5 Tips for Customer Retention

 

It’s no secret that it’s more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to keep current ones. According to a study by Lee Resource, Inc., attracting new customers can cost your company 5 times more than keeping an existing customer. Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer, and repeat customers are much more likely to tell their friends and family about your business. Follow our tips to make the most of your customer retention strategy:

1. Listen to your customers. You can’t simply assume you know what your customers want, so ask them! Use social media, surveys, or even email them and ask how they think you’re doing. Offer an incentive like a 10% discount to get them talking. Generally they’ll be glad to tell you what’s on their mind, especially since it ultimately benefits them as well.

2. Admit mistakes… and make them right! Recent studies show that 84% of customers who experience poor service will tell their friends about that negative experience. Accept responsibility and work toward finding a solution. When you address complaints as soon as possible, your service will reflect positively on your business and can result in even better brand loyalty and advocacy.

3. Loyalty discounts and promotions. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing discounts only to bring in new customers while existing customers are left out. Make established customers feel special and appreciated by offering special savings and rewards just for them.

4. Connect with customers online and off. Create engagement and get people involved on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Give online fans a chance to connect with the “face behind the brand”. Offline, let your customers know you remember them. For example, sending personal greeting cards for birthdays or holidays is a great way to show current customers you remember appreciate them.

5. Give ‘em what they want – great service! Above all, treat your customers the way you would want to be treated. Always seek to provide stellar service because this will encourage your clients to keep coming back and benefit you in the long run. True customer service can ultimately make or break your business.

Does your business have a customer retention strategy in place? What are you doing to ensure repeat business? Share with us in the comments!

 

 

5 Tips for Customer Retention

Using Current Events in Your Marketing Strategy

Using current events, like holidays and special appreciation days, are a great way to market your business. Smart businesses know that you can’t wait for your customers to come to you. Instead, put your business in front of them in fun and interesting ways by using current themes in your marketing campaigns. 

Sponsor Local Events

Why spend millions of dollars tying your name to a national event like the Super Bowl when your target audience is probably found within a 25 or 30 mile radius of your office? Farmers’ markets, local baseball championships, school bake sales, animal adoption events, 5k races — all of these are ripe for sponsorship opportunities. You reap the benefits of local advertising and marketing exposure while also boosting your brand’s reputation as a local company doing good.

Market Around Unusual Events

Did you know that there’s a National Air Conditioning Appreciation Week every year in August? (Go ahead and Google it!) Okay, it wasn’t exactly designated by an act of Congress, but it’s still a fun and memorable opportunity to reach out to your customers and prospects.  In the future, you could send out radius mailers highlighting this special event, offer discounts for work performed or ordered that week, or even give away donuts or other baked goods to celebrate the “holiday.” All of these can help make your typical marketing piece stand out.

Other unusual events around the year include the Autumnal Equinox (the beginning of fall), Get Organized Week (October – great time to highlight winter HVAC maintenance), and even National Hugging Day (January 21).

National Small Business Week and Small Business Saturday

National Small Business Week is a nationwide, SBA-sponsored conference and movement to recognize the importance of small businesses to the American economy and American culture. It’s another wonderful opportunity to showcase your status as a small business and encourage your customers and prospects to turn to you for their HVAC needs as a way of supporting all small businesses.

Small Business Saturday was launched by American Express to promote small retailers on the Saturday after Thanksgiving every year. However, it’s since grown to become a national movement to promote small businesses in general year-round. The finance company has created an enormous community across all the major social media networks to support this initiative, and anyone can join and take advantage of the exposure and marketing advice specifically designed for small business owners.

What current event opportunities have you found that work for your marketing? Share with us in the comments!

Image via Deviant Art (Creative Commons Licensed)

Using Current Events in Your Marketing Strategy

Social Video Marketing: Vine vs Instagram

 

Social video for marketing is on the rise. Smart businesses know that video marketing is all about engaging your target audience and promoting your brand. Enter Vine and Instagram Video. Vine is the micro-video platform owned by Twitter and introduced in January of this year. In these first few months, Vine has enjoyed amazing growth with over 14 million mobile users and 5 new Vine videos uploaded to Twitter every second. In June, Instagram (owned by Facebook) got in on the social video craze by releasing its own video app (also known as ‘Instagram Video’ or ‘Instavideo’). Upon its release, Instagram Video saw 5 million videos uploaded in the first 24 hours. These statistics show that users love social video and it’s definitely worth your while to take advantage of this market. So, which platform is best for marketing your small business? Well, both have their benefits and are great for brand awareness, but it all comes down to which features and platform you prefer. Let’s take a look at each as we compare Vine and Instagram Video:

Vine

• Six-second video duration


• Sharable to Twitter and Facebook and embeddable to websites and blogs


• Front-facing camera option


• Looping capabilities


• Auto play and geo-tagging features


• Recently added limited video tools for improved ease of use, channels to organize Vines, and Revines for sharability by other users

Instagram

• 15-second video duration


• Sharable to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare


• Front-facing camera, camera filters, stabilization tool


• Editing capabilities


• Auto play, geo-tagging, and photo map features


• Not embeddable and no looping capabilities

 

If you’re unsure which platform is best for you, try both. They’re both free, and are relatively simple to use. Some people like the brevity and editing restrictions of Vine, while others prefer the lengthier, feature rich medium of Instagram. You can also expect to see more features roll out from each in the near future as the social video apps continue to grow. Social video marketing is great for showcasing your brand and engaging your audience, and both Vine and Instagram Video can do just that.

 Image by Matt Nazario-Miller via Flickr.com

Social Video Marketing: Vine vs Instagram

10 Social Media Marketing Terms You Need to Know

 

Small business owners are quickly learning the importance of marketing their businesses on social media networks and reaching out to new markets. The Internet changes at the speed of light and new social media marketing terms are popping up all the time. These are more than just hip buzzwords; these words define social media marketing. You’ve got to be up to speed on the latest social media lingo and trends to make the most of your social media strategy. To help, we’ve created this list of the biggest marketing terms in social media marketing right now that you need to know:

1. Social Media Optimization (SMO): The creation of online content that is likely to be shared through social networks. Think SEO for social media channels.

2. Algorithm: System that suggests pages to search engines in response to a search query.

3. Edge Rank: Facebook’s news feed algorithm. It determines what content gets seen by Facebook users.

4. People Talking About This (PTAT): Social actions that users are taking that include your page and/or posts, including sharing, liking, and commenting.

5. Social Lead Generation: Generating sales prospects via social networks. This is the same as traditional prospecting except that it takes place on social media channels.

6. Social Graph: A visual representation of the different connections that an individual has within a larger social network. Shows who everyone is connected to and how – great for determining key influencers and brand champions.

7. Klout: Free web service that measures your influence on the Internet by measuring your interactions with other users of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, and more.

8. Social Synergy: Two or more social entities working together to create something larger than either of their own individual efforts could. In other words, teamwork online.

9. User Generated Content (UGC): Content created by fans or followers that pertains to your brand/product.

This is content that fans/customers/followers have created that pertains to your brand/product/event – See more at: http://rockstar-digital.com/2013/06/18/10-social-media-buzz-words-you-need-to-know-part-2/#sthash.gQVUIBPi.dpuf

10. Sharablility: How engaging a piece of content is and how likely your fans/followers are to share it with their own social connections.

Without a doubt, new terms are being coined right now to reflect new concepts in social media marketing. What social media terms do you find difficult to understand?

 

Image via Flickr.com

how engaging a piece of content is and how apt your user base is to share it with their friends/followers. – See more at: http://rockstar-digital.com/2013/06/18/10-social-media-buzz-words-you-need-to-know-part-2/#sthash.gQVUIBPi.dpuf

 

shows who everyone is connected to and how,

shows who everyone is connected to and how,

 

 

10 Social Media Marketing Terms You Need to Know