your website.

    • Make your email template holiday themed.

    • Send holiday promotion emails with all your discounts. Send one right before Christmas too with last-minute gift ideas.

    • Send emails with your holiday offers including one promotion per email. Space these out accordingly.

    • Find gift guides in your industry and ask for your products to be included.

    • Include a holiday countdown ticker on your site. This will let visitors know exactly what day they need to order by to receive their products in time for Christmas.

    • Send your customers Christmas or New Year cards via mail or email.

Start planning and implementing your holiday marketing now! With your extra holiday efforts you’ll be selling like crazy.

Need more inspiration on how you can stand out to customers during the holiday season? Check out Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season for ideas!

Thanks to Kim Garst for the holiday themed ideas!