Celebrating the Customer this Small Business Week Posted on May 6, 2015June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk It’s National Small Business Week, and we wanted to focus on small business’s most powerful asset – their customer base. There are so many reasons to love small business, including the fact that more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and small businesses create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year. Doing business with small business makes you feel like part of a friendly community – whether it’s the neighborhood small engine repair shop you visit each spring for your lawn mower tune up, or that online retailer in another state that creates the one-of-a-kind handmade collars Fido always gets for his birthday. You love that the repair shop owner knows you by name and that you always get a handwritten thank you note from the online retailer. It’s those personal relationships that drive repeat customers and small business success. According to a report by Manta and Dell, 37% of small business owners rank getting repeat customers as their most important business milestone. So, if you’re a small business owner, you may not have celebrated that first sale or the first profitable year as much as you celebrated that first repeat customer. Why Loyal Customers Rock Your World Loyal, repeat customers drive small businesses and help entrepreneurs to turn their small business dreams into reality. Here’s how: Customer Lifetime Value: The more repeat purchases customers make with your company, the more customer lifetime value will increase across your entire customer base. Built-In Referral System: Repeat customers have obviously had a good experience with your business, and you can bet that they’re sending new business your way. Predictable Revenue: Instead of starting from scratch each month to attract new customers, repeat buyers can help you maintain a more dependable revenue stream. Creating Loyal Customers and Repeat Buyers Leveraging marketing technology, like an integrated CRM and marketing automation system can help you create even more of those revenue-driving raving fans for your business. Send personalized content: Personalized email isn’t just for prospects in your sales funnel. You want to stay top of mind with your current customers as well. Use their purchase history, webpage tracking, and CRM activity to send super-relevant emails their way. Upsell: Returning customers spend on average 20% more than first time customers. With purchase history at hand in your CRM, you can connect with your current customers to offer an upgrade on their current product or service. Cross-sell: Do they love the red mittens? Then they’ll probably love the red hat. Make sure your customers know about products and services related to their past purchases. Use your customers’ purchase history to send email campaigns related to other products they may love. Offer perks: According to SumAll, a customer who has only purchased from you once has a 27% chance of returning, while a customer who has purchased from you three times has a 54% chance of returning. Want to keep good customers coming back? Offer a discount, perk or reward. Giving away a little can go a long way in earning customer loyalty. Ask for referrals: While your customers are likely sending referrals your way, it never hurts to ask. Offering an incentive, like swag, a gift card or a discount can further entice your happy customers to send you more business. Affiliate software, like LeadDyno, can help manage your referral program. Ask for reviews: It’s become second nature to do research online before making a purchase, whether you’re buying a new home, investing in business software, or just going out to eat. Positive reviews from your customers are the third-party validation your prospects need to take the next steps with your business. Give thanks: Your customers are the reason you get to come to work each day and build something amazing. Let them know that you love them back with a simple thank you every now and then. Are you dedicating enough marketing dollars to get repeat customers through the door? Research indicates that 25% of your marketing budget should go toward attracting returning customers. While small businesses get the spotlight this week, it’s the perfect time to look at how you’re marketing to your customers, because you can’t celebrate small businesses without celebrating the customers that grow small business dreams.
The Small Business Playmakers You Need on Your Team Posted on March 10, 2015June 1, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Like a college basketball recruiter courting the best players to get their team to the NCAA championship, small business owners can use personas to attract their best customers – winning more deals with less effort. With personas, you can uncover the motivations and challenges of the very best customers within your customer base. Then, you can develop targeted messaging to recruit more customers who are just like them. Identify and create personas for these small business playmakers to attract the right type of customer (and repel the wrong type of customer) for your business: The MVP There is no “I” in team, but there’s always that one key player – Most Valuable Player – that coaches wish they could clone. The same goes for your customers. You have customers of all kinds, but you can probably name your “Most Valuable Customers.” Your MVCs are the customers you wish you had more of. This ideal buyer spends more money with your company, sticks with you longer, and has less gripes. The Playmaker There’s no great team without a great point guard. A great floor general in basketball knows when to the pass the ball. The same is true for your playmaking ideal buyers. Not only is your solution a great fit for them, but they are raving fans of your business. They know when to pass the word to others who could benefit from your solution set. A big part of boosting your bottom line without adding a lot of manpower is through word-of-mouth referrals. Attracting the right type of customer means that they’ll be more satisfied with your business. They’ll talk about you in all of the right places – from online forums and review sites to networking events with their peers. The Sharpshooter Like the playmaker, your sharpshooter customer knows how to use your business product like a champ. Unlike the playmaker, you don’t hear from this player all that much. However, when you call on this customer to help you score, they don’t disappoint. The sharpshooter steps up when you make the call, whether it’s to take a customer feedback survey, be a customer reference or to provide a testimonial. Low maintenance with high return, the sharpshooter is one of your most efficient customer personas. The Shot Blocker On your team, the shot blocker is great. They reject your competition and swat away challengers, setting up fast break business conversions. On the flip side, trying to recruit a die-hard shot blocker from another team is your most difficult business play. Full of objections and rejections, their loyalty to a competitor can’t be penetrated. You can spend a lot of time trying to score a shot blocker, when often times, there’s better players to work with. The Ball Hog When you’re playing to win, a rotten player can sour the whole team. Most coaches would rather have a team of less talented, but scrappy, players who work together to win, than a gifted ball hog who, in his quest to attain glory, puts the whole team in peril. Think about those customers who suck time away from your other customers – and suck the life out of you. These are the types of customers that you can never seem to make happy. They are quickly dissatisfied and quick to leave your business in their dust. Just as important as attracting all-star customers to your business, persona marketing helps you throw down the gauntlet and make it clear who you are NOT for. A great example of persona marketing is Planet Fitness. Their “No Lunks Allowed” campaign clearly hammers their stake in the ground. Through their marketing, they create a welcoming environment for the average, everyman gym-goer, while at the same time creating a hostile environment for what “they” consider grunting gym rats. Persona marketing is working for the gym. In 2014, they landed on the Forbes best franchise list with a growth rate of 26%. They also received an “A” for franchisor support. Focusing on the right customer – and excluding the wrong customer – is a play for growth. Persona-based marketing can help you attract the right type of customer, turning your customers into playmakers for your small business. For the busy small business owner, recruiting the right customers can feel like marketing madness. That’s why we’ve put together a simple guide for the small business owner that wants to up their marketing game. From building personas to creating the right content, we’ll help you attract and convert more of the right prospects into ideal customers. Download the Content Marketing Playbook to start drawing up better plays for your business.
How to Love On Your Audience in 2015 Posted on February 11, 2015 by Jessica Lunk This year, getting more personal with your audience is more important than ever before. Reuven Gorsht introduces us to Mike, your consumer in 2015: Mike never loses sight of his iPhone. He’s very opinionated and not afraid to share his opinion using his social media channels (whether good or bad). He doesn’t trust advertising and only connects with brands that he feels are authentic and stand for higher purpose. So how do you connect with Mike and the rest of your audience members who are just like him? Leverage Personalized Email Marketing 63% of female and 73% of male smartphone owners in the US don’t go an hour without checking their phone. This means that they’re also tied 24/7 to their email. With email so attached, so integrated with our favorite device, it is an extremely powerful business tool. But, with all of the competition for your consumer’s attention, you’re tasked with cutting through the white noise of a crowded inbox. Instead of sending the same blanket newsletter to everyone on your list, get Mike’s attention with email marketing that addresses his unique interests. Download our guide to personalized email marketing for a few ideas on how to reach your entire audience on an individual level. Turn Customers into Raving Fans 34% of consumers have turned to social media to share their feelings about a company. Consumers are quick to share products they like, and also quick to express dissatisfaction with a disappointing experience. In addition, 51% of consumers aim to influence others when they express their preferences online – and believe me, these peer-to-peer recommendations carry a lot of clout. Creating an awesome customer experience can go far to promote your small brand and business. Fumbling on the customer service side can cause consumers to air their grievances publicly. Channel good social media mojo and surprise and delight your customers. Here’s how to turn them into raving fans of your brand: Send swag to your most enthusiastic customers. Say thanks by inviting top customers to an exclusive event. Share a hot resource with your customers for free. Unveil a behind-the-scenes look at your latest product or service. As you continue to nurture, surprise and delight your customers, they’ll be happy to refer their expansive social networks your way. Align to Your Mission More than 88% of consumers think companies should try to achieve their business goals while improving society and the environment. Mission and purpose can set your small business apart from the pack – even from the competition you may have with large players in your market. Defining your mission and your purpose starts at the leadership level, but to truly impact your organization, your mission needs to trickle down to every member of your team. At Hatchbuck, our mission is to provide small businesses with easy-to-use, affordable sales and marketing software so they can grow. Everyone at Hatchbuck knows what our mission is, and we come to work each day not with the goal of selling more software, but with the higher purpose to help small businesses grow. So, when our customers talk to Jamie in sales, when they train with Lindsey their Hatchbuck Consultant, and when they call Eric for support, they receive a unified experience from team members who are all aligned to the same purpose. It’s one of the big reasons why our customers love us. Give Value to Gain Trust 75% of consumers don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisement. Consumers aren’t prone to fall blindly in love with your brand right off the bat. It’s going to take a greater effort on your part to gain their trust. Instead of focusing on selling, focus on adding value to your audience. The more helpful resources you can give away, the more good will you can build so that you’re the first brand your audience turns to when they’re ready to buy. You don’t have to have a large team or an unlimited budget to show your audience the love this year. Build individual relationships through personalized email, surprise and delight your customers, align your business to an overarching mission and purpose, and add value to your audience to gain their trust. With these simple tweaks, you’ll find your audience sending the love right back atcha.