4 Reasons Your Customers Are Better Marketers Than You Are?

Let’s face it fellow small business owners: the amount of information available to your customers today has deemed your traditional marketing efforts completely ineffective. When customers want to buy something they are more likely to talk to their peers or ask opinions on social media before they come to you. With this information shift, we as business owners need to take advantage of the power of the consumer. In today’s world, the consumer can be a better marketer that the marketing staff that you employ 9-5.

Here are 5 things that your customers can do for you that your marketing department can’t.

       

1. Fully Understand Your Buyers Needs

Nobody understands the wants and needs of your customers, like your customers. This may seem obvious, but most business owners today forget to ask for the opinion of their loyal customers. Encouraging customers to give their opinions on your products and service not only provides valuable insight as to what you are doing right, what you are doing wrong, and what they want to see next. Encouraging customers will also help them to understand, just how important their opinions are to the success of your business.

2. Truly Connect With Your Potential Customers

      

       90% Of Customers say buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. This statistic is proof that there is no more important source that the voice of the consumers peers!  Before stepping foot into your business, customers trust their peers to give them a full and unbiased opinion of your products or services.  As much as you try and delight your customers, your marketing and sales department can never connect with them on the same level their peers can.

3. Exponentially Boost Your Social Reputation

When you look at the current state of your businesses’ social media accounts, it is likely that you feel your current efforts are not enough. There is nothing you can do to change your social reputation faster that your customers can. Have your heard of the term trending? Well topics don’t trend because

a business posted a tweet. Topics Trend because of the massive amount of consumer interaction that the CONSUMER generates about the topic. Don’t be shy in encouraging your customers to comment and promote your brand on social media.

4. Help To Penetrate New Markets

Are most of your customers from a certain geographic area, or a certain demographic? If you answered yes and still don’t feel your marketing tactics are working,then it is likely that you are not utilizing the reach of your customers on social media. Your customers and thousands of friends and followers that could potentially be getting your message, most of which are of the same demographic. The best way to get your customers reaching out to their friends and followers, is to create great content. Generate great content that your customers can’t help but share with the world!

Thanks For Reading!

Randy Delling

Social Stride

Checkout Our New Website www.socialstride.org

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Why and HOW to Find Your Targeted Audience

When I watched Steve Forbes interview Jessica Simpson about her billion-dollar clothing company, I realized how brilliant this woman really is.  Of course she has her corkiness, but so do I.  I didn’t think I’d watch her interview and have my brain wheels turning, but boy was I wrong!

She says, “We like to see the trends that are coming. We are behind.” She is aware of her targeted audience of “everything beyond New York and L.A.” She knows women take time to see what trend they like, and she understands that. She waits to see what fashion trend women admire and will last beyond one season, and then makes a great color scheme that a wide age range will like, and creates something amazing and affordable. It’s not just affordable clothes, it’s trends that most people admire but couldn’t get their hands on yet.

She dug deep into her targeted audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml2oObyWFmc

This is where I think a lot of companies thrive at or fail at. Every single company will have a low period, but what gets them back or makes them fall off determines if they can rediscover their targeted audience.

Here’s the 2 major factors you’ll need to keep in mind (and keep rechecking) when you are finding your targeted audience:

1.    Demographics

This isn’t just age, gender, and location. You need to think into who you really want to target by answering these demographics also:

• Income
• Occupation
• Education
• Ethnicity
• Marital status
• # of children

Some of these things may not be relevant to your business, like ethnicity, but some of these are something to really think about. If you are a small town farmer, you’ll still want to target families who have mouths to feed and can afford local produce. Reevaluate what you first decided was your demographic, dig deeper, and come up with a campaign to get that specific audience this year.

2.    Psychographics

Psychographics tells you the WHY, not just the WHO. In order to tell you why your targeted audience works (or is failing), you need to closely watch their

• Behaviors
• Values
• Personality
•  Interests
• Lifestyle

For example, you should know when most people view your website, what pages on your site are most clicked (and what factors about it make it so liked), what graphics tend to attract your clients, and what other types of posts your market likes/shares.

Analyzing psychographics can be challenging because there is no clear answer; you have to play psychologist, emphasize with your market, and change accordingly with the way they work.

Just like Jessica Simpson, you need to know how your demographic thinks; which may be completely different than how you think.

No matter what, it’s never a bad idea to look over your targeted audience again and again, since it will continuously change!

Thanks for reading!

Lana Sache

Social Stride

Top 5 Tips for Social Media Customer Interaction for Small Businesses

People go online for three reasons. To connect with other people, to be educated, and to be entertained. When building your social media strategy make sure that you are fulfilling all of these. Although you may find running a business and building your social media following stressful, it’s where your customers are! It is important that you are building a social media strategy that will effectively and efficiently reach as many potential customers as possible. Before you start building your Social Media presence there are 5 points to keep in mind:

1. Be Available

Not only do people learn about businesses through social media, they also want their questions about your products of services answered in a timely fashion. With this in mind, it is important that you set expectations for your customers, outlining when you are available to answer questions on your social media sites. One way is to make a “available to reach time” for questions to be answered (9am-11am for example) within during normal business hours. That way you can glace at your computer for an hour or two and reach maximum clients.

2. Consistency

Consistency is key to building a loyal customer base on social media. So many people start off posting multiple times a day but over time, start drifting off. Also, if you say you will be available to answer questions during certain times doing the day, make sure that you are following through on your promises. Just as in any aspect of business, you are only as good as your word so be consistent and reliable.

3. Don’t focus on all platforms

You can’t be everywhere at the same time. After all, you do have a business that you need to focus on and social media can be very time consuming. If you focus on using too many platforms, your social media strategy will not be effective.  Start with one, like a Facebook page or Twitter.  Your customers will notice the high level of customer service they receive on those platforms. You can always add another platform once you get comfortable with the one you are currently using.

4. Promote products in creative ways

Every business is on social media. Most of them use social media to post special or promotions and leave it at that. If you want to create an effective social media presence you need to think outside the box. The reason for being on social media is to RELATE to customers, not ANNOY. People are more likely to refer their friends to businesses that are generating awareness. Stop trying to sell, instead, help people buy. Some great examples are photos of your business, behind the scenes actives in your business, and blog posts on past events that your company has been involved with. Think outside the box.

5. Organize your thoughts

An effective social media strategy needs to be organized. At the start of every week, take ten minutes to write out a list of topics that you can generate content for social media with. Using this tactic you will avoid having to think about possible content that you want to post and instead will be ready to get your content out there for everyone to see.

Follow these steps and comment below on how it's changed your business' social media!

Have a great one,

Randy Delling

Social Stride

P.S. 

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Two Reasons Your Social Media Is Slacking

The reason you are reading this doesn’t matter. Whether you are starting your own car detailing company or the next Kim Kardashian look-a-like model, you probably need some help online.

I could have titled this: How to get 1,000 twitter followers a day, and I may have reached the same crowd.

Good.

I need the people looking for numbers…the people ALMOST willing to throw away money to have it! The numbers you can buy on the black market of social media most likely will have profiles that look like this:

Or

If you know how hashtags work you know the first two things he highlighted were FUTURE and NO. You mean, no future? Oh the jokes I could make about Proudly, SMD, and No Future.

  

That, along with a few thousand XXX profiles (no joke) and….

 

a ton of useless eggs. If that suits your needs, throw your money away for a number! Your schoolgirl popularity contest via the Internet will do you and your business no good.

So, how do you get real, human, followers?

Content and Sustainability.

1.Content

What you write has to be:

a.     Original

Even if you are the millionth person to write about fedora hats, there’s something in that head of yours that will bring people running to your page. Maybe it’s “how to wash your fedora hat” and pair it with whatever you REALLY want to write.

The reason I didn’t title this “How to get 1,000 twitter followers a day” is because that’s been used about 32,800,000 times (thanks Google). https://www.google.com/#q=how+to+get+1%2C000+twitter+followers+a+day

Even though what I’m writing can easily make that happen, I can’t cross my fingers for 1 out of 32,800,000. I have to be original. Now, go copy and paste MY title. J

b.     Personal

Honestly, people want to know YOU. It’s a weird feeling to put yourself out there online to strangers, but that’s what people like. A decade ago, everyone could hide behind their computer screen and be whoever they wanted. Now, you have the gift of being the REAL you, and have millions of people love exactly that!

Even if you are a small business owner, people want to know the passion you have!

2. Sustainability

Sustainability: “Strengthen or support physically or mentally.”

By sustainability, I mean be quick to respond, be patient, and continue regardless.

·      When you get a comment or email, respond within a few hours. Or, if you have a large business, having a online webinar people can attend at a specific time to ask questions is a great way to become personable. Make yourself available.

·      Be patient with the humans; they are only humans. They’ll follow back eventually (if your content is useful).

·      Continue posting even if progress is slow. In this day and age, the marketability online is too huge to look past. You honestly don’t have a choice.

Post smart, be patient, and be you. That’s the main thing. It may be frustrating, but not only do you have endless opportunities, you don’t have to spend thousands to reach thousands.

Get yourself a coffee, watch inspirational videos, come up with ideas, and just write.

-Lana

Social Stride

P.S.
What do you think? What aspects make a great blog/social media following? Leave your comments and questions below!