If as a small business owner, you are still engaged in the same old school marketing strategies, read on. Here are seven (7) powerful chances are you aren’t getting the best return on your marketing investment.
In today’s highly competitive marketing landscape where the noise is louder and distractions are plenty, it’s no wonder there is so much confusion about what works and what doesn’t work today.
Perhaps, it’s time to leverage a more approach with tools and strategies designed to turn strangers into high value customers.
If you don’t, your brash, hungry competitor will.
In this quick read: 7 Practical Steps to Convert Strangers into High Value Customers, I’ll share with you a step by step plan to court, nurture and convert prospects and customers into super excited fans.
Step 1: Create awareness
If you have the best products and service in the world and no one knows you, consider yourself invisible.
Off the radar.
So how do you get on the radar and before your ideal buyers?
Create content that educates, informs, entertains and is valuable to those you wish to serve and who want the solution you offer.
It’s critical your addresses their pain or pleasure.
Next,
Share it.
Share on your social media platforms, blogs, podcasts, voice devices like Alexa, Google Home, newsletters, events and so on.
Step 2: Get them engaged
This is where you start to build and deepen the relationship – engage and create conversation using multiple channels like Facebook. Instagram, blogs, emails and so on.
Spread it around, like a disease.
Take Nathan Latka, for example, a very successful entrepreneur and podcaster from Austin, Texas.
Back in 2017, Nathan went live on Facebook with cheque book in hand to make random business deals right on the spot before a live Facebook audience.
He engaged his audience in real time by asking for opinions and feedback while they watched every minute of his deal making antics.
Because of this, Nathan became an immediate Facebook sensation and before he had time to breathe, United States television network, CNBC came calling with an offer for his own television show.
In addition, Nathan successfully negotiated a major book deal with a major publishing house.
How did Nathan accomplish this?
By using Facebook Live to create real and authentic engagement.
Be engaging with his audience in real time, viewers and followers got a glimpse of Nathan’s personality and business savvy.
He built trust.
Step 3: Ask for a micro commitment
As prospects get to know, like and trust you (KLT), now is a good time to ask for a micro commitment.
A micro commitment is an offer of something of value in exchange for an email. No sale here.
Your offer can be a:
- Webinar
- Seminar
- E-book
- Cheat sheet
- Demo
- Coupon or anything else your ideal customer deems valuable in exchange for her email.
With an email in tow, you have an opportunity to nurture and court your prospect before you ask for the sale.
Step 4: Turn Them into Customers
Now that you’ve built trust, provided value, proven that you can solve their problems better than your competitors, now is a good time to deepen the commitment.
It’s time to turn them into a customer.
But don’t get ahead of yourself. It’s not time to offer your core product or service. Typically a product or service not designed to make you money.
This offer is usually a low barrier, entry level product. The goal is to transition your prospect from a subscriber or follower into a paying customer.
The high value offer and/or your core product will come later.
Step 5: Surprise and Delight
Congrats! You’ve turned a stranger into a customer.
Here is where you must rise and shine.
Surprise and delight.
First, deliver on your promise – what, when and how you’ve promised.
Your customer expects dependability and reliability.
Next, include something extra. A kind of bonus; something unexpected.
Think about the last time you were delighted by a great experience – you got something you didn’t expect.
How did it make you feel?
Delighted, I am sure.
I am also pretty sure you shared your great experience.
There is a local shoe store where I shop, I enjoy the shopping experience because the owner Ibrahim never fails to delight me. I also get my kind of bonus!
Whenever I walk in, he greets me with a warm smile and says: “Hello my friend.”
It’s warm. It’s genuine.
Even my Millennial daughter loves the experience.
The feeling of happiness, excitement, warm and fuzzy, is the precise feeling you want to create when your new customer experiences your product or service.
Well, any prospect or customer for that matter. That’s how you get them to fall in love with you.
Step 6: Make Them Repeat Buyers
You’ve acquired a new customer with your entry point offer.
You made the conversion.
You have delighted and earned their trust.
Your goal at this stage is to make them a repeat buyer; now is the time to offer your CORE product or service.
It’s time to bring in the real $$$. This is your profitable product.
Along with the purchase of your core offer, you can use the opportunity to offer upsells, add-ons and so on.
Step 7: Make Them A Referral Partner
When an existing customer raves about you, consider it a marketing lottery! It’s a win.
There is no better marketing strategy than a referral.
We trust recommendations from someone we know.
This is why we should be deliberate in creating referral partners in this leg of the customer journey.
Remember Dropbox, the file hosting cloud service founded in 2007? Back then as a start-up they needed to grow their database really quickly.
At the time, their cost per customer was $388 and the product cost was $99. It didn’t make sense.
They knew they had to do something quickly after their SEO efforts failed.
Do you know what they did? They set up a referral program.
You must have seen it you are a Dropbox customer.
The deal was, if you referred friends you could earn up to 16GB of free space.
Did it work?
You bet it did! Beyond their wildest expectations.
In 15 short months they grew from 100,000 to 4,000,000 users, eventually becoming a multi-billion-dollar start-up,
To have success like Dropbox and turn your existing customers into referral partners and brand advocates, here are a few things to consider:
- Make the customer experience memorable so it’s worth talking about
- Ensure your product or service is the best. Add the WOW factor
- Create content that is extremely valuable and shareable
- Implement a referral program and promote it
- Incentivize your customers and make the incentive worthwhile
Leaving your referral to chance is leaving money on the table.
So is leaving your small business marketing to outdated and useless marketing strategies and tools.
It’s your business to help move your prospects and customers along their journey, quickly and efficiently.
Have a plan to address every stage so they get to know, like and trust you.
Do you have a plan? Do you strategize your small business marketing based on the path your buyer takes?
If you are stuck, we are happy to help
