About a year ago, with the economy the way it was, the message from many business gurus was to nurture relationships with your current customers, and rely on them for additional business. So what will you do in 2010?
Be Creative
The poor economy, whether in the past or still current (depending on who you listen to), has changed the sales playing field in some markets. You may have to get the sale in a different manner. Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.†Be creative at getting the sale; look long-term as well as short-term for you and the customer.
Looking at the bigger picture; go back to the quote from Einstein and ask yourself, does this apply to the way that I run my company?
Engage Your Customer
Engage your customer. Do not engage with your customers for the sole purpose of getting a sale, but rather engage with your customers to increase customer service and enrich the relationship that you have with your customers. Many times, as a byproduct of interacting with your customer, your customers can give you information that an expensive market research campaign can never give you.
Explore Social Media
Use social media to engage with customers and non-customers alike. Create a LinkedIn account for yourself. Join some LinkedIn groups and network and share ideas. Maybe even start a LinkedIn group of your own.
Start a blog as part of your website. Blogs can be used for frequent communications with your customers, and news that your customers and readers will find interesting and beneficial.
Other social sites that businesses are currently using include Twitter and Facebook. With Facebook, you don’t necessarily start a Facebook account for your company, but rather create a “fan†page for your company which allows people with Facebook accounts to “follow†your company and communicate via comments on “the wall †– the means of communicating with others on Facebook.
Three benefits to all of this interaction on the web that I can immediately think of are:
- You are engaging in relationship building with customers and others that may become customers.
- You are creating a brand for you and your company.
- Search engines, such as Google, have the power to index social media sites, blogs, and other web content you may have. This all helps in your search engine optimization (commonly referred to as SEO), which can lead to increased traffic on your website.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Looking To Get More Traffic To Your Web Site? (ronmedlin.com)
- 2010 – Welcome to the Age of Customer Service(socialmediatoday.com)
