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Marketing Tip of the Week! Know Your Customer

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The most valuable item in your store today is the customer.  Whether they’re right or wrong, you still want them coming back in for more of your products.  Focusing on your customer’s wants and needs will build long lasting relationships.  And its simple with these basic key marketing tips.

WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?!

Identify who are your customers.  Who are they?  How old are they?  What do they like?  These are all basic questions you need to be asking yourself to figure them out.  The better you know them, the better you can serve their individual needs.  How do you accomplish this goal?  Easy, with a little customer service and friendly conversation.  Interacting with your customers is the easiest way to figure them out.  A friendly greeting and asking what brings them in is simple enough, just don’t be too overbearing, because that’s the easiest way to get the customer out of your store.  Take the initiative to strike up a friendly conversation!  The first key is getting to know your customers; they will appreciate that friendly feeling.  I love it when I can have an easygoing conversation, while they are pulling out items they know I’ll love.

WHO ARE THEY, NOW WHAT DO THEY WANT?

Initiate a starting point to figure out your customer’s needs.  If you know them well enough, straight out ask them!  If not, than figure it out with friendly talk.  New customers may come in just to look around or have a specific item they are looking for, but maybe you don’t carry it.  If they walk in and walk straight back out, than you can’t help that, but a lot of times they’ll ask.  Keep note on whether you carried that item or not and you can consider adding a new product or even more of a great product line.  Customers aren’t always easy to break so observe what they pick up and whether they’re interested.  Getting into their head and figuring them out may take a little work, but will be so worth it in the end.  So a little observation and communication never hurts and will get you into that customer mindset.

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD

Build relationships.  This key tip will be greatly appreciated by each one of your customers.  The special feeling of knowing you care and are wanting to better your store through them and for them will make for great customers.  Quality customer service will take you far, but after that you should come up with creative ways to reach all your customers.  Set up a weekly newsletter and social media page.  This will keep your customers up-to-date with your latest products and promotions in store.  Also, a neat little feature might be featuring a customer survey.  You can send it out with your weekly newsletter as an attachment.  Making it a quick survey, asking customers to rate customer service, quality of products, what they mostly shop for and what they would like to see, will make your customers inclined to respond.  It’s quick, easy and specializes to their needs.  The start of new relationships can quickly grow into strong, long lasting relationships.

STRONG, EVERLASTING RELATIONSHIP

Now that you’ve built a strong relationship, maintain it.  Building a relationship was just a waste of time if you’re not going to maintain an on going one.  Customers are always changing, so keep up-to-date on their ever-changing taste and lifestyle.  Always present friendly, helpful customer service and stay connected.

So remember, identify, initiate, build and maintain.  You’ll establish a customer base that will enjoy visiting your store time and time again.  Continue reading “Marketing Tip of the Week! Know Your Customer” »

Marketing Tip of the Day

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The Back to the Basics, 4 part, Marketing Series is coming to an end. In previous weeks, we have talked about Products, Pricing, and Place. If you are reading the tips for the first time, I would recommend starting with Products and reading through the last few weeks. Today, we will be discussing Promotion.

The last “P” of Marketing is promotion. This is the part that everyone relates to marketing; it is extremely important (but so are the other components!). You need to create a promotional strategy, are you going to actively seek your customers or provide the information necessary for them to find you? What type of image or reputation do you want your company to hold? You need to figure that out, then make every conscious effort to infiltrate every part of your organization with that image. This is known as “branding”. This builds your credibility, your customer relationships, and their perceptions of your company.

Promotion is not simply publicity and media. While it is important to use advertising through print, television, radio, etc. to inform your customers, there are more ways! (Of course Social Media tools fall into this category). You can effectively promote your brand through your staff, sales, sales support, public relations, social responsibility, etc. This includes everything from the attitudes and behavior of your companies staff, the appearance of the staff, the appearance of your store, your website, etc.  Every part of your company that interacts with the public should reflect the image you want for your company.

Don’t forget about your budget! Many entrepreneurs love the advertising/promotional aspect of marketing and tend to get carried away, throwing their budget in the wind. It is important that you sit down and create a budget for your promotional plan. This will ensure that you strictly adhere to that budget.

To wrap it up, it is imperative that you recognize every part of your marketing strategy. Even if you already have a plan that is working for you, I encourage you to take the time to reevaluate each component of the 4 P’s and to analyze if you are most effectively addressing each issue. Try looking at your company/product from your customer’s view point, you may see something you have never seen before!

Danial

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