I recently had the pleasure of seeing Ken Blanchard speak. Ken is the author of “The One Minute Manager” and a new book titled “Lead with LUV,” which he co-authored with Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest Airlines.
One of the key concepts of Ken’s presentation is: if you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will. I couldn’t agree more. I would argue that the number-one role of an email marketer is to understand the customer, so I’m always surprised when marketers misread their customers or simply don’t understand what customers are looking for in their relationship. Getting to know customers and their needs isn’t a difficult thing to do, and it doesn’t require expensive research. Here are some easy and inexpensive ways to get to know your customers: Just ask. As simple as it sounds, one of the best ways to understand the needs and wants of customers is to ask them. This can be done several ways. Include a short survey in an e-newsletter, in social media posts or on your website. To make it easy for customers to respond, use a dropdown menu for answers and give customers the ability to include more detail in comment boxes. Develop a preference center for marketing emails, which allows customers to determine what kind of information to receive and how often they want to hear from you. For example, a growing logistics company regularly sends its customers surveys via email. The answers they receive are used to segment their audience for more relevant marketing campaigns. Monitor the conversation. Whether you know it or not, your customers are already talking about you and are providing valuable information about their needs. Are you listening? Social media channels provide the platform for many of these conversations. Stay on top by monitoring what’s being said about your company and industry. Become a part of the dialogue and address questions and concerns immediately. Also, review your reply-to addresses in email marketing campaigns. If you are not monitoring these addresses, chances are you’re missing important customer feedback. A software executive I know started an online forum for his customers to interact with each other. This forum provided such good information that it became his product roadmap. Reward customers for input. Make contributing information a game for your customers, and you will benefit. This can be done through contests, sweepstakes, raffles, etc., and the prize doesn’t have to be expensive. Retailers regularly print out receipts with a survey URL, offering a coupon as a reward for participating. We ask our customers to tell us what they want us to write about in our blog and in our support newsletter. The payoff is getting a question answered. Finally, in today’s online world, it’s easy to communicate with customers via email and social networks, but don’t forget face-to-face communication. Try to physically visit customers and spend time discussing how you can serve them better. People like to know who they’re working with and will appreciate your effort.
Neil Berman is co-founder and CEO of Delivra. |
-
Recent Posts
Categories
- Ask the PR Pro
- Blog
- Brand Awareness
- Clarus Communications
- Clarus in the News
- Clients in the News
- Content marketing
- Crisis Management
- Grammar
- Lead Generation
- Media Relations
- Media Training
- Messaging
- Online Marketing
- Outsourcing
- PR
- PR agency
- PR measurement
- Public Relations
- Sales
- Social Media
- Thought Leadership
- Uncategorized
- Web/Tech
- Writing
Archives
- January 2019
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- February 2015
- January 2015
- September 2014
- July 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
Leave a Reply