1. How are you getting new customers: a bit about leads
Marketing best practices
What do customers get from you, and what do they get from your competitor? This is the essence of the customer experience, and it’s what differentiates your business. The better you are at shaping that experience, the greater your reach – and your profits – no matter the industry. Force #3 of the 7 Forces of Business Mastery is World-Class Marketing. Fundamentally, it requires knowing:
Who your customers are, and what they want and need How to tell your core story in a way that compels them to buy Everything there is to know about your product or service, so you can educate your prospects about why your offering is the best choice
Strategic social media presence can help make your customer service more responsive, enable you to reconnect and re-engage with your customers and make your marketing truly world-class. Here are eight essential keys to making it happen. Marketing best practices
- Find out where your customers are
Choosing which platforms to focus on is marketing strategy best practices 101. Customers prioritize different social media platforms; factors like age, demographic and interests play heavily into what will catch your customers’ eyes – and where. Developing buyer personas will help you get a better picture of your target market. To create accurate personas, your team will need to conduct market research and reach out to former, current and potential customers. Determine where the majority of your customer base spends most of their time and engagement online, then focus your budget and time there.
2. Be available
Any marketing practices you engage in – no matter how successful – will not produce results if your team is not available. You need to be there for your customers when they need you. In today’s always-on environment, you must meet that expectation by helping your customers access information, get help and share experiences. You also must offer this on their schedule and across different forms of media, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other channels. Spend a few minutes daily monitoring your social media presence, or assign a staff member to do so, and you will gain valuable intelligence about your prospects and customers.
3. Respond quickly and with meaning
Everything is immediate now and your marketing strategy best practices must reflect this. Customers expect prompt interactions. A quick reply is valuable only when you fully understand a customer’s questions, intentions and needs. As Tony always says, your customer’s life is your business’ life. You’ve spent years learning the competition; now it’s time to learn about your customers and respond in a meaningful fashion when they need your help. If you don’t understand what they need, ask questions and deeply listen. This will help you connect with your customers and turn them into raving fans.
4. Understand their goals and help them make informed decisions
Social media channels provide the opportunity to ask your prospects about what they really want from your product or service. In this consultative approach to marketing practices, you’re letting each customer know, “We’re listening, and we want to establish a long-term relationship with you.” When you really understand your customers’ needs, you can take massive action to create the outcomes that make them feel welcome, important and comfortable.
5. Collaborate with your customers to create value
You’re not just marketing a product – you’re partnering with your customers. Successful businesses are more collaborative now than ever before, adding value that helps clients realize their goals. Marketing best practices dictate that you tailor your products and services to the customer, not the other way around, and that begins with your marketing outreach. Start a dialogue with your customers on your social media channels to get feedback on their pain points and how your products or services can make their lives easier. When you work with them to innovate, you know you’re moving in the right direction.
6. Add a personal touch
You probably remember every detail from your company’s earliest days – including the face of your very first customer. Are your current customers as memorable? Current marketing strategy best practices state that individualized relationships now excel routine transactions. A thoughtful social media strategy, properly executed, will enable you to become more familiar with your customers. You’ll then be in a position to ask questions, gather intelligence, become more of a partner and add those personalized touches that lead to loyal customers.
7. Build credibility
Social media marketing practices won’t work if your customer base doesn’t trust you. To build credibility, you need to share information that establishes you as a thought leader in your industry. Constantly selling to your followers is ineffective and potentially counterproductive. To make your business talkably different on social media and drive word of mouth, share insightful and helpful information that matters to your customers. Educate them. Entertain them. Engage them in meaningful conversation. This is the foundation necessary if you want to build a social strategy that leads to a larger customer base and more sales.
8. Measure and refine
What’s working and not working with your social media strategy? Marketing best practices include tools to measure your efforts and determine which platform is driving the most traffic and engagement. When you know what’s resonating with your customers, you can create more of these interactions and reduce the posts that are being ignored. Adopt a practice of constant and strategic innovation to try out new technology, platforms and tools so you’re always on the cutting edge.
2. Building a brand
Your brand identity reflects your company culture
Marketing guru Jay Abraham has spent his career helping business owners create solutions to increase their bottom line. What is the secret to creating a brand image that achieves long-term success and stability for your company? It’s not the ability to crunch numbers or micro-manage your staff. It’s your ability to think and act like a true leader in crafting your brand. Powerful leaders recognize that businesses (and their products) are only as strong as the company’s people. To recognize and leverage a business’ people power, great leaders adopt a mindset of respect and collaboration. What does workplace communication have to do with business branding? By weaving respect and empathy into your communication style, leaders distinguish their company as an ally worthy of people’s loyalty. This creates raving fans and faithful team members, giving you an absolute advantage over the competition.
Creating a brand image that sets you apart
Your brand image reflects your business vision, which in many ways embodies your mindset as a business owner. Jay Abraham’s Strategy of Preeminence lays the foundation for mastering your mindset to distinguish your company from the rest. This strategy entails creating a culture of respect for your team, customers and partners. To create a culture of preeminence, make allies everywhere you go so that the message is clear: “I’m here to serve you and meet your needs.”
You’re here to add real value to your customers’ lives. To create this type of relationship dynamic, show empathy to everyone you interact with, and strive to understand what they really need. With this understanding, you’re able to create meaningful relationships based on trust and respect, which weaves you into the fabric of your target market. Catalyst SF’s John Durham on creating a brand
Tony Robbins’ own Kerry Song sat down with John Durham, CEO of brand marketing agency Catalyst SF, and asked him everything you need to know about how to build a brand.
Kerry Song: Let’s start with the inherent importance of creating a brand identity. Why is this so critical for any business?
John Durham: This is the single most important thing you can do, outside of figuring out what your business model is. Your brand identity is a necessary component to helping your business grow. Because your business identity encapsulates what your business stands for. It’s the purpose, the mission, the look, the feel, the tone and the voice of your company. It’s the determinant of how the audience will perceive you. So many people make decisions about the name, the logo and the colors they use so casually. They are forgetting that each of these decisions should come from the brand identity. There is a science and an art to it. And without it, you will have a difficult time really building your business.
Kerry Song: So where do you start when building a brand? A lot of people have an idea of what they want their business to be, but what is the first step to creating a strong brand identity?
John Durham: You figure out that you want to be in a certain category and you know what type of business you want to establish. Now go look at what else is out there. Look at what other companies in that same category are doing. What are they saying about themselves? What is their look and feel? I always tell clients to “pictures source.” That is, go through magazines and websites and find what they like, what they enjoy and why. Are there certain color schemes? Are there certain logos or slogans? And what do you see that you dislike? This helps you start to capture the tone and feel of your business.
Now that you have the tone and the feel, start to dig a little deeper. Ask yourself what your philosophy is. What do you want your business to be? And how do you go about doing it? This will help you find your voice, and it will enable you to build a quick structure that can start to point you in the right direction towards building your business.
Kerry Song: Is it important to look at how your business sits amidst its competitors? Or do you just focus on who you are internally? How much should you let the environment and market space shape your brand image?
John Durham: We live in a world where you have to understand that there’s no original idea anymore. There are variations on cool ideas and there are variations on products and services. So you have to be cognizant of your competition. Because it’s about the nuances. And to leverage those, you must understand the competitive landscape and know what is out there. If someone is doing something, but not doing it 100% right, and there is a substantial customer base, then it becomes incumbent upon you to really point out the differentiation as to why you are doing it better – even if it is just slightly better, slightly different, and slightly smarter. But you will not be able to do that if you bury yourself and think you’re the only one. Remember, Google wasn’t first to market. In fact, there were a lot of other players in the game. Google just figured out what was missing and took it to the next level.
Kerry Song: What is the best tool business owners can use to most accurately determine where they stand in the market and then magnify their positive differentiators?
John Durham: I’m a big believer in the SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. When we get hired or we get tasked, we’ll sit down and immediately and run through this process for the company. And I will do the same thing for the competitors of any product or service. Because it’s not enough just to understand your own strengths. You must know those of your competition, and then say “Let them do this well. And we’re going to do this well.”
The strengths and opportunities should be on the left, and the weaknesses and the threats on the right. And when you are finished, that left column better be bigger than the right column or you might want to question why you are doing it. But you must be honest with yourself, and also be very clear about what your competition brings to the table. This will help you determine which attributes to magnify and how to best distinguish your brand.
SWOT analysis
Kerry Song: What about core values? Is there merit in establishing those before developing your brand identity?
John Durham: Absolutely. Aside from focusing on the business model and the financials, one of the first things you need to do is establish your mission as a company. This is especially important in today’s world. People care about what they are buying. They care about products and sustainability. They care about the values that companies offer, and a lot of times they will choose their products and services based on those values. You need to write a manifesto that you can be proud of.
Kerry Song: What are your guidelines to writing an effective set of core values?
John Durham: I like the idea of narrowing it down to about four or five core values, and no more than that. It’s about two paragraphs. The first is about what you stand for. The second is how you want to make a fair profit. People are not bothered by people making money. I think we have to get over that myth. People understand that we operate a business. If you are a for-profit business, then you want to make a fair profit. You want to make sure that the products you sell are high-quality, desirable products. And you want to set standards for how your business is run.
Kerry Song: Now that we have a better understanding of how to build a brand identity, let’s move on to what it influences.
John Durham: I always tell people that when you’re starting to build a brand identity, think about your brand’s personality and find 4-5 key words that describe that. Then, use those words to find your tone, feel and voice. And use that to grow the language you use. Every brand, big or small, can carve that out if they know what their personality is and what they want that personality to convey.
Kerry Song: So if marketing, sales and design efforts should reflect your brand identity, what are some questions you can ask yourself to ensure you are doing it correctly? Many small business owners don’t have a team of experts that head up each department. Most wear multiple hats. So whether it’s everyday decisions like the types of images they post on Instagram, or bigger decisions like overall marketing strategy, how do you know you are working in a way that accurately reflects your brand identity?
John Durham: Be sure to never insult your customers. And to never underestimate their attention to detail. David Ogilvy once said, “Never underestimate the power of the American woman.” She’s the smartest customer we know. I always keep that in mind. And I always start with that point of view. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to assume the viewpoint of this individual. On the contrary; one of the best places to start is to ask yourself what you like and what you want. Some people can be so afraid of making a decision on identity because they don’t want to let their own bias or personal feelings come into play. But we often forget that we, too, are customers. And when you bring that to bear, I think people, particularly small business owners, feel a lot better because more often than not, their business is an expression of who they are as people.
Ultimately, your brand identity should be an accurate representation of what your company is about, and what you hope to achieve with it. Business branding is something that takes time, but should be considered a crucial first step in launching your company. After your branding materials are in place, you can look back on these resources for years to come to ensure you’re always staying true to your mission.
As this interview shows, creating a brand might seem straightforward, but it’s not as easy as designing a cool logo and putting it on some marketing materials. You need to live your brand identity. Today’s consumer is tired of traditional marketing, and they know when they’re being “sold” to. Some experts put the number of brands Americans see each day at between 4,000 and 10,000, from the labels on their clothing to the cars they see during their commute. It’s difficult to stand out in our fast-paced, brand-saturated world, but you can do it. Just focus your energy, follow our tips and lock down a powerful brand identity for your business.
3. Strategies for Creating Raving Fans. Give more than you promote
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Create unexpected surprises
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Run your business in open transparency
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Always reward your best clients and give back
How to create raving fans
Learning how to create raving fans can only propel your business’ success. Here are 11 keys to enlist your customers in telling your story – and ensure that your pipeline is always full of qualified, invested prospects.
- Know your company values
Your strategy for creating raving fans always starts with your company values. Take the time to determine what they are and how to apply them in order to create not only a culture of raving fans, but also raving fan employees. Then translate those values – which come from discovering your own passions and purpose in life – into an inspiring vision statement that will guide everything your organization does. When customers see your brand, they must know exactly what you stand for and believe in it as strongly as you do.
2. Target the right audience
Most companies do not thrive by targeting their marketing efforts toward the entire world. Your company values will also help you determine which audience segment to target. Who will best identify with your brand and become true raving fans? You can target people by age, geographic area and even their values and lifestyle – for example gardeners or baseball lovers. Create a buyer persona of your ideal target, then dig deeper to get to know them.
3. Really get to know your customers
Once you’ve determined the right target audience, there’s really only one way to create raving fans: you have to get to know them better than all your competition. When writing one of his books on advertising, business guru Jay Abraham realized that a company’s best shot at connecting with almost any market was to know as much about them as possible.
He suggests you read everything they’re reading, understand everything they’re experiencing and do your best to truly live in their shoes. Then, you can uncover their pain points and find ways for your products or services to solve their problems. A true business owner recognizes that their customer’s life is their business life and the only way to grow their company is to know everything about them.
4. Give advice rather than information
In his Strategy of Preeminence, Jay states that most of your customers won’t really know what they want from your product or service. Though they may be aware of their pain points, they likely won’t know what to do about them. That’s why a data dump from you is not effective in creating raving fans. Instead, you need to take on the role of a compassionate authoritarian. Don’t tell them what you do and hope they’ll figure out how it applies to their own lives. Tell them exactly what to do with your products or services to put them one step ahead of others.
Connect the dots, give them a plan and help them take the logical and obvious next steps. Not only will you discover how to create raving fans, you’ll also develop a reputation of being an innovative leader in your industry.
5. Deliver more than you promise
You will always need to promote your product or service, but as you convert your prospects into customers and, in turn, convert customers into raving fans, give more value than they expect. Surprise and delight them with added value, and they will reciprocate in kind, sharing stories of your terrific service with their friends and contacts – who are then primed to become your next customers.
6. Move your customers to a better place
Meeting minimum requirements is one way to run a business, and it’s a fast track to failure. You and everyone on your team must be committed to doing the work necessary to learn how to create raving fans. You’ve heard the legendary stories about how companies like Zappos take care of their customers. In order to create raving fans, you must empower your staff to take the initiative and make the on-the-spot decisions that inspire lifetime loyalty. You have to create an innovation culture and structure that allows everyone in your organization to consistently meet your customers’ needs.
7. Reward your best customers
Remember, acquiring a new customer is an expensive endeavor for any business. For most of us, this takes up most of our time, energy and money. An easier way to increase your immediate ROI is to continually better serve the customers you already have, essentially creating raving fans who will then recruit more customers for your brand and your profits will soar.
Use your customer data to identify those who frequent your brand, spend more and refer others; these are your up-and-coming raving fans. Let them know how special they are. Offer them exceptional discounts, special offers and first-priority status to ensure that you don’t lose them to an upstart competitor. Also, your best clients deserve your best offers and personalized communication, so incorporate special perks into your customer reward system.
8. Continually ask customers for their opinions
Innovation is essential today. Your business must continue to evolve to effectively meet your customers’ needs in unique and powerful ways, or you face the certainty that someone else will rise to that challenge in your place. To avoid being disrupted – and instead become the one doing the disrupting – you must evolve.
Ask your customers what they need from you to become raving fans. What is the biggest challenge they are facing? Why is it important that they find a solution? And then figure out how to help them, in ways that they can’t help but rave about to others.
9. Run your business in an open, transparent way
Running your business in an open, transparent way is a matter of basic, bottom-line business ethics. Without this piece in place, you will never retain customers, much less succeed at understanding how to create raving fans. Incorporate transparency into every business decision and operation, and make it clear to your customer base that ethics are at the center of your business model.
10. Create a structure that allows you to consistently meet client needs
Without effective customer-centered systems in place, customer service will remain a theory and never truly be a fact. When creating raving fans, you must make sure that your business meets customer needs at every point of contact. Enroll your entire organization in creating and maintaining the structure and systems necessary to deliver the ultimate customer experience every time.
11. Give back in multiple ways
In today’s day and age, people are increasingly aware of the social impact of their purchasing decisions. When creating raving fans of your product, acknowledge this trend and give back: to your clients, the industry and society as a whole.
The secret to living is giving, and no strategy for creating raving fans is complete without it. Your customers will notice when they see you contributing to something other than your bottom line. Integrate ethical business practices at your organization and be transparent about it. Consider what social value your product delivers and lead with that benefit.
To learn more from David on how you can create fanocracy in your business, listen to this podcast:
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/podcasts/cracking-the-code-on-company-culture/
“How can I love my customers more?” Love your clients by finding out what they want/need
- Listen to them
2. Know your industry better than anyone
3. Reward loyal customers
4. Create ongoing, engaging content
5. Be transparent
6. Respond promptly to feedback
7. Commit to innovation
8. Anticipate their needs
9. Turn your weaknesses into opportunities
ers yourself, or work with an agency, you can trust that using influencer marketing strategies will help your brand reach its goals.
https://www.abraham.com/about/jays-philosophy/
People buy feelings, not things