It’s easy for your company’s message to get lost in a sea of similar pitches. In order to stand out and in order for your brand to be remembered, you have to stand apart from the rest. The competition in the market is stiff and it is a must for marketers to be very creative and to think out of the box to capture the attention of consumers. A very good tool in the marketer’s arsenal is social media.
Social media is very powerful and if you want to succeed, you have to utilize it to its fullest potential. It can be a very good way of showing consumers that you care about them and not just about your sales. Consumers want more than catchy songs in ads, they want a company which will help them solve their problems. Social media can be used as an avenue where consumers can ask and businesses can answer their queries. How do you go about it?
[heading type=2]Become a resource for customers[/heading]
There are hundreds of companies out there which are competing with yours. They are all jostling for the customer’s attention and they all want customers to subscribe to their newsletters, click on their links and read their articles, among other things. While the usual practice has been to bombard customers with constant messages or having contests, this will not create long lasting relationships with them.
What you should do instead is show consumers that you care about the by answering their questions and giving them helpful information. Consumers are more inclined to remember companies which have actually helped them by answering their questions than companies which have nice advertisements on television.
[heading type=2]Ask questions[/heading]
In order to give customers exactly what they need, you have to get to know them first. This is why it is important to ask questions. To get real answers, you must ask real customers. However, you should know how customers access their information first. Doing so will give you a good idea of when to ask and where to ask. If your customers use Facebook frequently, what you can do is create a Facebook page and post your questions there and get customers to participate.
[heading type=2]Listen to your customers[/heading]
Aside from focusing on questions and answering customers’ queries, it is also a very good idea to examine the chatter on social media. This will help you determine implicit customer desires and will allow you to provide answers even before they ask questions. Customers would definitely go for a company that invests time and effort to get to know them, as well as their needs.
[heading type=2]Practice transparency[/heading]
Answer questions to the best of your knowledge and provide the answers even before customers ask you to do so.
[heading type=2]Patience is a virtue[/heading]
Not all marketing efforts can bring about overnight change or results. You have to be patient in waiting for the fruits of your labor but this does not mean that you have to wait for years to see changes. You have to realize that you are planting the seeds of your success. It will bloom in time provided that you constantly care for it. Do not give up after your initial foray or you will be wasting your time and effort.
[heading type=2]Be the company customers can trust[/heading]
Trust is important if you want to convert leads and make customers loyal to your brand. This is why it is a necessity to be very careful with all the information you put out there. Always put customers ahead of your profits, listen to them, give them the information and make sure that information is correct and well-researched and practice transparency.
[heading type=2]Highlight your marketing efforts[/heading]
You have invested a lot of effort, time and money on research and have done the preparations for your next marketing campaign. What do you do next? You tell everyone about your new campaign of course. If you don’t, no one will be aware of it and all your efforts will have gone in vain. Keep in mind that launching is just the beginning of your journey and not the end.
Doing all that has been outlined above will help ensure that you convert leads to customers and turn these customers into loyal customers who will stay with you for life. Do not just focus on selling something today. Yes, you will get a profit from that sale but imagine what you will get if that customer decides to stick with you for a lifetime and tells her family and friends about your great product and company? Market your product and company based on the needs of your customers and not based on what you need and you will be a roaring success.