Tips For Improving Your Small Business Finances In The New Year Posted on January 18, 2017 by Guest Author A Guest Post by Katie Alteri, Content Marketing Manager at Fora Financial. As a small business owner, it’s important to always be thinking ahead. Above all else, before you start making plans and building strategies, you need to ensure that your small business finances are in order. Maybe in the next quarter you’d like to expand a business location, purchase more inventory or hire additional employees. These are great goals to set, and they will likely benefit your business. Unfortunately, without knowing whether or not you can afford these plans, it will be difficult to execute them. In this post, we’ll offer seven strategies for ensuring that your finances are bigger and better in the year to come! 1. Reassess your budget. As you prepare your business for another year, you should review your budget and see if any revisions need to be made. Frequently updating your business budget will allow you to responsibly manage your finances, and confirm that you’re putting them towards things that your business needs. Plus, it will likely keep you from overspending! 2. Cut back on unnecessary costs. After going through your small business’s budget, determine areas that you are overspending on. This could be marketing initiatives that aren’t generating leads, or purchasing excess inventory that is going to waste. Whatever these costs are, it is likely that your business’s money could be put to better use. 3. Get ready for tax season. We hate to put a damper on your holiday cheer; but tax season will be here before you know it. Why not get a head start by compiling all of the necessary forms and information you’ll need to file your business’s taxes? Review deadlines, make sure financial reports are up-to-date and keep business and personal filings separate. If you get a head start now, you’ll be stress-free when April comes around. 4. Don’t forget about discounts. There are plenty of discounts and programs that small business owners can take advantage of! Make saving easy by using websites like Ebates, which has a wide range of deals to choose from. Joining a business organization for professionals in your industry can also be beneficial. Many of these associations provide their members with discounted rates for office supplies, travel sites and other business-related expenses. You’ll gain valuable networking opportunities, and save money in the process; it’s a win-win! 5. Set goals, and tackle them. Almost everyone vows to accomplish goals at the start of the New Year. Unfortunately, many people lose sight of the rewards that come with finishing what they started within weeks or months. It can be difficult to keep yourself honest when working towards something, and this is no exception for small business owners. Maybe you want to save up to open an additional location, or you want to double your sales revenue from the previous year. In order to bring these ideas to fruition, you’ll need the finances to make it happen. Write down your financial objectives, and devise a plan. Then, share it with a few trusted colleagues! They can keep you accountable and encourage you along the way. 6. Reflect on seasonal changes. If you run a seasonal business, it is especially imperative that you account for the off-season when you’re not producing sales. Start brainstorming ways that you can make extra cash during the off season, keep a list of tasks you need to complete before opening for the next season and consider what costs will factor into these preparations. You’ll thank yourself when opening day arrives and you’re feeling financially safe. 7. Consider applying for working capital. If you have projects you’d like to start in the New Year, or simply want to have extra cash flow available, your business could benefit from applying for additional working capital. Make sure to have your monthly sales volume and other important financial information ready to supply to a lender. Again, being organized will certainly help speed up this process, and it will be less hectic than pursuing a bank loan! It’s a new year, but that doesn’t mean you should fall into previous bad habits. By taking control of your small business’s finances now, you’ll be able to set the tone for a strong 2017. About the Author Katie Alteri is the content marketing coordinator at Fora Financial, a company that provides working capital solutions to small businesses across the U.S. Fora Financial can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Hatchbuck Secures $4 Million In Series A Funding To Fuel Growth And Innovation Posted on January 17, 2017 by Jessica Lunk ST. LOUIS, MO – January 17, 2017 – Hatchbuck, an innovative and easy-to-use sales and marketing software for small businesses, today announced the completion of a $4 million Series A round of financing which includes $850,000 received earlier in 2016. Investors include Cultivation Capital, Holekamp Ventures, PinPoint Holdings, Holton Capital, Robert R. Hermann Jr., and Missouri Technology Corporation. Rick Holton of Holton Capital and Cultivation Capital will join Hatchbuck’s Board of Directors. The investment brings Hatchbuck’s total funding to $8.7 million and will help the company aggressively expand its sales and marketing efforts as well as accelerate product development. “Hatchbuck is already recognized as an industry leader in the small business sales and marketing space. This A round financing will give management the resources they need to continue their impressive record of servicing their clients and growing the company,” said Cliff Holekamp of Holekamp Ventures Hatchbuck is an all-in-one sales and marketing software that enables small businesses to nurture prospects, reach new customers and retain existing ones. A key aspect to the software is that it unites CRM (customer relationship management) and marketing automation into one simple and affordable platform. Thousands of small business users and marketing agencies rely on Hatchbuck’s sales and marketing platform to nurture millions of prospects and customers each month. CEO Don Breckenridge is eager to fuel product innovations and further expand Hatchbuck’s customer base. “We’re passionate about helping small businesses drive more sales conversations, convert more customers, and streamline their sales and marketing process. This round of funding will enable Hatchbuck to grow our software so we can help more small businesses take their sales and marketing to the next level,” says Breckenridge. A leader in St. Louis’ growing tech scene, Hatchbuck has also been recognized nationally by Gartner, G2Crowd, and TrustRadius as a leading solution for SMBs. A major reason for the recognition is Hatchbuck’s simplicity paired with its customer-centric approach to helping small businesses get the most out of their investment and drive results. “Hatchbuck’s training and support is phenomenal,” says Stephen Wynkoop, Chief Executive Officer for vConferenceOnline. “The platform is easy to use and has been crucial in putting an efficient sales and marketing process in place for our business. We’ve decreased our sales cycle by 50% and seen an increase in sales by more than 20%. In addition, our support systems are functioning more efficiently because we’re using campaigns to onboard and educate new customers.” Hatchbuck serves small businesses in multiple industries including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, business & professional services. With the new funds, Hatchbuck plans to ignite product development and expand its user base, ensuring that small businesses get the resources they need to succeed and grow. About Hatchbuck Hatchbuck is sales and marketing software for small business that makes it easy to nurture prospects and customers and drive more sales. The company’s software combines email marketing, CRM and marketing automation to turn emails into conversations, website visitors into handshakes, and customers into raving fans. Hatchbuck believes small businesses deserve easy to use, affordable sales and marketing software to cultivate their growth. For more information, go to www.benchmarkone.com. For inquiries, please email media@benchmarkone.com.
Are You Sacrificing Customer Service for Performance? Posted on January 16, 2017August 5, 2022 by Erin Posey Successful businesses are great at two things: excelling at customer service to drive repeat business and generating new sales. But for many businesses, it can be tough to find ways to bring in new customers while continuing to provide individualized and in-depth customer service. So what’s the solution? A small business CRM can ensure that sales and customer service coexist in perfect harmony. The Zen of CRM One of the reasons that small businesses may be hesitant to invest in customer management software is the idea that it may make things overly complex. However, when used correctly, part of the brilliance of good CRM is that it actually makes things much simpler. CRM can be customized to collect and analyze only the information you see fit, all while allowing those in sales and marketing access to what they need as soon as they need it. Imagine if instead of waiting for sales to update a spreadsheet so you can send out your marketing newsletter to all of your latest customers, you had the information right at your fingertips in your CRM. While those old spreadsheets feel familiar, making the leap to a customer relationship management system can result in a simplified, clean, and efficient workflow – the very opposite of cluttered complexity. [Tweet “”While old spreadsheets feel familiar, making the leap to a CRM can result in a better workflow.””] CRM: The Missing Ingredient in Customer Service In a world filled with distractions competing for your customers attention, it can be a struggle to stand out from the crowd. Excellent customer service can be the secret ingredient to wowing your customers, keeping your business top-of-mind and generating word-of-mouth buzz that results in sales. [Tweet “”#CRM software can help you execute the perfect recipe for customer service that stands out.””] Customer management software can help you execute the perfect recipe for customer service that stands out. For instance, being able to quickly and easily track customers’ history of interactions with your business can help build customer loyalty by: Delivering the right sales offer at the right time, whether it’s a renewal, upgrade, add-on or compatible solution Speeding up the troubleshooting process for customers with issues. Ultimately, CRM can help you become a one-stop shop for their specific needs. CRM As A Sales Resource Of course, one of the chief benefits of CRM is the ability to boost your company’s performance when it comes to sales and marketing. With a well-oiled CRM, both sales and marketing have access to clean, accurate data about customers and prospects. Marketing can identify and nurture qualified leads and deliver them to sales – speeding up the whole sales process. At the same time, sales can reduce time-consuming follow-up and manual task management. [Tweet “”With a well-oiled CRM, your team has access to clean data about customers and prospects.””] Instead of tracking sticky notes and spreadsheets, your sales team can easily identify the hottest leads and work on deals that matter. It might feel like going all-in on sales and marketing means that you have to make sacrifices in customer service and vice-versa. But when it comes to CRM, the opposite is true. Investing in CRM for marketing, sales and customer service enhances the entire customer lifecycle and will continue to pay off for the long haul. For instance, the data you gather over time can give you valuable insights about what your best customers prefer. In turn, you can modify your sales and marketing process to attract more lucrative, loyal fans just like them. Ultimately, you can: Increase user adoption of your solutions Improve the perceived value of your solutions among your customer base Develop field-level insights that make each team member more productive and profitable in their role When it comes to customer service and sales, you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other. CRM serves as the perfect bridge between the these two integral elements of your business.
How To Easily Build An Employer Brand That Attracts Job Candidates Posted on January 13, 2017July 12, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick If you’re doing things right as a small business owner then your business is likely growing. Which means you have been successful with building your consumer brand’s reputation in your target market. Your products and services get great reviews, word-of-mouth referrals, social media shout-outs and you’re building an outstanding brand reputation. All of that is great—for sales. But in order to continue growing, you need to focus on building your employer brand too. Why? Because your small business needs talent, and you need it continually. Likely you’re looking for the best talent—which means you’re competing with lots of other growing businesses for a variety of qualified people. I know what you’re thinking: “my business is too small, too esoteric to compete with the big guys for the best talent.” Think again. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses provide two out of every three American jobs and—fortunately—many people want to work at a small company. In fact a recent survey from Monster.com found that 47 percent of Millennials—the largest generation in the workforce today—are employed by small businesses. However, in order to win the competitive race for rockstar candidates you need to foster and grow your employer brand. Employer brand is a term coined in the mid-1990s when London Business School examined how marketing principles we use to attract consumers could be applied to the employment marketplace. And because the talent market is increasingly tight, HR departments are now in the business of marketing their companies to job seekers. So if you’re looking to better communicate your brand as an employer and attract today’s brightest candidates follow these simple strategies. Know and tell. People like good stories, and that includes a good story about the company at which they are employed or want to be employed. The thing is, you can’t tell a great story about your company if it isn’t, actually, a great place to work. Involve your employees. The first step in knowing and then telling your business’ story is to do an employer brand audit. It sounds complicated but it’s not. Instead, it should just be an informal look at why your business is a great place to work. Meet with your employees (or a select group) and use that as a focus group to brainstorm a list of things that make your company unique and a desirable place to work. Use the results to craft your story. Take the results of that session and craft a story about your company that includes what is noteworthy and positive about the culture, the business’ mission and values, and the tangible and intangible perks—flex work schedule, for example, lots of autonomy, or the taco truck that comes to the office on Tuesdays. Emphasize aspects of small business culture. For instance, a small company may not be able to offer as many opportunities for working up the ladder to the C-suite, but they can offer the ability to expose employees to a more varied and diverse set of tasks and responsibilities, as well as more leadership responsibility sooner in that employee’s career. Small businesses can be talent incubators in a way larger corporations can’t. Show, don’t tell. I know, it seems like we’re contradicting ourselves, but we’re not. Once you have told the story of your company internally and in your recruitment materials, it’s time to show the world how great you are. It’s one thing to say on your website, or to potential candidates, or while networking, that your business is a fun place to work; that your employees really do have a good time and enjoy each working together. It’s another thing to actually show that and share it on social media. Visual proof is a key to recruiting, especially with Gen Y and Z. So share photos and videos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Tumblr, LinkedIn, your website, your blog. Everywhere your company has a presence online is an opportunity for you to show the world your business’ culture and values. Big foosball tourney on Friday? Post a 15 second clip. Is the company president speaking at an industry event? Post photos and a link to the entire presentation on YouTube. Your company’s story can be told in photos, videos, and yes, even in 140-character updates. Keep abreast of—and respond to—employee reviews. Same as you likely do for your brand on sites like Yelp or on Google My Business pages, you have to keep abreast of what’s being said about you in employment review platforms such as Glassdoor and CareerBliss. If you see negative feedback, don’t just chalk it up to sour grapes and move on—others thinking about working for your company are reading those reviews and usually won’t discount them. Seek out the employee who wrote it or thank the writer for their feedback and let them know the information will help you to improve. And then, truly use the information to improve. Even the sourest grapes can have a kernel of truth in them. As a small business, you never know when you’ll need to recruit your newest talent so making sure you’re consistently keeping your audience abreast of what’s going on in your company is vital. Rather than doing a last minute social push right before posting job opportunities, stay on a regular schedule. It’ll make your small business more authentic to not only candidates but your customers as well.
The Best Guerilla Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses Posted on January 12, 2017November 3, 2022 by Jeanna Barrett The term guerrilla marketing refers to inexpensive, unconventional and innovative marketing tactics that are great for businesses to drive massive engagement and buzz on a limited budget. Coined in the 1984 book “Guerrilla Advertising” by Jay Conrad Levinson, the term piggybacks on the idea of guerrilla warfare by the military where they use tactics such as raids, ambushes and surprise attacks. We’ve gathered some of the best (and cheapest) guerrilla marketing ideas for small businesses so you can shed boring traditional marketing strategies and create memorable campaigns in the eyes of your target audience. Clever Sandwich Boards If you follow some of the most popular comedic Instagram accounts such as Beige Cardigan, you’ve likely seen photos of funny sandwich boards. Businesses have used chalk and a sidewalk to make jokes about everything from Tinder and politics to tacos and whiskey. Image Credit: Refined Guy Funny sandwich boards can make any passersby laugh, post pictures to social media, and ultimately step through your doors and purchase. Sandwich boards are an easy, fun and inexpensive way to promote your business in your neighborhood. Unique Infographics Infographics are liked and shared on social media three times more than other any other type of content, therefore they are an awesome way to attract visits to your website and eyeballs to your brand. An infographic usually uses data to visually represent a set of ideas in an interesting manner. You can either gather data yourself by surveying your customers, or you can take a unique and fun idea that compliments your brand or product and search for statistics on the web to build out your infographic. Then find an inexpensive infographic designer on Fivrr to make your infographic concept come to life. Smart Coasters If you own a bar or a restaurant, your customers are likely spending their entire meal with a coaster in front of them. Oftentimes customers will pick up coasters to read them or write on them. Coasters can be a great place to add a surprising or innovative marketing idea that your customers are guaranteed to see. Image Credit: Creative Guerrilla Marketing If you’re a B2B small business, you can still create guerrilla coasters, like St. Louis-based marketing agency, Spoke, did to promote their client appreciation event. Landscape Takeovers Guerilla marketing campaigns are often manipulating urban landscapes in some way — through subway signs, bus stop ads, crazy window displays, yarn bombing, sidewalk chalk or spray paint. Think about the area surrounding your business — how might you utilize it to create an engaging, surprising advertisement that makes people stop and think? Surprising Flash Mobs Flash mobs are when a group of people come together unexpectedly in public and start to perform for surrounding crowds. But don’t stress about performing yourself — your business can hire local high school and college drama or music students to perform the flashmob. Just be sure to think about how you can incorporate your brand into the flashmob through signs, T-shirts or facepaint. If you need some inspiration, check out the 7 best flash mobs of all time. Attention-Grabbing Business Cards Think about how many opportunities you have to pass out a business card — whether at a networking event, bar, conference or social gathering, a lot of people might ask for your business card. If you had a snazzy business card that made people laugh or contemplate something they hadn’t thought about before, it would leave an impression. We love this collective of 30 unconventional business cards. Image Credit: Mashable Free Stuff Think about the last time you heard of a business giving away something free — there was likely a line around the door. It seems to be human nature for people to love free things. A lot of big brands have utilized this guerilla marketing technique such as Subway giving away food on National Sandwich Day and 7-Eleven piggybacking on the pop culture “7-Eleven” day on July 11th by giving away Slurpees. Set up a table at a local farmer’s market, rent a food truck or open your business to give away free stuff one day, and you’ll have new customers queueing up to come through your doors. Take advantage of these guerrilla marketing ideas for your small business, and you could stumble upon an idea that will help your brand go viral at little to no cost to you.
Email Elements You Should Be A/B Testing Posted on January 11, 2017July 12, 2018 by Jessica Lunk We’ve already stressed the importance of split testing your emails. As I mentioned before, it’s a continuous process that can deliver astounding results to your email campaigns. But it can also take a lot of time to see results, as well as plenty of creative thinking in coming up with ideas for your split tests. It takes commitment and creativity, but the returns are worth the time. If you’re clear on the importance but don’t know where to start, here are several A/B tests you can try today. Subject Line The subject line is the most A/B tested element in email marketing. There’s nothing surprising about it; in order to see any results from your email campaigns, you first need to get your customers to open them. Your subject line is the key to open rates. There are several elements you can test here. They include a normal sentence versus a question, using urgency, specific power-words (e.g. SALE, DISCOUNT, BONUS, AMAZING, etc.), or even symbols and emojis. Long vs. Short Copy This is actually one of the longest-lasting debates in copywriting. Which performs better, long or short copy? The answer is, it’s individual to your customer, so split test it yourself. In general, you shouldn’t have fluff in your copy and whether to even test the length depends on the promotion and the complexity of it. A simple welcome email doesn’t need to be tested for long copy. But a specific promotion could yield different results if A/B tested for length. Test to see if your audience will click through to a landing page to learn more, or if providing all of the details upfront in the email copy results in more conversions. Call-to-Action The CTA is another classic A/B test. Test different sizes, colors, positions, designs, and CTA copy. Do your customers better convert with highly specific CTA or something that implies urgency? If you’re not giving your customers a reason to click, your email is a waste. Your Offer “Mediocre copy and a good offer will outpull great copy and a mediocre offer any day of the week. Make a good offer and if your grammar is incorrect, if your spelling is bad, or even if you have orange type on a green background, it could still work.” David Garfinkel, Breakthrough Copywriting As the quote above suggests, a great offer matters the most. A/B testing can help you determine what is a ‘great offer,’ in the case of your customers. You can start by testing different offers e.g. webinar vs. eBook or discount vs. free trial. Sender’s Name The ‘From:’ field can be equally or more important than the Subject Line when it comes to improving your open rates. You don’t care about the subject line as much if you get an email from a trusted source, right? You can test a variety of names. For example, company vs. person, full name vs. first name only, male vs. female, etc. Layout and Format Layout is very important because it determines the flow of your copy. A good layout highlights the important points, isn’t distracting, and leads the reader towards taking action. A good way to start is by testing single column vs. multiple columns, paragraph lengths, or different placement elements like images, CTA’s, trust marks, and so on. Timing & Frequency An average office worker gets over 120 emails a day. Among all of those emails, timing can make a big difference in whether or not you get their attention. In fact, you can even segment your email subscribers based on timing and the frequency of the emails. For example, different segments may better respond on different days of the week. Likewise, some subscribers prefer fewer, while others prefer more frequent emails. Time of day, day of the week, and frequency are a good way to start. You can also test timing of emails for particular trigger events or timing around it. E.g. after browsing certain products on your website or visiting a conversions page without converting. The Audience The success of your email campaigns isn’t just determined by what your emails look like or what they say, but also to whom they are sent. For example, some customer segments may respond well to a particular offer, while others may just be bothered by it. Split testing is a great way to determine the right segmenting of your email campaigns; and it can have a dramatic impact on your results. Among the things you want to split test are interest, different customer personas, level of engagement, sales cycle stage, or general demographics like location, gender, and job title. Don’t Forget You probably have a ton of new ideas for split testing your emails now, but remember to always split test one thing at a time. The key is to isolate your variables and correlate the changes in your results to that particular variable. Finally, split testing is a continuous process, not a one-off event. To see results or improvements can take a lot of A/B testing and a lot of time. So don’t give up!
7 Lessons From the Titans of Marketing Posted on January 10, 2017July 12, 2018 by Jonathan Herrick Marketing is not rocket science, although it feels like it at times. In fact, 99% of success lies in knowing and nailing down the core principles. Doing the right thing consistently can take you from mediocrity to greatness. Sounds simple, but the vast majority of marketers don’t even get close. In fact, the ones who do become great are simply very good at doing some smart, basic things that most marketers overlook. But what is it that exactly that makes people like David Ogilvy and Steve Jobs the legends they became? What makes modern marketers like Gary Vee or Seth Godin the successes they are? Learning from the best is the way to become the best. Here are seven lessons from some of the greatest marketers ever. David Ogilvy: Never Stop Testing David Ogilvy is the OG of advertising. He infamously used to say, “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.” His words have never been truer in an overcrowded marketplace. Keep testing and experimenting and applying your findings to improve your campaigns, products, and services. This kind of innovation is what makes the difference between the leader and the follower. Neil Patel: Optimize for Revenue Neil is a serial entrepreneur and the leading voice in online marketing today. His advice goes, “Don’t optimize for conversions, optimize for revenue.” Often, marketers focus on the wrong metrics, while forgetting about the bigger picture. Conversion rates aren’t the ultimate end goal for a business. For example, you may convert many low value subscribers while missing out on the ones that matter. Seth Godin: Stand Out “In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” The author of Purple Cow Marketing advises business owners to be remarkable to their customers. To stand out in the marketplace. Be creative, experiment, and find ways to appeal to your audience like nobody else. Grab their attention. But grab it in a way coherent with your business goals. Gary Vaynerchuk: Use the Right Context In 1996, Bill Gates famously said that, “content is king.” Gary Vee made it more accurate by saying, “Content is king, but context is God.” Context are the facts and circumstances around a situation. It’s how you publish, distribute, and promote your content. Pick the wrong medium, promote it to the wrong audience, and you can be sure most of your content efforts will go to waste. Steve Jobs: Have a Great Product Steve Jobs is probably the best product marketer who ever lived. After all, he built the largest company in the world. But he understood one thing – behind great marketing campaigns, there must be a great product first. “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.” Derek Halpern: Build Your Email List “If you’re not building an email list, you’re an idiot. I know that’s harsh, but when companies can destroy your entire business in one fell swoop, you should rely on things you can control.” Derek Halpern of Social Triggers makes an excellent point. Don’t completely rely on marketing channels that may come and go. Ad costs can rise. Social media can become crowded. Email lists are your direct channel to customers, no matter what the situation is. Rand Fishkin: Don’t Build Links, Build Relationships Rand Fishkin is today’s top authority on SEO. His stance on the topic can be summed up as, “it’s all about the content.” That’s not surprising. With its last two updates, Google made it quite clear that the old model of link-building is dead. As a marketer, you should focus on building content that actually connects. If people feel a connection with your brand and your content, they’ll share it and refer to it. In fact, over time, there’s a high correlation between the relationships you build and the links you earn.
5 Steps to Re-Engage Lost or Angry Customers Using Email Posted on January 6, 2017August 29, 2018 by Jessica Lunk The best customer is a loyal customer. But unless your entire customer base consists of your mom and dad, 100% customer loyalty is an illusion. In other words, you will always lose customers. The question is, what are you going to do about it? The first step is to learn and improve; and (obviously) don’t give many reasons for your customers to lapse. The second thing is to re-engage. Not many businesses do it successfully (or do it at all), but it’s a great way to boost your revenue. If someone had enough trust in you to invest in you at one point, they’re more likely to buy from you again. The good news is, it’s usually fairly simple to re-engage lost customers. Often, all it takes is a couple of well-crafted emails. Here are a few examples. #1 Let Them Know You’ve Noticed They’re Gone Let your customer know you know who they are and you’ve noticed they’re gone. Send them an email and personalize it. For example, remind them why they signed up. Use their name. The point here is, show them you value them as individuals, not just as another number in your books. Sometimes, people unsubscribe or abandon their accounts by mistake. Make sure to offer them a way to get back. Obviously, this should be an automated email and not one that you should be sending manually to every single unengaged customer. #2 Offer Them an Incentive If you want them back, give them a reason to come back. Incentives are the easiest way to do so. If someone has already made a decision to put trust in you, there is an existing relationship. You can offer a freebie, a coupon, or a discount. But make sure you do it the right way. That is, apply the same principles as with any other offer. #3 Show That You Care Ask them where you screwed up and how you can improve. Offer something to make up for it. People respect brands that care about improvement and they give them a second chance. This isn’t just about winning lost customers back. It’s about continually improving (and keeping your reputation intact). You need to find out what makes your customers lapse, so you can fix bugs or improve your offers. Getting feedback is super important. You can gather it in many ways, like sending a feedback form, emailing out a survey or simply by reaching out and asking in a personal manner. #4 Introduce New Features Whenever you’ve made an improvement or introduced a new feature or a product, inform your lost customers. If you’re an ecommerce company selling many products, make sure you personalize the email and any offers inside. Nobody likes to be spammed by irrelevant emails. The good news is, since you’ve already done business in the past, you should be able to obtain data about your past customer choices and preferences. You can use that to win them back. However, sometimes just making progress and showing your company is doing well makes you more attractive. So, it doesn’t just have to be a new feature or an offer. If you have some great news, like winning an award or making a major advancement, use it to your advantage. #5 Remind Them What They Get This is a good tactic for inactive customers. Simply pitch them again. Send them a reminder about what it was that made them sign up in the first place. The product or service you’re offering was the main reason they signed up. Sometimes people are just busy and they forget. Or maybe budgets change and they haven’t heard from you in awhile. In a condensed market, if you’re out of sight, out of mind. Remind them what they’re missing out on.
CRM and The Big Impact of Small Data Posted on January 5, 2017October 7, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick When it comes to the importance of using data in marketing and sales, it’s a bit like the late, great Leonard Cohen might say: “everybody knows.” What is more debatable, though, is what types of data your organization should focus on collecting, analyzing and using to make a tangible impact. Many organizations have tapped into the rising trend of “Big Data.” Afterall, it helps to give you historical insights into your sales and marketing performance. But most smaller businesses don’t have the large marketing budgets, high volume of transactions, or the resources to take advantage of the information once they have it. “Small data” on the other hand is real time, actionable data which can prove to be much more useful and easily collected within your CRM. Together, small data and the use of CRM can completely change how you approach sales and marketing for your small business- here’s how: 1: Get More Personal Small data has a number of strengths over it’s “Big” brother counterpart. One of those key strengths is that the data is more personal, both in terms of the data that your small business CRM captures and your ability to adapt your sales and marketing efforts to the need of each and every buyer. For instance, CRM allows you to identify key segments of your targeted contact base and communicate to them in the most relevant way possible. So, if B2B buyers make different purchases than say eCommerce buyers, you can tailor your marketing campaigns to each group and drive more sales. It also gives you valuable insights into your prospect’s online behavior so you know the best channels to reach and engage with them. When you access small data within your CRM it can fuel a personalized experience at every stage of the customer lifecycle. From sending a website visitor content specific to their needs to automating email campaigns based on each segment of your customer base. It creates a centralized database of customer interaction and behavior to help your business stay personal with prospects and customers. 2: Gain Real-Time Insights Unlike big data which takes time and resources to compile the appropriate information, small data is instantly at your fingertips and allows you to make real-time decisions. Users essentially create rich data streams automatically with every click, online post, and call-to-action they respond to. All of this info, when collected and analyzed by a solid small business CRM, can help you understand the buying decisions that motivate different segments of your customers. This not only helps improve the process of lead generation and sales, but it can revolutionize how you market to those customers as well. Small data can also be used to make more accurate sales and marketing projections. By know what‘s working and what isn’t on the fly, you can adjust your budget and strategies to deliver optimal results. 3: Get More Immediate ROI One of the fundamental truths of small business is that you constantly feel busy. This can make data collection and analysis seem like just one more task on top of a pile of unfinished work. To some degree, this is true of big data, as it must be “pulled” from various data sources and analyzed to deliver an effective ROI. Unlike big data, small data is simple, manageable, and delivers results much more quickly. In conjunction with a CRM, small data allows daily information about user behavior to be collected and “pushed” directly to your sales and marketing teams. It reduces the time spent on compiling unnecessary data as well as improving your business’s ability to respond to customers and prospects proactively. For example, simple data points such as a “contact score” within your CRM can let your sales team know who is a hot lead and who needs a bit more nurturing. With so many marketing channels available to promote your products and services, it can be a real challenge to know where to invest your marketing dollars. With the help of small data analytics you can narrow your focus to just those channels that are performing and shift resources away from those areas that have a slower ROI. Data-driven sales and marketing is the next big wave, and small data is at the heart of it. By leveraging small data within your CRM you get a complete view of your customer lifecycle and can deliver a more personal, tailored experience that will accelerate sales —making a big impact on your small business.