Marketing Archives

Boosting Client Engagement: 10 Strategies To Start Today

Leave a Comment / Customer Experience, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales / Brittany Hodak

Client engagement sounds like it should come naturally, but what happens when your clients don’t interact with your products, content, or tools? If you’re producing high-quality, valuable content, it’s frustrating to feel like these efforts go unnoticed. Client engagement is a big part of the overall customer experience. How do you create real results? First, what is client engagement? This is the scope of interactions between your clients and your brand. When clients are engaged, they’re more likely to stay loyal and make repeat purchases. Reducing churn should always be a priority, so focusing on your engagement strategy is a must. Believe it or not, your clients want to engage with your business. They want to build real connections. This is how you turn passive users into lifelong superfans. If you’ve noticed your customers are turning passive, it’s time to turn things around for good. It only takes a few key changes to optimize your interactions for the better. The good news is it’s never too late to focus on your client engagement strategy. If you’re building a customer-first business, you can’t ignore the power of engagement. In this guide, we’ll explore 10 strategies to start today that create real, authentic connections again and again. Collect feedback regularly from new and old clients. To begin, make sure you have a strategy for collecting feedback. Your client feedback is one of your biggest assets. Too many brands assume they know what clients want, but they don’t actually take it steps further to ask. Not only does collecting feedback show that you’re listening, but it also gives you a chance to do better. Moreover, research shows that the act of just asking for feedback keeps customers from churning. In simple terms, collecting feedback shows you care. With that in mind, how do you collect feedback? This can be in the form of surveys for existing or new customers, in-app or web-based surveys, or even as a part of support interactions. Including collecting feedback into your strategy makes you a strong, mindful brand. Put feedback into action (and notify your clients). Asking for feedback is the first step. Next, you have to take real action based on this feedback. Better yet, let your existing clients know that you take this feedback seriously by notifying them of your changes. A reported 41% of customers say that when brands reply to their online reviews, they feel understood. Getting feedback doesn’t have to be complicated. As we said, it’s often as simple as just asking. In fact, 68% of consumers left a review for a local business after just being asked. When you’ve gathered insights, share your changes. Perhaps you decide to update your checkout page, or you’re designing a new support tool. No matter what changes you make, update your clients so they feel in on the action. One brand that took customer feedback into account to create real change is the shoe brand Adidas. After hearing from their customers about the importance of sustainability in new products, they introduced the Parley collection of footwear. This new line is created in partnership with Parley Ocean plastic, creating a sustainable option for customers. Tailor all communication to each client’s preferences. When communicating with clients, keep their preferences in mind. Your customers aren’t all the same, and that means you shouldn’t connect with them in the same ways. In this day and age, we have a lot of ways to communicate. If possible, tailor your communication to each client’s preferences. While you likely won’t have the bandwidth to offer every type of communication, some popular choices include: Email: Email might seem old-fashioned in today’s world, but it’s still a highly effective way to engage your clients. Website: Most people prefer self-service through a website, online portal, or help guide compared to other types of service. Phone: For some customers, the tried-and-true phone call holds a special place. Webchat: On the other hand, not everyone likes to pick up the phone to ask questions. A chat support tool is a great way to communicate with these clients. Consider the ways you can adapt your communication to meet your customers where they already are. Choosing one or two options that suit the majority of your clients gives them flexibility when they need to talk to you. Explore your clients’ goals and challenges. Next, look beyond your clients’ purchases. What are their bigger goals? What do they wish to achieve or overcome by working with you? When you dig deeper, you learn how to assist your customers on a meaningful level. When considering goals for your clients, make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. This means: Specific: The goal is specific and describable. Measurable: You have a way to measure your progress. Attainable: Is this goal achievable and realistic? Relevant: What’s the significance of reaching this goal for your clients? Timely: Lastly, what is your timeframe for reaching this goal? By understanding your clients’ goals, you can create products, services, and tools that go the extra mile. This goal should be at the heart of each attraction, giving you the perspective needed to go above and beyond. Share content to help clients meet those goals and challenges. Now that you understand your clients’ goals, you’re prepared to create content with these needs in mind. All content should be valuable and meaningful. This doesn’t mean you have to throw your existing content out the window. Instead, take stock of what you currently have. How can you adapt or repurpose existing content to be even better or beneficial? How do you learn what content your clients’ are looking for? There are a lot of different strategies: Industry research: What gaps are missing in your industry? Could your clients’ benefit from statistics, research, or how-to guides? Competitors: Known as the skyscraper technique, can you build on what your competitors are doing and make it 10x better? Surveys: Again, this is a great opportunity to ask for feedback from your existing clients. Social listening:

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6 Ways A Customer Service Consultant Can Boost Your Business

Leave a Comment / Customer Service, Marketing, Sales / Brittany Hodak

Retaining your existing customers is always more profitable than acquiring new customers. More and more companies are beginning to understand the value of investing in customer retention, but this is a long and bumpy road. A customer service consultant is a professional who knows what it takes to create superfans. These pros help companies retain their existing customers by improving customer-first services and policies. While it might sound obvious to focus on your customers, mastering a big-picture customer experience strategy is easier said than done. When you’re trying to make an impact, you need a customer service consultant who understands the full spectrum of customer experience. To explain this further, this guide will explore 6 ways a customer service consultant can boost your business no matter where you are today. They’ll bring an outside perspective to your customers’ experiences. If you’re like most brands, you’ve checked in with your company’s customer experience many times. This might be something you review quarterly, yearly, or maybe it’s already an important part of your daily strategy. That being said, a fresh pair of eyes is always more valuable. When you’re always looking at your own facts and figures, it’s hard to see the big picture from an outsider’s point-of-view. Since customer service consultants have worked with brands in a variety of fields and at different levels, they’ve seen patterns time and time again. It’s this fresh perspective that’s usually the most powerful for understanding your strengths and weaknesses. In this day and age, it’s important to have objectivity. A skilled consultant has an objective viewpoint. They don’t worry what other people in the organization might think about these findings, and they’re not biased by company politics or past efforts. In other words, they’re the breath of fresh air you’ve been waiting for. They’ll pinpoint where your existing service efforts fall short. Next, it’s important to recognize that a reported 54% of consumers today say they have higher customer service expectations than they had just one year ago. This means it’s no longer good enough to come up with new service efforts blindly. You need a targeted strategy. Skilled consultants have seen it all. They understand the most common problems because they’ve seen them before. They’ve worked through them. Additionally, they’re highly tuned into your customer’s needs in ways you might not even be aware of yourself. For example, if your company struggles to get user feedback, there might be a snag in your post-purchase follow-up strategy. If you’re not asking your users the right questions at the right times, this is something a consultant can pinpoint much faster with their outsider perspective. Because customer service is their sole focus, they have the time and experience to understand your current process, analyze its functionality, and create a new path forward. In a world where repeat customers are worth their weight in gold, this is more important than ever. They build new customer service strategies tailored to your business. Third, customer service consultants truly shine when it comes to making a new customer service strategy built for your business. With so-called customer service gurus and marketing pros online nowadays, everyone has an opinion about what it means to have a great strategy. Unfortunately, customer service isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s not even one-size-fits-most. What worked for a big-name retailer might not work for you. In fact, it almost certainly won’t. Your brand needs a strategy tailored to your business’s capabilities, niche, and needs. While it’s true a customer-first approach is always the right idea, there is no magic formula that works every time. Even within the same industries, you’ll notice stand-out players have their own unique strategies. To see this in action, look at competing multivitamin brands Ritual and Care/Of. Though both companies have similar products and demographics, they still rely on unique customer service strategies. To start, Ritual focuses on simplified content to ensure the customer is informed at every stage of the subscription process. They encourage customers to reach out online, specifically on social media. This works great for their younger target audience. On the other hand, Care/Of starts customers with a personalized quiz to determine which vitamins are right for them. From there, they use an on-page chatbot to answer questions right on the page instead of directing users to social channels. As you can see from these brands, both companies are proactive with their service, but they also follow their own strategy. This is a shining example of why one-size-fits-all never works, and a tailored, trusted approach is key. They’ll connect you to contractors or resources to help you succeed. Fourth, your customer service consultant is just one of the many resources at your disposal. Their in-depth knowledge of the industry means they know the right contractors, resources, and tools that will take your brand’s service to the next level. No business exists in a vacuum. It’s a skill to admit when you need to bring in additional help to move forward. This is especially true for developing companies that aren’t ready to hire a full-time employee to focus on customer service development. A consultant bridges this gap. For most brands, the solution lies somewhere in between hiring contractors, hiring an employee, and finding the right tools. This could mean any of the following: Identifying the right candidate for a full-time position Training existing team members in customer service best practices Assist with finding and onboarding skilled contractors Creating a plan that works with the existing team Identifying the best tools, programs, and software to streamline the customer service process For an outsider to the customer service space, finding and achieving any of the above is time-consuming and costly. On the other hand, a customer service consultant has these tools already in their wheelhouse, saving the brand both time and money. They know what CX metrics you should monitor moving forward. Next, a customer service consultant has a deeper understanding of customer experience (CX) metrics. More importantly, they know which metrics matter

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What Is A Brand Evangelist?

Leave a Comment / Marketing / Brittany Hodak

As any experienced businessperson knows, customers come from many channels. Some find your brand through a social media video, others through a live event, and still others through paid advertising. In this blog, we’re going to focus on another channel that creates new customers: brand evangelists. We’re also going to answer the question, “What is a brand evangelist?” A brand evangelist is a customer who is so passionate about your brand, product, service, or business that they advocate on your behalf. In other words, brand evangelists love you so much that they create more customers by sharing your story. Another term for “brand evangelist” – and one that has been growing in popularity – is “superfan.” Since it was first used in 1918, Merriam-Webster has defined “superfan” as “an extremely enthusiastic or dedicated fan,” and while it’s often used to describe sports, music, or pop-culture fans, it can apply to any vertical. This includes product or service-oriented businesses, from your local grocer to your favorite brand of shoes. Whether you prefer the term “superfan” or “brand evangelist,” these customers exist for every category of product and service, and they come in all ages and from every background and income bracket. Because of this, their impact on your business can be monumental and the importance of creating superfans cannot be understated. So what is a brand evangelist and how can you create them? Let’s talk about that! 🤔 What does brand evangelism look like? A brand evangelist or superfan can come from any background in any industry. This makes answering the question, “What is a brand evangelist, in a literal sense?” a bit harder, as there isn’t a set definition for what “brand evangelism” looks like. In fact, it includes a wide range of activities, and one or another may be more applicable, depending on your brand. Below are a few of my favorite examples: Brand evangelism is… Essentially, a brand evangelist goes out of their way to share their affinity for a given company, product or service. The other details – where they are, what they’re promoting, and who they’re addressing – can vary immensely. However, it’s important to note that unlike influencers or celebrity endorsers, superfans don’t receive payment for their promotions. They share their experiences and preferences simply because they’re so excited about them! Why are brand evangelists/superfans important? That brings me to the next component of superfandom: answering the question, “What is a brand evangelist and why are they important?” In the simplest terms, answering this question means looking at the numbers. Whether we’re talking energy expended, time used, or money earned, the ROI from creating superfans can be massive. Potential customers trust recommendations from friends or family. First, in terms of energy and time, brand evangelists are incredibly effective salespeople. When you sell on your own behalf, you have to introduce yourself and your offering(s) and establish a connection with your “lead.” However, even after introducing yourself and establishing some level of trust, you have to not only explain the benefits of your product or service. You also have to explain the advantages of choosing your brand over your competitors. Although this may seem straightforward, this can be difficult when a customer knows they’re being “sold to,” as they may consider your recommendations to be based on self-interest rather than consideration for their needs. That’s where brand evangelists or superfans come in. Unlike salespeople, brand evangelists have no self-serving reason to promote a brand. They’re not receiving a commission, and they’re not paid to advertise – They’re just passionate! Consequently, when a superfan shares the advantages of your brand, potential customers are more likely to seriously consider their recommendations. In fact, according to Nielsen, 83% of people trust recommendations from their friends and family members while only 18% say they trust salespeople. That gap means that, compared to a superfan, you have to work a lot harder for a lot longer to create a customer. Brand evangelists are the least expensive form of new business. Besides effort and time, brand evangelists are also important in terms of revenue. Because potential customers are so much more trusting of friends and family members, a brand evangelist in either of those categories dramatically increases your chances of turning that first person into a customer. Whether an evangelist shares their preferences in person, through text, or on social media, they’re not simply acting as a reliable source of information for their audience. They’re also the most-trusted method of earned, paid, or controlled advertising that you can hope for. Admittedly, most people may not consider themselves influencers, and many of us may not even realize we’re acting as a brand evangelist in our day to day lives. That said, whether we’re consciously supporting a brand or not, we’re all remarkably influential. In the context of social media, for example, 72% of Americans use social media regularly to connect with hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of trusted peers. In those interactions, that feeling of connection matters, and, as a result, everyone’s words and recommendations hold weight. Don’t believe me? Just ask some of the almost 200 million people who visit Yelp each month looking for reviews! In short, brand evangelists don’t just create new customers with less time and effort than your own salespeople. They also do it at a fraction of the cost, sometimes sharing your brand with thousands of followers or Internet visitors at once and never costing you a dime. That means less time your team members have to spend on the phones and more time they can be providing exceptional customer service, creating more superfans in the long run. It’s a win for you, your team, and your customers! How do businesses create brand evangelists/superfans? At this point, we’ve covered all of the basics of “What is a brand evangelist?” Now, let’s talk about how to create them. In the following four steps, I’m going to introduce you to my Superfan W.A.V.E. methodology. It’s an easy-to-remember mantra that will help

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Why Ed Sheeran’s $1,800 Ketchup Bottle Is His Best Collaboration Of The Summer

Leave a Comment / Marketing, News / Brittany Hodak

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com on August 19th, 2019. It’s been a pretty good summer for Ed Sheeran. He’s currently headlining the highest-grossing tour of all time, his supporting role in the hit movie Yesterday was (in my opinion, anyway) the best celebrity movie cameo in at least a decade, and his new album, No.6 Collaborations Project, topped charts in the U.S. and U.K. And yet, despite a summer that has seen him collaborate with Justin Bieber, Khalid, Bruno Mars, and more, his best collaboration was with a (somewhat) unlikely duet partner: Heinz Ketchup. First, some background. Sheeran is a longtime superfan of Heinz Ketchup—so much of a superfan that he tattooed the brand’s label on his bicep. Earlier this summer, after (reportedly) sending a DM to Heinz with an idea for a commercial, Sheeran starred in a spot for the brand. It was billed as being “from one superfan to another” and showcased Sheeran’s unique brand of humor. It’s been viewed millions of times online. Many fans thought the commercial—and its subsequent behind-the-scenes sizzle reel—would be the end of the story. Then, Sheeran announced a limited series of 150 bottles of Heinz decorated skinned in artwork inspired by Sheeran’s his tattoos. (Get it? He has a Heinz tattoo, so Heinz got an Ed tattoo.) The brand produced 150 collector’s edition bottles of the condiment, packaged in an undeniably cool amp-inspired box. Most are being given to superfans, but three were auctioned last week to raise money for charities. The bottles sold for between $1,300 and $1,800. For comparison sake, the top bid (1,500 GBP) is enough to buy about 760 standard, non-tattooed bottles of the stuff (no fun collector’s boxes included). Is it crazy to pay that much for one bottle of ketchup? Maybe. But, I think it’s worth it to own one of the best celebrity/brand product releases of the year—in fact, I’m kind of kicking myself for not bidding on one. Keep reading to learn why. I’ve spent my entire career marketing to superfans of artists, brands, and entertainers. There are a few reasons this campaign is super smart. First, it’s undeniably authentic. There probably aren’t many people in the world with Heinz tattoos—and the list of superstar, Grammy-winning artists sporting the brand’s tat might be a universe of one. So, the partnership certainly passes the first bar of a smart brand/entertainer entertainment marketing campaign, which is “Is this authentic?” Many high-profile partnerships don’t even get marks for that basic bar, although that should be the bare minimum brands consider when thinking about a partnership with an influencer or celebrity. When I speak to audiences about marketing to superfans, I use the acronym F-A-N to help evaluate a campaign’s potential reach: Is it Fun? Is it Actionable? Is it Novel? Let’s look at each criterion individually as it relates to Sheeran and Heinz’s collaboration. Is it Fun? This partnership absolutely passes the fun test: Sheeran seems to be having a great time in the commercial product, and his social posts about the partnership didn’t sound (at all) like they were written by an agency. Check. Next: Is it Actionable? This is a big one when it comes to celebrity marketing stunts. A lot of times when brands collaborate with entertainers, there’s nothing for a consumer to do, which makes a campaign forgettable or, worse, confusing. Sheeran and Heinz are inviting superfans to win a collectible bottle of the condiment, and encouraging donations to two charities: one chosen by Sheeran and another by Heinz. So, yes—it’s actionable. Not as actionable as, say, a wide-release product that fans could buy at grocery stores everywhere, but much more authentic. Plus, an on-label, shopper-marketing component could still be unrolled. I’m calling “yes” on Actionable. The final criterion in my F-A-N acronym is Novel: Is this something unlike what I’ve seen in this category before? The partnership is undeniably novel, thanks to Sheeran’s tattoos and the fact that he initiated the idea for the ad with the brand. Not only is it unlike what condiment brands have done before, but it’s also ownable in the sense that a competitor won’t be able to repeat it for a long time (if at all). Sheeran fans will have to wait to see if there’s another verse yet to come in this love song to Heinz. If so, we can only hope it will be as F-A-N-tastic as what we’ve seen so far.

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Marketing

Boosting Client Engagement: 10 Strategies To Start Today

6 Ways A Customer Service Consultant Can Boost Your Business

What Is A Brand Evangelist?

Why Ed Sheeran’s $1,800 Ketchup Bottle Is His Best Collaboration Of The Summer

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