How to Stay Relevant to Buyers

Business owners and marketers can never rest no matter how many goals they achieve. They always have to be looking ahead, anticipating the market, upcoming trends, adapting to new technologies, communicating better improvements to products and services, and inventing innovative ways to launch the next new product or service.

Digital Technology is the lifeline of your business, stay updated

People are now using their mobile phones, tablets and laptops to research products and services before making buying decisions. They go to social media sites and ask for advice from friends and followers and/or subscribe to email newsletters while they contemplate their choices. If you aren't actively promoting and marketing your business on these devices and on social media sites, you are losing out on a huge segment of your potential buying market. Implement your marketing strategies using digital technology, review and assess it quarterly, and make necessary updates as needed. Be consistent. Too many small and medium sized businesses start out with great intentions, but then start slacking off and let things slide in their digital presence and marketing efforts.

Your website and promotions should be viewable on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. Keep this in mind when determining where to place your online ads. If you are targeting a mobile market, then don't pay for a site that doesn't have mobile design. Get the details on where you ads will be placed, on what devices, how will it be viewed and when. Ask for links once your ads go live.

The facts speak for themselves:

• 56% of adults are now smartphone users (Pew Research Internet Project, 2013)
• Of the 70% of shoppers who used their mobile phone while in a retail store during the holidays, 62% accessed that store's site or app (ForeSee, 2013)
• Retailers' apps with a store mode have 5 times more engagement (Point Inside, 2013)
• 80% of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while shopping in stores (Moosylvania, 2012)
• 50% of shoppers feel they are better informed than store associates (Motorola, 2013)
• 4 out of 5 consumers use smartphones to shop (comScore, 2012)
• 74% of U.S. consumers use location based services on their smartphones (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2012)
• Online retail spending grew by 14% in 2013 (comScore, 2014)
• Global e-commerce sales via mobile devices are projected to reach $638 billion by 2018 (Digiday, 2014)

Don't count followers, instead be relevant to the right customers at the right time
It doesn't matter if you have 200,000 Facebook or Twitter followers. Not all of them are going to want or need what you are selling--right now. Make sure you are available and easy to find online when they do need your products and services. For instance, people don't purchase cars, houses and furniture very often. If you start promoting to them when they aren't interested in buying, you will annoy them and many will unsubscribe or turn off your notifications. Instead, offer them accessories or an incentive to recommend your products or services to a friend. Give them a discount on maintenance. Find some other way to connect with them until they are buying again. Make sure you segment them in your database so you don't market to them as a potential buyer--especially if they have just purchased a big item from you. Give them some time.

Create great content covering every possible angle about your products and services and archive the posts as they age. When consumers begin researching, one of your archived pages could result in the search responses if you have indexed and tagged them well. If terminology has changed or you can provide better keywords, have an intern or someone go back through the archives and make them more relevant to your current customers.

Put yourself in your customers' shoes--what would convince you?
When I decided to buy a new car, the first thing I did was surf the Internet to see what was out there. I found some local dealers and then went to visit them. While test driving, I brought in printouts from their website on deals they were promoting and looked up competitive prices on my phone. I wanted a deal. What do your customers want?

Are all your locations honoring the promotions you have on your website? Be clear. This builds trust. Are you willing to honor a competitor's prices even if you have a different listing price? If so, make sure all your employees and associates know it. This can win over reluctant customers. Are your promotions so difficult that most customers aren't understanding how it works and you're getting a lot of questions? If so, you need to work on your messaging. Otherwise, it will make them feel like it isn't worth the trouble.

Be transparent, informative, detailed, and have competitive pricing. If your product or service is a higher price, you need to offer something that is "perceived" to be of higher value--more service, accessories or something to convince people why they should spend more. Keep in mind, you only have a short 30 second window or the first couple of lines of text to convince them in your promotional pieces.

Rebrand older products and services--a facelift can breathe new lif e
When people see the same images, colors, logos and brand for years, they can become desensitized to it no matter how innovative and inventive your updates and marketing strategies. A visual change is necessary in order for them to see and recognize the updates to your products and services.

Companies can outgrow their current brand because they have added other services and products that aren't represented in the older version of their brand or the product becomes irrelevant due to changing technologies. Even if you don't do a rebrand for the product or service, you can rebrand your website, the graphic design and videos you have traditionally used to promote them and go with a new marketing design and concept. Breathe fresh life into your approach and it can make a difference in how consumers respond.

Old-fashioned ingenuity-develop quality, creative & necessary products before competitors
Some things never change in spite of all the changes around us. You can have the best marketing strategies in place with an unlimited budget, but if your product or service isn't something people want and it doesn't meet a need or solve a problem, people will not buy it. This is the ultimate key to being relevant. Each time you bring out a new product or service or update an existing one, you need to be able to answer these questions:
1) Who will want or need it?
2) How will it benefit them?
3) What other options are available? Competition?

Nothing beats having a quality product that everyone wants.