At the end of the day, it’s all about relationships.
People buy from people that they know, like, and trust.
Make it a habit of connecting with others in your local neighborhood. Get to know them. Build a relationship with them, regardless of whether you think they are a prospective customer or not.
Years ago (27 this year) when my wife and I had just gotten married, we made friends with two checkers at the local grocery store. You know what? 1) they still work there (amazing!), and 2) we still greet each other by name whenever we see them in the store.
We never hang out socially. To my knowledge, they aren’t prospects of our business. But, it has been wonderful to build that relationship over the years with a local “neighbor”.
Years later, the owner of the grocery store became a client. I don’t think there was a direct correlation, (at least that I know of) but to me, it still shows the strength and value of local relationships.
We all crave human connection. I love being able to see my customers and friends in the grocery store, at the ball game, or at an event.
Build connections and relationships. You never know where it will take you.
If you’re following along with our simple action plan, we’ve covered Step 1 (Create) and Step 2 (Share).
Now, it’s time to promote. Step 3 is to promote your best content with paid ads. These ads could be digital or traditional. For example, you could promote content using;
- Facebook boosted posts
- Facebook ads
- Digital display ads
- Billboards
- Radio ads
- Print ads
- TV ads
- Retargeting ads
- Direct mail
- Email marketing
- and more …
Let me walk through a couple of examples of how we pull it all together:
- Create a blog post
- Share your blog post on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin
- Promote your best blog posts via paid ads
- “Boost” it on Facebook
- Do a short excerpt on a radio ad, linking to the post
- Send out a postcard to your top 100 VIP prospects with the headline and excerpt, linking to your post
- Capture a new review from a recent customer
- Share your positive reviews on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Create an image using Canva or your favorite graphic design program to share it on Instagram.
- Promote your best 5-star reviews using paid ads
- Boost it on Facebook
- Read it on a radio ad, “Don’t take our word for it, here’s what {customer} had to say about our service.
- Use the review title and “5 stars” in a TV ad or print ad
- Include the best reviews on your landing pages and sales material
See how easy that is. 1) create (or capture), 2) share, and 3) promote. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. You can apply this same simple action plan to all of your online marketing efforts.
We all learned (or didn’t) when we were kids that it was good to share. Share our toys, share our things, it was all part of growing up.
As marketers, it’s important to remember the concept of sharing. But this time, I’m talking about sharing your great content.
As we discussed earlier, we’re all good (or even experts) at something. You probably wouldn’t be in business if you weren’t.
Sharing your content is Step 2 in our simple action plan.
Share it on your social media channels. Share it on your website. Share it everywhere you possibly can.
Don’t be shy.
Whether you think you do or not, you have a lot to share that others will find helpful.
All feedback is great feedback. As business owners, we need to stop being afraid of a negative review. There are usually three types of negative reviews;
- “You can’t please everybody“; no matter how hard you try, you simply cannot please everybody. Sometimes, you just need to let it go.
- “Fake reviews“; statistics show that 10-15% of online reviews are fake. Again, these are not what you want to focus on.
- “Gold“; while it can be hard to hear, many times negative feedback can be turned into gold. How? By taking the constructive criticism to heart and evaluating if you need to adjust anything in your business.
Focus on the last type – “Gold”. Why? Because they can literally make a huge difference in your business for the better.
If you shy away from asking for feedback and reviews because you are afraid of what somebody might say, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity to improve your business.
It doesn’t mean that you have to be reactive to every single negative review. Look for trends; in your processes, in your customer service, and with your team members. When you get a negative review, or a number of negative reviews, for a particular team member, it gives you the opportunity to correct privately and to hopefully set them on a better course.
Find the gold in your customer reviews. I promise you it is there, not at the end of the rainbow.
Getting a good review is a great opportunity to praise your team, or the person directly responsible for the good review.
This works on the concept of “catching people doing good things”. Asking for feedback as part of your regular work flow allows you to catch your team doing good things on a regular basis.
Studies show that monetary compensation are far from what makes people happy in the workplace. Feeling like they belong, and that their hard work is appreciated can go a long way towards showing value to your team members, no matter what their role is.
How do you recognize your employees?
We don’t recommend setting up a formal ‘program’. Here’s why.
Effective employee recognition is mostly art, not science. That’s why most formal recognition programs never deliver what they promise: It’s easy for employees to spot an insincere, “we need to put something in place” recognition program.
~ Inc. Magazine
Be sincere in your praise. Be spontaneous. Be authentic. Nobody has time for a ‘program’ that doesn’t meet these qualifications.
When you get a good review, give the employee sincere, spontaneous, and heartfelt kudos. Let them know you appreciate their hard work.
The cool part is … this will encourage them and other team members to “do more things right”.