Engaging customers « Zenworkz Blog

Engaging customers

Writing from the Heart

One of my roles as a junior clerk (many years ago) was writing customer letters. These letters required approval from my then two supervisors (to this day, I don’t know why there were two!). Sorry I digress; I became increasingly frustrated by the changes that were made to my letters by two people with very different writing styles; that I decided to play a trick on them both. Pretending I was finding one matter difficult to write about, I asked one supervisor for help and he virtually wrote the letter for me. I then sought approval from my other supervisor, who proceeded to correct the copy and rewrite the letter.

I then asked to see them both, showed them the letter where they had corrected each others styles, thanked them for their guidance and told them that from now on I would be writing my letters in my style, which I knew was quite adequate in fulfilling my role. End of story!

The reason I remembered this long forgotten occurrence is that over the holiday break I have been mulling over my own writing style and whether it is “good enough” for blogging? Recalling this story reminded me, that writing from the heart is about communicating with your audience and writing in a way that you feel comfortable with. Yes, there are very many skilled wordsmiths who offer excellent services but I believe that if you want to build trust with your online audience, your words should be your own. People need to know the authentic you, and in knowing the authentic you, can build a relationship which is the only way people will “buy” what you’re selling, whether its your service, your products or yourself!

I would love to know your story? Please leave me a message?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their differential advantage, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. She coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to request coaching – please contact.

Engaging customers / Marketing Masterclass / Value Proposition — No Comments
15
Oct 12

Marketing Masterclass – Creating Compelling Customer Value Propositions

In simple terms, a ‘value proposition’ is the expression of the benefits that customers receive when they purchase a specific product or service from your business. Your product or service value proposition is a powerful statement designed to engage the minds and hearts of your customers by stating the relevant advantage, or promise that will be delivered by purchasing from only you. It can be part of your branding, advertising or sales brochures, as a tag line appearing on product packaging or website copy, or communicated directly when speaking with your customers.

Creating your value proposition provides the foundation for your relationship with your customers; and it answers the question: Why should the customer buy from you?

What your customers want to hear, is a clear statement that demonstrates that you understand their needs and wants, that you recognise the problem they want to solve, or the result they want to achieve, followed by a specific offer or explanation as to how you are going to deliver that promise.

Your value proposition will explain to customers, how buying your product or using your service will provide the desired outcome; and it should explain how your business is uniquely positioned to deliver that outcome.

The most important guiding principle for creating a compelling, customer-focussed value proposition is this: the value proposition should focus on customer needs, not on product or service features. The statement details the benefits to the customer of using your products or retaining your services.

In creating a value proposition, you should ensure that it incorporates the following as a minimum:

Define your business using customer-centric wording; it should describe the solution your business provides for its customers.
Must clearly demonstrate that you understand the customer’s needs and wants: why they should consider doing business with you.
Should outline your specific offer and how your offer will meet the customer’s needs and wants.

Once you establish these three things, your value proposition can then go on to explain how your product or service addresses those needs and wants, and where possible, provide some tangible proof that backs up your claims.

Creating a compelling, customer-focussed value proposition is the first step to finding new customers and doing more business with your existing customers. What follows, however, is the hard part: delivering on your promise.

Recap Process Step: Capture each question in a document: save it as My Business Marketing Plan and let’s continue?

Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment here or on Facebook?

To participate in MARKETING MASTERCLASS visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Branding / Content / Engaging customers / Niche Marketing / Online Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
29
Aug 12

Social Media Etiquette for Business (updated)

The rules for engagement or etiquette, may not change significantly but social media has changed markedly since I last blogged about this subject.

I thought it was time for an update, because I still hear customers say that they are unsure of the rules, which leads to inaction, and undercapitalising social media’s power. Here are some basic do’s and don’ts for engaging with social media to help grow your business:

Have a clear purpose. Think about why you want to use social media for your business and state that clearly in your tag line and general page information. This means when potential customers come across your business, they are clear that you have something to offer them. This clear purpose also helps to give you guidance for the criteria of content that you post. But … don’t treat all social networks the same because each has a different approach and audience. As a general rule of thumb:

Facebook is like being at a party of your friend, with their friends;
LinkedIn is like being at a business networking event;
Twitter is like a magazine front page – short bylines to entice you to read more; and
A blog is like business conference.
Pinterest is like a picture magazine – that entices you to buy, like and follow people you connect with visually.
You-Tube is like a 1- 3 minute advert, that can be both informative and entertaining.

Build your online brand. Establish a strong brand online so when people browse your social media business pages, they will get an immediate sense of your business offer. In other words, don’t try to cover everything that is topical; keep your posts and sharing closely aligned to what is relevant to your brand. Figure out what business niche you want to occupy and build your brand around that. Want to know more about defining a niche market, download a free guide here?

Set guidelines for your use of personal and professional. It’s ok to overlap personal and professional in social media today, especially for a services business because our person and professional lives entwine significantly, but it’s important to demonstrate difference that leverages and enhances your brand. You should ensure that whatever personal elements you blend into your business profile supports your business goals and doesn’t damage the perception of your business brand.

Create content that others can forward, share, repost, and retweet. This is even more important today. The core of your strategy should be creating meaningful, interesting content that potential customers will want to read and share.

Use your common sense. Think before you post, put yourself in your customers shoes – what will they think about this. This also applies to your personal profile, if your business pages are linked. As an example, the personal profile of a wellness practitioner needs to fit the image that may be expected by your potential fans and customers – unfair perhaps but true. When you are your business, you are your business all the time, especially in online media.

Don’t neglect replies. Social media’s big difference from traditional broadcast media is just that: it’s not about one-way broadcasting – it’s about discussion and engagement. Connecting on an engaged level to make your brand feel personal and relate-able is what the social media audience is looking for.

Don’t claim to be an expert. In Australia, small poppy syndrome dictates that there’s nothing more off putting than someone who boasts about themselves. Instead, be humble and demonstrate your expertise with that very authentic knowledge and insight that only you can share.

I’d love to hear your thought’s? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to create their authentic marketing message, attract more ideal customers and create a marketing plan to achieve success. She runs local workshops in Northern NSW and coach customers online and by phone – if you would like to attend the next scheduled workshops or request distance coaching online – please contact me.

For more regular Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Authentic Message Creation / Branding / Customer Research / Customer Service / Engaging customers / Market Research / Online Survey — No Comments
22
Aug 12

Being the Best You Can Be for the Customer that Matters

Being the best in your small business marketplace, requires engagement with the customers that matter most to you, and enabling the formation of a long term connection. It’s a way of doing business that aligns your services and products with your best customers wants and needs. As a result, your “brand marketing” offer will be targeted and more successful gaining new customers over time.

This approach to marketing requires that you think deeply about your customers; understand their wants and needs; consider the scenarios in which they’re most likely to purchase your service or product; and how they interact with your informational messages and content.

You need to carefully research the customers that matter. These customers today have taken control of social media and are placing greater demand on you to engage them in a one-on-one marketing conversation. To know these customers, research must enable you to measure your “best” in whatever you do, through your customers viewpoint.

Growth of social media means that businesses must understand and optimise every interaction, both off and online. Meaning interaction with customers in a way that establishes positive, emotional responses to form meaningful relationships with your brand and message. Over time, these customers will become your best marketing advocates and promoters.

What remains certain – a strong brand message and customer relationship will create business value; and these relationships are founded on consistent delivery of a relevant business offer and good customer service.

What is constantly changing – maintaining a position as the best and the challenge in meeting customer service expectations. You can have the greatest impact on improving your customer’s service experience by ensuring that you consistently deliver what is promised and expected. Consistent delivery in meet changing customer service expectations, requires research, data, good process and constant situational reviews to ensure you continue to meet those customer wants and needs.

Taking an authentic marketing approach, developing insights into your customer wants and needs, and understanding what motivates them requires effort and investment. Figuring out what you stand for and the core marketing message you present to your target customer market as a brand, is easier said than done, but is easier with the help of a skilled marketer.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Marketing Offer: For a short time only, Zenworkz can provide a quick survey link on your social media wall; which asks your choice of 5 key questions, to gain insight about the customers that matter, your followers and fans. It can be delivered for an unlimited number of responses, with an emailed response report. Introductory pricing $180 +GST for a limited time *conditions apply.

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to research their customer market; create their authentic marketing message; attract more ideal customers; and create a marketing plan to achieve success in 2012/2013. She runs local workshops in Northern NSW and coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to attend the next scheduled workshops or request distance coaching online –please contact me.

Visit my website and subscribe for monthly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Advertising / Authentic Values / Branding / Engaging customers / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Selling / Trust — No Comments
14
Aug 12

Telling Stories and Ruling the World (apologies to Plato)

Good marketing promotion has always been about building a strong relationship with your audience through telling your story. And building relationships with an audience of potential customers, is about being relatable and matching values.

Why are values important in your marketing promotion? Values represent what you stand for or believe in; and your values form the foundation of your personal and business branding message.

Your personal branding message is what sells you, your services, and helps you develop relationships with potential customers. Your business brand is what makes your business recognisable and sets it apart from others.

People will ultimately buy from those they know, like, and trust. That’s why telling your own story is so important. While your story is not a sales pitch, it is and should be seen unashamedly as self promotion. You just can’t create something fabulous, you have to communicate that fabulousness to your potential customers. It will be the story of your passion, your ideas, your values and the medium that people (who you ultimately want to buy from you), will get to know you, like you and trust you.

When people land on your web or social media page, meet you or walk into your office; they should understand within seconds what you are all about. Your blog posts should communicate that personal story directly or indirectly. Every piece of promotional material, including your story, that you put out should be put out with your potential customer in mind.

Telling your story can help you and your potential customers by:

Displaying a clear values message or value proposition, your ideal customer will know very quickly if they trust you and want to do business with you.
Explaining passionately why you do what you do, which also helps potential customers understand you and trust you
Sharing something about yourself, revealing the real person; will enable customers (and suppliers) to see what you’re like to work with and for
Clearly identifying a profile of your ideal customer, will encourage them to contact you

The bottom line is “be who you are” and make that your difference. Your values form the foundation of your personal brand. Your personal brand is what sells you and your branding is what makes your business recognisable and sets it apart from others. In sending out a clear message, your ideal customer will know very quickly if they trust you and want to do business with you.

Never forget that businesses are ‘people’ too, and in revealing the real you, you offer a sense of trust and assurance that the business is real, ethical and has integrity. Given the exponential growth of online video and social media, communicating your own story will have a big advantage over those that don’t reveal anything about themselves.

I would love to know how you feel about revealing the real “you” – so, please leave a comment?

Visit my website and subscribe for monthly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Attracting Customers / Authentic Marketing / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Branding / Engaging customers — 1 Comment
7
Aug 12

Why should customers buy from you?

In your journey to attract and keep new customers, unique and authentic messages work best. Today, a small business must understand and optimise every interaction with customers in a way that establishes positive, emotional responses to form meaningful relationships with you and your message.

Getting the message right for what your business sells is important, because it provides the basis for your business relationship with your customers; and it answers the question foremost in every potential customer’s mind: Why should I buy from you? Over time, these customers will become your best marketing advocates and promoters.

Here are 3 tips to help you to create your authentic marketing message and grow your business:

Any authentic message must be simple: Put yourself in the shoes of potential customers and ask “Are my messages easy to understand? Do they motivate customers to purchase?” When constructing your authentic message, you need to first research your ideal target customers. Then visualise who they are and write directly to them.

Benefits – not features, will grab your targeted audience’s attention: Your customers want to hear a clear, simple message that demonstrates that you understand their situation – that you recognise the problem they wish to solve, or the outcome they wish to achieve. Followed by a specific offer or explanation how the benefits of your products or services will help them address their situation. A simple authentic message like this will be the single deciding factor for customers choosing you over someone else.

Tell your authentic story: Potential customers buy from people they know, like, and trust. Building trust begins with sharing the story of your business and the people behind it. Telling your authentic story helps both you and your prospective customers by:

Demonstrating your values, so you naturally attract customers who relate to you
Explaining why you do what you do, which helps prospective customers understand you and trust you
Sharing your unique persona, enabling customers to understand what you’ll be like to work or deal with

In today’s crowded marketplace, with new competitors emerging from around the world, distracted audiences, and almost saturation marketing of products and services; it is more important than ever to ensure that when you have the attention of a potential customer, you are able to offer a compelling and authentic reason for doing business with you.

Taking an authentic marketing approach, developing insights into your customers’ needs and wants, and understanding what motivates them requires effort and investment. Figuring out what you stand for and the core authentic message you present to your ideal target market as a brand is easier said than done, but is easier with the help of an Marketing Coach.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please feel free to leave a comment or question below.

Visit my website and subscribe for monthly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Advertising / Attracting Customers / Authentic Message Creation / Authentic Values / Coaching / Engaging customers / Integrated Marketing Strategy / Keep Calm & Keep Marketing / Marketing 101 / Selling — No Comments
17
Jul 12

Keep Calm and Keep Marketing Part 2 – Focus on Marketing Tactics

Recently I responded to a request to help small businesses that were feeling despondent because of falling sales and general feelings of frustration with marketing a small business in difficult, trading times. In this series of posts, Part 2 will focus on marketing tactics you can do to survive and thrive.

Firstly don’t be tempted to stop marketing! This is not the time to cut back on marketing activity. The key to building customer awareness is to take consistent, regular action. Be sure to keep your marketing activities going at least six months so that you can track your rate of return.

Promoting your products or service, little and often is better than one large, expensive campaign. The more you crop up in potential customer’s awareness, the more they feel that something is drawing them to you. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this from my customers – it was meant to be! Little did they know it is my marketing tactic.

Identify your best product or service by it’s revenue margin; then focus your promotional and selling efforts on this only. Add as many low cost promotional options as you have time for, like Twitter and Facebook Pages to broadcast valuable information about how to solve customers problems or bring them joy. Update your LinkedIn profile regularly with updates about your business and any valuable content such as blog posts.

Work out how you are unique to your best customer and focus on doing this better. Define what your unique marketing difference is and promote that consistently. Being different and finding that difference is easier in a service based business because YOU are unique. Finding the difference in a product market, means adding or augmenting your products with value added services, like lay-by’s, special deliveries, or exceptional customer service – there are a thousand different options. The secret is understanding what you need to do to make your service or product a vital part of someone’s life to the extent that they just won’t be tempted by your direct competitor’s offers.

What makes your marketing message unique is your story, your purpose, and your values. What makes your message compelling is that it is customer focused – it speaks to the customers hot button that your service or product fulfils as a necessary part of their life or business. It must tap into the emotional metaphors: looking good, feeling good, being successful, rewarding themselves – refer to Maslow’s Hierarchy of highest needs.

Finally, recognise that you can’t always do this alone and if you are, not with peace or joy. To be able to hire support, you need to focus on sales and cash flow. You may need support from someone who can guide you? A coach or mentor can look at your business and your progress with an honest and objective eye; and guide you away from costly mistakes and focus on a direction that may well challenge you; but will also bring you the business success you desire.

I’d love to hear your thoughts? Please leave a comment below:

About the Author: Teresa Bassham of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing inspires small businesses to develop and use an empowering Marketing and Communications Plan for Business Profitability … see my full services at www.zenworkz.com and while you are visiting my website – subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related to authentic marketing.

Advertising / Attracting Customers / Engaging customers / Integrated Marketing Strategy / Marketing Analysis Tools / Social Media / Uncategorized — No Comments
12
Jun 12

Shaping Social Media Strategy with Tradition Marketing Models – AIDA

The acronym AIDA stands for Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. This is the most simple and rudimentary of marketing models and is still relevant today when it comes to social media and internet marketing strategies.

Each level of AIDA can help you set your marketing and sales objectives, decide what to measure, and create relationships between each level of the model. Understanding the flow of activities through each level will help you align your measurements and analytics with your marketing and sales objectives.

Here’s some tips on how to apply this model to your social media and internet strategy, and how the model and measurements are evolving in the social media age.

Awareness: Awareness is social media’s greatest benefit. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and other networks are built for generating awareness. These networks are not going to be your point of sale. Instead, they are your communications portal, and lead potential customers back to your sales landing page, blog, and website, where you will be making your sales conversions. The goal of generating awareness, is letting people know about your business products or services; and that you can solve a problem or satisfy a need they may have. At the awareness level, comments, conversations, interaction and valuable content to share, are key measures.

Interest: Now that you have their attention, you need to get customers interested in your product or service. You can improve interest with special offers; compelling reasons why you can satisfy their needs better than the competition; or how you can solve customers’ problems. Benefits (and not features) weigh greater at this level, and social media can help you amplify customer interest. Following a strategy of linking social media posts to targeted landing pages will provide you with metrics, such as CTR (click through rate), retweets (of content, promotions and links), and comment about your specific products or services, that you will help you refine your promotions.

Desire: Social media can help improve desire through engagement, but to facilitate someone’s desire to buy, you need to have a website that makes purchase easy. Potential new customers will give up if your process has too many steps, despite a great offer. The user interface must be built with the customer in mind. Your website makes a huge impression, people will judge your business by it, so take the time to go through your site – improve the presentation and the shopping cart experience. Take the customer from interest to desire with a clean, easy to navigate, information rich, and functional site. Metrics that matter at this level are bounce rate, time on site, pages viewed and incoming links.

Action: Now that your customers are ready to buy your product or service, you need to complete the transaction. While it is possible to purchase from Facebook, if you have several products or services, having a website will be your best option; and while social media can influence the action through the previous levels, it’s not going to have the same influence as your own website. You need to make it easy and obvious for your customer to complete your desired action (purchase, sign up, lead form, etc.). The action is also where you can calculate some of your final metrics, like sales conversion rate and return on investment. This is where you can see how your strategies are performing and the final impacts of your social media promotions.

AIDA’s Flaws: AIDA is only a rudimentary representation of a marketing and sales process and it’s not a perfect model. Keep AIDA in mind as you shape your social marketing strategy. It will help you focus and prioritise your marketing and sales objectives for success.

I would love to know if AIDA works for you? Please leave a comment below.

While you are visiting my website – subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related to authentic marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

Authentic Marketing / Engaging customers / Online Marketing / Relationship Marketing / Social Media — No Comments
6
May 12

10 Tips for a Facebook Page Engagement Party

Increasing Business Page engagement can be compared to networking at a business function with customers; where you may know some well and others you would like to know better. To increase your engagement carry out the same tips on your Facebook Business Page, as you would at a business function.

Introduce yourself to someone new and listen actively to what they tell you.
Ask questions about what that person says to look for shared interests and opportunities to deepen the relationship.
Tell a funny or light hearted story that relates to their area of interest but check for responses to what you say.
Acknowledge the other person’s point of view and encourage more comment.
Provide some insights of value by listening to their interests and begin with them in mind.
Be entertaining, educational or inspirational depending on what you are able to find out about the other person.
Be true to yourself and authentic, don’t try to be an expert in someone else’s field.
Don’t dominate the conversation or try to sell yourself or your business.
Have a range of engaging tools in your kit bag – quotes, pictures, video, audio, and questions.
Show that your care about others, like and respond to what they say.

When you have done all that, invite others to join in the conversation, introduce your new friends, identify other influencers and move through your engagement cycle again.

If you like what you find in this list, please share it with your friends to help us all have a better engagement party.

Are these tips working for you? Leave your comments below?

About the author: Teresa Bassham is the principle of Zenworkz Authentic Marketing, and is passionate about educating small and medium business professionals to research their customer market; create their authentic marketing message; attract more ideal customers; and create a marketing plan to achieve success in 2012/2013. She runs local workshops in Northern NSW and coaches customers online and by phone – if you would like to attend the next scheduled workshops on 6^th & 7^th June, 2012 or request distance coaching online –please contact me. While you are visiting my website – subscribe for weekly e-News updates on all topics related marketing.

For daily Authentic Marketing updates visit and “like” my facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/Zenworkz.Authentic.Marketing

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