The 3 C's
Today’s consumer is bombarded by messages, overdosed by content, receiving information in real time as fast as the speed of light. If you own your own company, how do you stand out in such a crowded marketplace.
Easy! The 3 C’s!
Consistency
Contact
Connection
Consistency
Being consistent with your message means every day, not once a week. This is where owners I work with overthink. Your content does not have to be lengthy, it needs to be consistent. Here is an example: Let’s say you have chosen You Tube as one of your social platforms you are going to utilize to help market your business. I think this should be your number one platform for one simple reason: It’s the number 2 search engine behind Google.
Post a short video first thing in the morning. Use your cell phone and walk and talk inside your building, office or store. Ask someone to volunteer to say “good morning” to your audience and let them know what your upcoming day looks like. It does not have to be a long video, you do not need to add graphics. Do it in the morning when you’re fresh and if you want to plan out a video per day for the week, you can do that or even do all of them at one time and post them daily. Being consistent on your chosen platform will help you to gain traction. Be creative, one video may show you greeting everyone in the morning. The next video maybe you at your computer, looking at an article that your customers will find of interest and summing up the content for them very quickly and simply.
If it’s nice outside, go outside and shoot your store or your employees standing outside waiving or yelling your tag line. Being consistent also means keeping your videos relevant, helpful, entertaining, educational, etc. Your videos could be as simple as you in front of a white dry erase board with a big question mark and you beginning by saying, “Today’s question is ______________. Then answer the question and thank your audience for watching. Remind them to subscribe to your You Tube channel and like your video. That’s engagement, that’s being consistent, that’s being an effective marketer.
When you think about consistency, think about being consistent on one platform versus trying to be relevant on several platforms. Consistency pays off, the age-old adage “concentration is the key to success” applies here.
Contact
Contacting your customer is essential for customer retention. If they know you, they won’t quit you. How do you contact new customers? Research. You need to know about them before you can ever ask them for their business. Ask for permission to contact them, ask them a preference? E-Mail, text, newsletter, etc. but don’t make it intrusive. If you pressure someone to sign up for newsletter and they never read it, what have you accomplished? And if you are going to use Newsletters, don’t schedule them on a monthly basis. Yearly or Quarterly work just fine. This gives you time to develop relevant content that your customers want to read.
There are so many ways to stay in contact with your customer. Send them a birthday card, offer them tickets to events that someone offers you. Conduct free workshops on the weekends for your clients. Recognize them if they are recognized. If you have a sale, let them know. If you have something you know that would be interested in purchasing from you, call them on the phone and let them know. Get to know them, my old boss use to always ask me about my customers. “Do you know their dog’s name?” he would ask.
Not everyone will want to be that close to you, read them, always make them feel comfortable, don’t over engage with them. Always ask for permission and be pleasantly persistent. If you know they are serious about a cause, help volunteer or contribute a small amount. Be involved in the community where your business is located. You don’t have to be heavily involved in your community, just be present from time to time. If your customers see you, they are reminded why the do business with you.
Connection
Connecting with your customers is a science. Each of them is different, think of them as you would your children, if you have sons or daughters. All your children are your children but each of them is so different from the others. Your customers are the same way, each of them wants to interact with you differently. Understand how they want to connect, and you will gain connection points in different places on different subjects. Connecting with your customer is so critical to your success. You must win their hearts and their minds by going out of your way, to make them happy. Some customers are more demanding than others. Don’t forget the customer that always pays on time and never complains. You can’t have enough of these types of clients. Your marketing needs to connect with your present and future customers, once you have started marketing in a certain direction, do not change course. It takes such a long time to breakthrough to your customers about all the things you offer or can help them with. Be consistent with your message. Contact them so they do not forget you. And connect with them so they won’t forget you.
Written by Tracy C. Smith