Someone wrote me recently and
said "I don't think every small business has the need
nor inclination to send regular follow up emails."
The "no inclination" part I can believe,
but no need? Not unless you have all the business you can
handle. Otherwise you need to collect (opt-in) email
addresses at every opportunity, and use them to establish
and build relationships with your prospects and customers.
The key word in that sentence? Relationships.
If you want to promote your business effectively online,
relationship marketing is key.
WHAT IS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING?
Relationship marketing is the act
of building close relationships with existing customers
and prospects. It's about having an ongoing dialogue
with them over a period of time. It can also include
gathering customer information and analyzing their
behavior, but don't let that scare you. You can practice
relationship marketing on a small scale and get plenty of
benefits without implementing a full-blown system.
You may not have the financial
resources of Office Depot or WalMart, but as a small
business owner, you can do something they can't -- have
real person-to-person relationships with your customers.
There are 2 critical components to making
this strategy work: a relationship-oriented website and
the consistent use of email to stay in touch.
RELATIONSHIP-ORIENTED WEBSITE
The relationship marketing process starts
when a visitor arrives on your website. If you want the
relationship to progress beyond "hello", make sure it's
a wonderful experience. Invite her in, introduce yourself,
and offer refreshments in the form of free information
or something equally enticing.
At this point you should ask for her
email address so you can send more valuble information
in the future. This is crucial to your success - you must
obtain the email address on the first visit. You may not
get a second chance.
Once you have the email address,
point your visitor toward helpful resources. A restaurant
could offer recipes or discount coupons. A plumbing business
might offer tips for avoiding costly repairs. A small
business site could offer a collection of articles.
Whatever the business, there's some sort of information
or gift customers would find useful. Give valuable
information freely and don't worry about giving too
much away.
Ideally you'd have the ability to
collect information about individual customers, but
not all small businesses can afford the technology
needed to track individual preferences and provide
different experiences based upon them. If you can't,
don't worry about it. But do try to collect first name
at a minimum so you can personalize emails.
What else characterizes a
relationship-oriented website?
TWO-WAY DIALOGUE
Make it easy for customers to
contact you and encourage them to do so; what you
want is a two-way dialogue between you and your
customer. When in doubt, ask them what they want.
They'll tell you. If you find out what your customer
wants and become a friend, you will beat most of the
competition hands down. And be human -life is in the details.
FAQs
Make it easy for people to find the
information they need by providing online help files.
Make a note of questions you're asked repeatedly and
compile them into a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
FREQUENT UPDATES
If you want people to visit frequently,
you must give them a reason -- new content, a fresh look
every how and then, information updates. A website is never finished.
MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE
If you're selling something, you should
offer an ironclad "no questions asked" money-back guarantee!
Then honor it. Sure, there are jerks out there who will try
to rip you off. Consider it a cost of doing business online.
FREE OFFER
And of course the most important thing
on the first page and every page is your subscription box
with offer of a FREE report or other incentive your
customers would value. Above all, show your customers
that you're in it for the long haul, not the quick score.
No flashing banners screaming "Buy Me!". No pressure to
hurry up and buy before midnight. Set yourself apart from
your competition. Slow and steady wins the race...and
builds relationships.
CONSISTENT USE OF EMAIL
If you are emailing your local customers,
sending them offers, coupons, and useful information about
your business, you are more likely to get their business
than some stranger out in cyberspace. And if you're sending
out a newsletter, you'll be light years ahead of all of your
competition, local or not!
Maybe the idea of having to write a
newsletter is the stumbling block. If so, don't call it
an ezine and don't lock yourself into a schedule. But
just as you use snail mail, newspaper ads, radio or tv
ads to keep your name in front of your customers, you
should use email to do the same thing. And it's a lot
cheaper than any other form of advertising, so why on
earth wouldn't you?
Here are a few ways to use email to
create "brand" awareness within your local community.
KEEP IN TOUCH
Email your customers and prospects
on a regular basis, at least twice a month. Any less
than that and they may forget you. Don't contact them
just to sell them something. Send them useful information,
related articles, notice of new content on your website,
product announcements, etc. Your goal is to keep in
touch so that if they or someone they know needs your
product or service, you'll be the one they call.
SUPPORT
When customers purchase a product
or service, use email to help them get the most out
of it. For a book or publication, it could be an email
"walkthru" series highlighting important topics, or
telling them what they would learn if they'd only read it!
JOINT VENTURES
If at all possible, you should do
joint ventures with neighboring businesses. Band together
with several other (non-competing) businesses and form a
coupon exchange. Every week or two, each of you send the
same email to your customer list, with email coupons for
each business, or a link to a web page with the coupons.
TIMELY RESPONSE
When your customer does "raise her
hand", reward her with a quick response! There's
nothing more de-motivating than an unanswered email
to someone who claims to want my business. More
than once I've purchased a product and written a
followup email, only to have it go unanswered.
Guess who won't get another dime of my money? I know
all of this sounds like an awful lot of work, and I
won't lie to you...relationship marketing is time
consuming and can be hard work. If it were easy,
everybody would be doing it.
Building a website that focuses
on the customer takes more thought than slapping up
an ego site (all about you). Maintaining a mailing
list can be a real pain. Unsubscribing people who
can't seem to read. Potential spam complaints.
Answering subscriber questions. Responding to
feedback or inquuiries.
It's so much easier to forget
the whole thing, which is what most people do.
On the internet, if you want to rise above the
clutter, you must do something to distinguish
yourself from the masses. You must be willing
to do what others are not willing to do. For a
small business, that means relationship marketing.
Sharon Fling is the author
of "How To Promote Your Local Business On the
Internet", and creator of GeoLocal.com, the web's
largest resource for using the Internet to promote
small local business online. Visit http://www.geolocal.com
and subscribe to GeoLocal's free Tip of the Week.
