Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business - Broad Reach Marketing Services, LLC

7 Ways to Thank Your Customers

12/7/2018

'Tis the season to thank your customers!

Thanking your customers is a simple but effective gesture to let them know you appreciate them. This can be done in many ways. Here are a few:

Write a note – a thoughtful handwritten note and card can go a long way to show your appreciation. This can be more work than it seems if your handwriting has degenerated(like mine has) but worth considering as it adds a very personal touch.
Give a book – do you have a book that has been especially helpful to you? If your customers are other businesses, a book can also be a gift that helps explain your business values or philosophy. Writing a personalized note inside adds a nice touch.
Send a treat – nice items to eat are usually a hit -- but be sure to take into account your customer’s food preferences before you do this. Are they into losing weight? Vegetarians? You get the picture.
Take a customer or client to lunch or coffee – or if they prefer, bring a lunch to your customer’s office. You can include everyone in the office in your invitation. Make it casual and fun, and ask about their high points for the year. It's a great opportunity to listen and get to know the customer and their staff and you might even learn other ways you can help them.
Try a gift card or “raincheck”– for customers who are too busy to take time out this time of year, send a gift card or schedule for January.
Reward your loyal customers – if you are in retail, you can email VIP specials, include small extras shipped with orders. or surprise them with discounts given at checkout.
Make them smile – send a funny card, tell a joke, or share a heartwarming good news story with your thanks.

Note: However you choose to appreciate your customers, remember to stay consistent with your brand values.
For example, if your values include supporting the local community, choose treats from non-profits or gift from locally-owned businesses. In the Triangle area, Life Experiences, Inc offers wonderful brownie and cookie trays for your office or key customers. For those environmentally minded, the World Wildlife Fund has a array of choices. Or instead of gifts, you could donate to a charity of their choice.

Do you have some innovative ways your company appreciates your customers this holiday season?
Or if you know of a non-profit with ideas for customer gifts, please feel free to share the links in the comments.

Thank you for reading! We appreciate our readers and wish you a wonderful holiday season!

How to Perk Up Your Social Media Efforts

10/14/2018

Are you posting more but getting less from your efforts? As a small business marketer or owner, you only have so much time and resources. Explore the eight questions below to see how you can increase your social media impact.

Eight Questions you should ask

1) What is your goal for your Social Media efforts?
Take a step back (or grab a cup of coffee) and remember why you started doing social media in the first place.
What did you want to accomplish? For example, a new healthcare practice might be trying to grow awareness and interest. An established service business may be more interested in engaging existing customers for referrals and repeat business.
Your goals could include:

Building awareness
Generating Leads
Converting more leads to sales
Quickly responding to customer questions
Engaging existing customers
Creating upsell opportunities

Tip: It is better to focus on one or two goals and do them very well than to dilute your efforts by trying to do too much.

2) Do you know how well you are doing?
If you already have metrics in place, review how well you’ve done so far and make the needed adjustments. If not, here are a few example measures that might be helpful:

Marketing goals and measurements

3) Are you reaching the right people?
The businesses that experience the most success with social media have a clearly defined target market. Think about who your ideal customers are and what would interest them. For example, a gift shop surveyed their customers and found that they were interested in the locations where the products are made. The shop began posting fun facts, short videos of landmarks, interesting places and the people they met on their buying trips. The result - likes and sharing increased.

The key is to build followers that are truly interested in your product or brand. It helps to have someone in mind and feel like you are talking to them when creating posts.

4) Do you have a content plan?
Don’t have a content strategy or plan? Planning your themes, channels and posts for the next six months is well worth the time.
Planning and gathering ideas and images in one place will save time when creating posts. In addition, checking the month to month calendar will make sure you don’t miss important seasonal or holiday activities. There are many fun but little known holidays and it’s hard to keep track of them unless you have it on your plan.
In addition to regular holidays, there are lesser known, specialized, and sometimes even wacky days. For example, the fourth Saturday in October is Make a Difference Day. Seems like a great day to celebrate if your organization does good work for the community.

If your plan feels overwhelming, check to see how your channels are working for you.
Which channels are the best fit for both your ideal customer and your business?
Maybe you need to try a new channel to better connect -- and delete those that aren't working. If you haven’t posted on Instagram or Twitter in three months, think about why and determine whether you should continue.

You do not have to be everywhere. Formulate a plan and use what works best for you and your business.

5) Have you offered to guest post?
This is a way to get your name/brand out and extend your reach to people beyond your normal circle. It is also a way to set up "backlinks" that help with search engine optimization.
It's a popular tactic, but it takes work. Before you ask for the opportunity to post on someone’s blog, do your research to make your addition relevant, advantageous and complementary to the blog host's businesses. And be prepared to follow through on the opportunity if they agree.

6)Are you engaging?
Are you asking questions? See what types of questions your target market responds to. Facebook has made it harder for business pages, but engagement still is key to extending your reach and having more people see your posts.
Listen -- if you get comments, reward them with a reply!
Keep experimenting to see what works best. Monitor which posts and topics get the most shares and likes and use them as a model to create more like them.

7) Can you create “Evergreen” content?
Evergreen content is not tied to trends and can be reused or repurposed on multiple channels.
Examples of evergreen content include:

Answers to frequently asked questions from your customers or followers
Industry tips, "how to" explanations or advice (like back to school tips or how to change a tire)
Explanations of common industry concepts that may be confusing for readers (customer success vs customer service)
Here is an example from our blog

8) Can you add a fun factor?
Show that your company or brand is made of real people. Tell stories, show what’s behind the scenes and seek to connect on an emotional level. One way to do this is by describing any unusual traditions, people or company celebrations.

Does your company participate or have events that benefit the community? Show how you and/or your employees help make a difference. (Then you can celebrate Make a Difference Day!)
Do you have a fun side? It’s okay to show the lighter aspects of your brand. The days of perfect video are over – you can show outtakes, improvisations and mistakes as well as achievements.

In conclusion, building a social media presence or brand takes time and effort. Through a focused, consistent and discipline approach, social media can be a valuable tool in your marketing toolbox that drives your business towards success. If after giving social media a good try you find that it's not paying dividends, your business might be better served by focusing your marketing resources on more effective tactics. Don't feel bad -- there are many ways to market your business and you can still use social media in support of your other efforts.

If you need help determining which marketing tactics work best for your business, please contact us for a consultation to see how we can assist you.

Thanks for reading!

36 Small Business Marketing Ideas to Give Your Sales a Boost

8/5/2018

Are you feeling like you need to step up your marketing efforts?
If that’s the case, here are some ideas to consider. Some may be new, but you may also be reminded of ideas that you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t had time to implement.
For quick reference, we’ve organized the ideas by category. Take a look and see if any of these would help build your business!

Market Planning and Research
1. Update or create a marketing plan for your business. To make sure you get optimal results, your business should have a marketing plan that aligns timing, tactics and implementation with market opportunities.
2. Ask your customers how you’re doing -- revisit or begin customer satisfaction research.
3. Revisit your Value proposition – does it still ring true?
4. Refine your target audience and niche.
5. Explore the advantages of offering a new product or service in combination with your current business. Example - conduct focus groups and get input from your target market.

Check over your Marketing Materials
6. Take a close look at your business cards -- do they still represent the right image and convey key information about your business?
7. Think about printed materials – does your business need to create or update a brochure / sales sheet to leave behind with customers?
8. Evaluate if you need to update your website.
9. Check your online directory listings and get listed in desirable directories.

Person to Person Networking
10. Update your (and your company’s) voice mail message – keep it current, change it when you have new events or specials.
11. Enhance your email signature.
12. Revisit your elevator pitch. Does it still fit? Can you make it better?
13. Introduce yourself to other local business owners – you can do this in person or using Alignable.com. Explore creating a promotion with other local businesses.
14. Find a creative promotional product that fits your business and brand -- give them to prospective customers and referral sources.

Direct Mail
15. Launch a targeted direct mail campaign. Think through your offer and call to action. You can create and test multiple approaches and measure their impact.
16. If you’ve used direct mail before, add tear cards, inserts or attention getting envelops to increase the impact of your mailing.
17. Contact past customers; send them an incentive to refer you or revisit your business.

Consider Advertising
18. If your business appeals to a wide target market, explore radio, billboard or even local TV advertising.
19. Use your car as a billboard – add a magnet, sticker or car wrap. If you have employees, see if they would be willing to add your magnet to their cars.
20. Use a sidewalk sign for specials or to attract walk in traffic.
21. Run a Google AdWords (Google Ads) campaign
22. Create a Groupon to attract new customers or get them to try a new product or service.

Social Media Marketing
23. Experiment with social media for your business – or evaluate the results of your current efforts.
24. Advertise on social media to attract new followers.
25. If your business sells to other businesses, try advertising on LinkedIn.
26. Evaluate starting a business blog.
27. If you already have a blog, try using video – add a video blog, and short video posts for your social media accounts.
28. List your business on Google My Business.
29. Add photos and videos to your Google My Business profile.
30. Create a post for your Google My Business profile.

Email Marketing
31. Add an email opt-in on your website or blog.
32. Create an offer that encourages people to add their email address to your list.
33. Send periodic email campaigns to your list.
34. Measure the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

Less Usual Marketing
35. Create a business mascot to help promote your brand. This can be fun!
36. Take a stance on a hot industry or community topic, one that you have in-depth knowledge of or that aligns with your brand values.

We hope you found this post of value. Did you find some ideas to try?
Please be aware that not all ideas will fit your business --
and the success of many of them depends on having the right messaging and timing.
For help with planning or message development, contact us.

How to Make it Easy for Patients to Find your Practice

7/6/2018

Marketing strategy for findability

If you're opening a new practice or want patients to find you more easily, put your practice on the map!  Registering to be found is one of the key building blocks to an effective local marketing strategy.

Start by creating a profile that accurately describes your mission, services, and contact information.
Then claim your profile at these sites:

1) Google. When you open a new practice, sign up at Google My Business. This is one of the first actions you should take because listing with Google can literally “put you on the map” (Google Maps) and get your practice hours, phone number and location shown on the map results. Once you're in their system, you can add photos and videos to enhance your information. In addition, Google offers the option to add posts to your listing, noting any specials, new services, or events. You can even feature your latest blog. These posts can help your practice stand out -- and you don’t have to pay for this feature.

2) Bing Though Google is the dominant search engine, 1 in 5 people use Bing, to complete and verify your profile on this search engine as well.

3) Yahoo comes in third for search engine usage. Now Yahoo has partnered with Yext on their listings and they try to confuse you into paying for the Yext service, but if you look closely and scroll down past the paid options, you can still obtain a free listing.

4) Yelp – a surprising number of people look at Yelp reviews for healthcare practices and providers.
To claim your listing, first check here to see if your practice is already listed.
Then if your practice is not yet listed, click ‘add your business to Yelp’, enter your information and submit.
Please note that you will need to confirm the email address you provide to complete your business submission.
If your practice is already listed,   here's how you can claim it.

5) Patient review and rating sites are also important – Check your profiles at sites like HealthGrades.com, ZocDocs, Vitals.com and RateMDs.com


In addition, depending on your practice type and situation, there are other sites and organizations that may be worthwhile to consider. If you are willing to pay a fee, local groups may also offer listing opportunities -- for example, listing with your local Chamber of Commerce is usually worthwhile.

Remember to verify and maintain accurate information on search sites. This is important whether you're in a new practice or one that's well established.

Once you are registered, set up a schedule to review your listings on a regular basis to make sure they reflect the current state of your practice. Be sure to reflect changes in practice hours or services and check for new reviews.  Four Tips on maintaining your online reputation.

For help with creating or maintaining your online presence, call Broad Reach Marketing for more information.

Thanks for reading!

Prioritizing New Products, Services or Promotions

4/23/2018

In our last blog, we talked about generating ideas. Good ideas can come from many sources, including observation, employee suggestions and brainstorming sessions.

But what if you have more good ideas than time or resources to implement them? How do you make sure the best ideas don’t get overlooked? The answer is to systematically prioritize your ideas inline with your resources.

Large organizations have formal “Stage-gate” processes to manage the flow of ideas and prioritize implementation of the best ones. But if you are part of a smaller team or organization, you may not have such a system set in place. Without a way to evaluate and rank the ideas, you or your organization can fall into opportunistic mode, trying to jump on every opportunity as it comes along or working on "pet" projects that don't leave resources free for ideas that have more potential.
To help you sort through and prioritize multiple opportunities, check out the framework we've developed:

The Broad Reach Marketing 5-Step Prioritizing Framework

1) List and describe the ideas you've generated.
Some great ideas might require a bit of refinement or explanation. Look to see if any ideas are better when combined or built upon. Take the time to think through and define each one.

2) Filter

Check for constraints – these could be legal, organizational or partner conflicts.

For example, a new product idea might violate an agreement with a supplier or distributor of your current products or services. There may be a physical constraint, such as a lease that limits the ability to re-locate that makes an idea unfeasible in the near future.

Evaluate for Alignment – see if the idea fits with your organization’s mission.
Assess how it utilizes and leverages distinctive competencies.

For example, a healthcare packaging company had a new product under evaluation. The idea was thought to have good potential, but there was a concern that it could cannibalize an existing product’s sales. Consulting the organization’s mission statement made this an easy call. When examining the future, the new product fit the company's mission even better than the existing product.

Think about the ability to execute – can you or your organization execute on this idea? How well can you do it with current resources?

(Note: Not having the resources to do something doesn’t mean the idea should be automatically rejected. If it is a truely a breakthrough idea, it might be worth pursuing a separate “how can we do this” or “Build, buy or partner” session.)

3) Rank
Score each idea on the following aspects:

Perceived market need – does this solve a problem better than current solutions?
Market Opportunity – how large is the market; is this a target market that the organization currently reaches?
Differentiation – if the idea is not unique, can you differentiate it in some way that makes it stand out?
Effort and Resources needed to create the product or service
Estimated Margin potential

Return on Investment (SWAG)

4) Plot on a chart so you can visually see where your ideas rank when you consider effort vs. return on that effort.

5) Test!
Meet with potential customers. Don’t tell them the benefits of your idea; just show or illustrate what it does and ask the following questions:

What problems (if any) does it solve?
How would they benefit from using it?
What impact would it have on them, their business or their family?
Where does this new idea fit on the impact scale?

What is the value – what would they think this solution would be worth to them?

This process can be done using whiteboards, flip charts or spreadsheets -- or a combination of all three. The key is to focus on the ideas that fit with the organization and will generate the best return on investment.
Have questions about generating ideas or implementing this process? Contact us!

How to Generate Ideas

3/6/2018

Need more ideas for your business? Try these tips.

Change is rapid, constant and challenging to keep ahead of – products and marketing strategies that worked last year may not be as effective this year.

Implementing the same strategies as in the past may keep your business treading water, but new ideas are needed now more then ever for you to compete and engage with your preferred customers.

The need for creative ideas can span a wide range of possibilities and topics. Depending on your business type, market dynamics, target customers or stage in the product life cycle, your challenges may include ideas for new names, taglines, products, services, promotions, content or social media posts.

Whatever your objective, following the tips outlined below can help you generate that golden nugget you are looking for!

1) Clearly define the problem, challenge or objective – write a single sentence which states what it is you are trying to get ideas around. This may sound basic, but getting clarity can help spark ideas.

For example, if you were looking for new products you might start with why. Has your current product line stopped growing due to a gap in the offering or a feature it is lacking? Maybe you have received feedback indicating a characteristic of your offering is either unattractive or even annoys your customers? This allows you to focus on how you can address these known challenges.

“Simple can be harder than complex:
You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
– Steve Jobs

2) Set a timer – generate as many ideas as you can in short bursts of time. We’re talking 10 – 15 minutes here.
If you’ve eve been in one of those meetings that go on and on, did you notice as time goes on creative productivity decreases? The timer also gives you a constraint, which research has shown helps with creativity.

Try to do a couple of these sessions without evaluating or reiterating things from previous sessions.
You can do this on a screen, paper, on a white board or a flip chart, whichever makes you feel most creative.

Here is how it may play out - if you are trying to generate a new name for your business, start with a clear idea of what you want the business to be.
Then, on a flip chart, write down all the words you can think of that describe or relate to this concept. Once you have your initial list, search to see if there are additional words or ideas from brands you admire even if they are unrelated.
Then have fun making combinations of the words on your list and see how they sound.
For example, let’s say you’re designing a logo and branding for a holistic medical practice. You think of successful companies that have branding that emulates some of your practice's characteristics. Apple’s success in branding pops into your mind. That gives you the idea of fruit -- and maybe an unique image of a person combined with a super fruit like apricot or pineapple . . . remember at this point, there are no bad ideas, record them all without judging.

“Ideas come from everything”
- Alfred Hitchcock

3) Be patient -- If ideas don’t flow, walk away. Work on something else, get a cup of coffee, or go for a walk outside. Getting away can help relax and free your mind, letting your subconscious mind have a turn to work on the challenge.

"The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time." - Henry Ford

4) Observe and Gather -- You have heard of hunter-gatherer. The creative you is now an Observer-Gatherer!
Keep your eyes open and notice things around you. Whenever a lightning bolt idea hits you – no matter what the topic – gather it up and save it. Useful techniques for this are to use Evernote, One Note, send yourself an email, or go retro and carry a little notebook. Do whatever works best for you - but do it – after just one month you will be surprised at the number of really cool ideas and original thoughts you will have collected!

Ideas are like shooting stars

Great ideas can be like shooting stars –
capture them when you get them – jot them down –
and review them at a later date.

5) Bring others into the mix -- if you work with the team or have trusted friends, colleagues or advisers, share your ideas with them and get their reactions. Often, people that aren’t directly involved with the challenge can raise good questions and contribute novel ideas.

Tip: Create an evaluation free zone (or times) to share and discuss ideas. When you are trying to get good ideas, there are no bad ideas. An outlandish or crazy thought might not be so crazy with a few tweaks.

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”
- John Steinbeck

6) Finally, if you work with a team, conduct a structured brainstorming session. This can be a very effective process in generating creative solutions. There are process parameters and session ground rules that should be followed – if done correctly it is amazing what your team will come up with! Here are a few guidelines to get you started:

Invite open-minded, energetic positive people.
Don't allow criticism or editing of ideas; encourage participants to:

Build on each other’s ideas
Combine elements in novel ways
Bring in ideas from other situations or industries that are totally unrelated
Stand the idea on its head –try reversing or turning the idea upside down
Add humor – it stimulates creativity!

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”
- David Ogilvy

Author’s note: I love brainstorming and idea generation. As a marketing professional with a background in team dynamics, I’ve lead many brainstorming sessions to generate new product concepts and solve persistent or sticky problems. It works, it’s fun and truly more minds are better than one when it comes to creative problem solving.
I hope these tips will be helpful for you.
Please comment or send me additional thoughts or experiences -- and thanks for reading!
Nancy

Great idea generation usually results in more ideas than can be used. The next step is prioritizing and selecting ideas. If you need help with that, read our next blog or contact us to see how we can help your business grow.

Planning an event? 10 Tips to Help You Succeed

1/23/2018

Events can be an integral part of a marketing plan; many businesses rely on them to build awareness and generate leads. But as you may have noticed, some events are better run and attended than others.

What are the keys to orchestrating successful events?

1) Know your objective and desired audience.
Before you start planning the details, have a clear idea of whom you want to attract and what value you will be offering.

Ask: Why would they want to attend?
How do you add value? For example, is there a way to offer CE (continuing education) credits?
Think about creating a memorable experience. Having a drawings or competitions for prizes and serving food will help attract and engage your participants.

2) Planning
The earlier you can start planning, the better. For a large event like a trade show or conference, begin planning six months in advance.
For local events, you’ll need at least 30 to 45 days to get things organized and arranged.
TIP: If you are using vendors, have all vendor contracts completed a few weeks before the event. If they don’t have a commitment from you, they might book another event.

3. Find Partners and Sponsors to share expenses.
Look for businesses that have complementary services or would like to reach the same target market. Coordinating with a non-profit and donating the fees charged is a great way to attract participants and make them feel good about your company and their spending time/money at your event!

4. Negotiate
Don’t be afraid to ask – many things are negotiable. How much a vendor charges might depend on how busy they are, so being flexible with your dates/specifications can help reduce their quoted price.
Tip: Determine your budget before meeting a vendor or sponsor, and think of what you can offer in return for sponsorship or a lower negotiated price.

5. Assign Responsibilities; communicate
If you’ve recruited partners or a team, break up the various elements of the event into sections; clearly define roles and responsibilities of each team member.
Communicating and collaborating with the people working with you is important.
To keep everyone on the same page, create a document that details key elements of the event, timelines, and who is responsible. Have it easily accessible, easy to read and updated so everyone can refer to it and you can keep things on track. Many groups use Google Docs to do this.

6. Promote, promote, promote
Your goal is to get the right people to your event -- and enough of them to make it worthwhile.
Create a promotional plan for your event incorporating all the media channels available to you.
If you are planning to host more than one event, pay particular attention to branding. Using the same template will build brand recognition; repetition is the key!

7. Ways to promote your event:

List on Eventbrite
Email your list, encourage any advocates to share the event
Know some bloggers or influencers? Contact them and ask if they’ll mention it.
Use social media, for example:
- Create a custom hashtag for your event on Twitter; encourage your followers to tweet about it.
- Create an event on Facebook; encourage your followers to respond to the event. Post in relevant groups.
- If appropriate, post on Instagram and LinkedIn, especially in relevant groups.
If the promotion targets a local audience, you can write free posts on Alignable.com, Next Door, and other sites that target the local area
Don’t forget to promote it personally at events and networking and professional groups you may attend. Hand out flyers; post them in coffee shops and other places where your target audience may gather.
Check if there are local publications that have event sections. Is your event newsworthy? Send out a press release.

8. Photograph Everything
Pictures can document the success of your event. Get pictures of the full room, event branding, speakers, and attendees enjoying themselves.

9. Have a dry run; then relax if everything doesn’t go exactly as planned
Hold a practice session, especially if you have several speakers and have everything in place before the event so you’ll be able to welcome guests. Create contingency plans. Things ALWAYS change – stay flexible and think of alternatives.

10. Follow-up Immediately

Upload your photos once the event is over and actively encourage users to tag themselves.
Get feedback – send a survey or email asking for comments on what participants enjoyed/benefited from and what they would like to see different next time. Collecting and using feedback engages potential customers and helps ensure your next event is even better!

Thanks for reading!

Special thanks to Evan Carroll of www.attendedevents.com and Debra Mathias, www.connect-to-clients.com – I really appreciate their willingness to talk with me and sharing their thoughts and expertise.

Yipes! Facebook is changing things again

1/16/2018

Facebook is 'moving the goalposts' again ... or maybe changing the yard lines. Either way, if you are an organization that relies on a Facebook Page for marketing, the recent announcement sounds like bad news.

The situation
In 2017, many businesses were already seeing a downward trend in impressions, likes and overall reach on their Facebook pages. Then just last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the goal of Facebook is now changing from helping you find relevant content to helping you find “meaningful social interactions.”
So instead of determining the ranking of posts based on reactions, comments, and shares, Facebook stated they will prioritize posts that “spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people".
Facebook also said:
“Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.”

What to do now?

1) Keep the conversation going. If your objective is engagement and your page regularly gets comments, reactions, and shares – keep it up, you will probably not see too much change.
2) Try to increase engagement. If your posts normally don't get reactions or comments, you could try asking more questions, running a quiz, contest or sharing live video.

OR

3) Put a minimal amount of effort into the page, just enough to let visitors know you are still in business and go on to #3.
4) Diversify your efforts. Look at the other social media platforms; put more effort into those that appeal best to your target audience.
5) Explore other methods to promote your business. There are many ways to market; you may have options that have gotten overshadowed by social media. Going through the market planning process can help you find new options and focus your promotional efforts.

Thanks for reading! Contact us to schedule a free consultation.

The Customer Success Mindset - Can Your Business Benefit?

12/18/2017

You may have heard the term “Customer Success”.

What does it mean to you and your company?
Is it just a new way to say customer satisfaction or customer service? Can any business use this type of thinking?

Customer Success is focused on ensuring your customers achieve their desired outcomes while using your product or service. This focus can improve loyalty and reduce customer churn.

How does it differ from customer service or satisfaction?
Customer Success is proactive, while customer service is reactive. Good customer service increases the chance of customer success by solving problems as they arise, on a case by case basis. Documenting re-occurring problems is important feedback for product/process improvement.

Customer Success helps companies better understand what the customer is experiencing, how the customers use the product and/or services – from the customer’s perspective. Customer success can use feedback from Customer Service and other sources to see where customers are succeeding and where help is needed.

Customer Success is a vital part of Customer Satisfaction. If the product doesn’t perform to expectations, or the buyer isn’t informed/educated in the proper use, then it’s not likely the customer will be satisfied. But since customers perception is formed through multiple experiences with the company, there are other factors that can also affect overall satisfaction.

What does Customer Success look like in action?
Software companies are leading the effort to implement the customer success mindset. For example, Pendo, located in Raleigh North Carolina, makes software for product managers. They measure the number and frequency of features used in a certain time period. If a customer seems to take longer than average to implement, they follow up with interviews to find out why. They also measure the NPS (Net Promoter Score) which reinforces that customer success is everyone’s job.

So, you might be thinking, this is great for software companies, but what does this mean for my product or service business? It may be easier to implement in a software product (where more feedback is automated) but most businesses can benefit from using the customer success mindset to improve loyalty and reduce churn. You can start by asking “what else can we do to make customers successful” when looking for new product ideas or process innovations. Here are a few keys to implementing Customer Success thinking:

1) First, define:

What does “success” mean to your customer?
How can your product/service enable your customers to achieve that success?
Does that change over time?

2) Test and measure which factors have the greatest impact on customer success – then emphasize them. Identify and interview customers who aren’t achieving success with your product to out find the reasons why.

Where are the pain points? What would help alleviate or bypass them? – For example, are your forms user-friendly? Could communication or explanations be clarified?
What you can do to make your customers more successful. For example, are there items, features, or points of contact that need to be added, modified or removed?
What’s the appropriate timing for engaging and monitoring customers?
Are there media or channels where the customers would prefer to get support information?

3) Get your whole team on board with Customer Success

Make sure the whole team recognizes that they are responsible. A good way to do this is to track the NPS as a main metric. Align your teams, reward systems, and communications to proactively retain customers and strengthen relationships.

The customer success mindset can be applied to a wide variety of products and businesses.
How do you apply the Customer Success mindset to your business? What key metrics do you use?
Feel free to add a comment.

Thanks for reading! Best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a great start to the New Year!

Nancy

Not sure you need a marketing plan? 5 Reasons Why You Should Create One.

11/8/2017

Marketing plans aren’t just for big businesses; every organization can benefit from one. But if you are a business owner or part of a small marketing team, it might seem like a luxury - something you’d like to do when you get the time. In fact, only 56% of small businesses with fewer than 50 employees have a marketing plan developed.

Marketing plans aren’t the only thing that organizations are missing -- many admit they don't have specific marketing goals. And outlining specific goals is important -- as the saying goes, if you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to get there?

5 important reasons why you should take the time and effort to develop a marketing plan:

1. It helps you think through your business strategy and align your marketing efforts effectively.
You’ll then formulate marketing objectives that help your business achieve its mission and become successful.

2. It keeps you – and your team -- focused.
There are many marketing tools and opportunities -- it’s easy to become distracted, losing sight of your intended business goals. The marketing planning process helps focus on your priorities so you’re not spending time and resources on activities that won’t help you attain your goals.

3. It formalizes ideas and concepts.
You may have some great ideas for your business you’d like to try – including them in your marketing plan will help you determine how feasible they are. Once they are in the plan, you’ll be focused to work on them.

4. It helps you establish tasks, timelines and milestones.
A good marketing plan includes clearly defined objectives and tactics, outlining these makes it easier to identify the tasks that need to be done, who should do them, and when they need to be done by. This will help you get the most out of promotions and seasonal or local events.

5. It can help you obtain financing.
A business plan is a must if you want to obtain financing, having a well thought out marketing plan shows that you mean business (pun intended)!

So set aside some time to create a sound marketing plan for your business – chances are you’ll be glad you did.

Need help creating your plan? Get your copy of our market planning ebook to help your business grow!