Be Different or be dead

November 7, 2020

5 proven ways to keep your clients coming back

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As a business owner, professional, or agency leader, the most important asset you can cultivate is happy clients. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling marketing support or SEO skills; without clients that are willing to vouch for your business, you’ll struggle to achieve your goals.

Unfortunately, while many business owners know that they need to dedicate time to find as many clients as possible, they often forget that the journey isn’t over after someone makes a purchase.

Here are some insights on how you can build a long and fruitful relationship with clients, keep them coming back and enhance your business in the process.

Always be helpful

When you’re trying to build a reputation for your company or brand, the most important thing you can do is demonstrate your value to your audience.
Just because you can’t necessarily say “yes” to every project a client brings your way doesn’t mean that you can’t offer assistance.

If you’re in a time crunch and can’t accept a job from a client, offer suggestions on where they can go for help elsewhere. This could mean sending customers to your competitors at times or teaching them how to solve some of their issues on their own.

It may sound counterintuitive, but remember that suggesting an alternative for your customers will be better for your reputation than trying to rush through a project and delivering poor results.

Understand the path to purchase

Building a positive relationship with your audience means understanding the journey they go through with your brand.

You probably have an established path from discovery to purchase in the form of a sales funnel. But your relationship with the client shouldn’t stop after they hand over the money.

Consider how you can deliver extra value after you’ve completed a project. Can you suggest some maintenance strategies? Are there other items your client might need to consider to succeed with the services you sold them?

This helps to form the foundations for a long-lasting relationship. You may not be providing those extra services or supplement products, but showing your customer you want them to succeed will make them feel like you always have their best interest in mind.

Demonstrate your thought leadership

Customers want to maintain relationships with companies that can give them value – not just businesses that are constantly asking for their money. Aside from regularly advertising your products and services on your website, you should also be using your digital presence as a place to showcase your thought leadership.

Write regular blogs and articles where you discuss important topics that are relevant to your industry and the customers you serve. Take advantage of opportunities to appear on popular podcasts or speak at local events.

Show your clients that you’re up-to-date on the latest industry changes and trends. They’ll appreciate your continuous effort to deliver high-quality services.

Be honest and authentic

Whenever you’re planning a price change, predicting issues with deadlines, or you think you’re going to have to apologize for a mistake, be up-front and genuine about it. Relationships are built on trust, and that’s what your clients expect from you.

Businesses today are susceptible to a number of threats, be it from natural disasters, disruptions to the supply chain, or IT-related issues. While you can’t completely curb every potential disaster, you can prepare your business so that you can quickly fix any major issues that happen.

Make it a point to include transparent communication with clients in your disaster and recovery plan. You don’t want them to find out about a data breach from the media.

In the age of social media and the always-on digital landscape, your customers can learn virtually anything they need to know about you. It’s better to be honest with them from the beginning if you can.

Everyone can make mistakes, but if you try to downplay them, your clients will wonder what else you’re withholding from them.

Make customers feel like part of the family

Finally, remember to reward your customers for sticking with you and giving you their loyalty. This doesn’t just mean setting up a loyalty program where you can regularly dish out discount codes and other gifts to your customers – although that can be helpful.

Sometimes, making customers feel special means giving them access to things like exclusive VIP events or shipping arrangements that are different from the competition.

You may even decide to set up an affiliate system where your most loyal customers can refer their friends in exchange for rewards. This will make your most valued clients feel like an important part of the team.

Make sure your customers also know how to connect with you whenever they have a problem. If your audience needs help with something, they should be able to reach you on the channels they use most often – including social media.

Strengthen Your Customer Connections

Building a long-standing relationship with your clients is how you set your business up for constant success. If you can give your clients a professional experience that they fall in love with, you can rest assured that they’ll keep coming back to your company in the future.

Repeat customers spend up to 300% more than their one-time purchasing peers. Plus, it’s much easier to get an existing customer to convert again than to make a sale from scratch.

Using the tips above, think about how you can make your customers feel special. They are an indispensable part of your business. You should treat them with the utmost care if you want your business to run successfully for a long time to come.

— Michelle Laurey works as a VA for small businesses. She loves talking business, and productivity, and share her experience with others. Outside her keyboard, she spends time with her Kindle library or binge-watching Billions. Her superpower? Vinyasa flow! Talk to her on Twitter

• Posted 11.7.20 at 05:54 am by Roy Osing
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November 4, 2020

How story-driven content marketing gives you a powerful advantage

How story-driven content marketing gives you a powerful advantage.

As the world becomes more and more reliant on all things digital, the number of companies investing in digital marketing has increased. This reality means it’s imperative for businesses to find the right strategies that can help them stand out from the rest.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of approaches out there that can do just the job and more.

A great example is personalization. As mentioned in the post How to Use Personalized Marketing to Boost E-Commerce Sales, personalization can help bring brands closer to their clients through personalized pages, retargeted ads, personalized emails and the like.

While personalized marketing is beneficial on its own, you can still take things a step further by investing in story-driven content marketing.

What is story-driven content marketing?

Before discussing what story-driven content marketing is, let us first go back to the basics and define content marketing.

In its simplest sense, content marketing is a technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content in order to attract clients.

Of course, like any other marketing strategy, the end goal with content marketing is to drive profitable customer action.

On the other hand, story-driven content marketing goes beyond just putting relatable and informative content out there, on a regular basis.

Story-driven content marketing rests on the assumption that the story of your own business is of interest and matters to people.

Why is story-driven content marketing crucial?

We are now living in a world where data and information is seen as a new currency. It only makes sense for content to be seen as the main actors in a knowledge-based economy. This is the reason why content marketing is crucial for businesses, regardless of the industry.

However, Ayima Kickstart explains that one of the biggest hurdles for most small businesses is the lack of optimized content – or any content at all. Unfortunately, great content is crucial when it comes to successful organic campaigns; therefore, this is where most businesses fail.

But creating content isn’t enough – content needs to be engaging, targeted, and optimized. This is where story-driven content marketing can come in handy.

1. First, story-driven content marketing can make you unique

The products and services you offer may have unique features, but due to the market being so vast, there will always be a brand that will offer something similar.

So how do you set yourself apart?  By sharing your very own story. Stories can help you present your products in such a way that makes it relatable, memorable, interesting and unique.

2. Second, it adds a human element to your content

Aside from being particular about the content that pops into their feed, consumers are also learning how to value experiences more than they do the products they buy.
It is for this reason that it is vital for content to be infused with human elements, through stories.

Customers are more likely buy products that can improve their experiences or are introduced through stories that reflect the same struggles they encounter.

3. Third, it helps build greater connections

Communicating these days may be easier than ever before, but the reality is that finding a genuine connection is still hard, if not harder.

This is the reason why today’s consumers are very fond of campaigns that they can relate to. When consumers feel a connection with a product, their tendency is to become what is referred to as “repeat purchasers” and this is not the only thing that increases.

The likelihood of these consumers phoning a friend or two about your product or sharing it on their social media accounts also spikes.

4. Lastly, it doesn’t sound ‘salesy’

Gone are the days where consumers would tolerate in-your-face marketing strategies that blatantly showed what brands want from their audiences: their money.

By incorporating stories into your content marketing strategies, you will not only be able to avoid cringe worthy ‘sales’ talks, but also prove to your clients that you are more focused on sharing an experience.

Through this, you are emphasizing the power of choice that consumers have, thereby making them happier and more likely to buy from you.

How to apply story-driven content marketing into your own marketing efforts?

In order to reap the benefits of story-driven content marketing, there are certain things you have to consider.

Here are some of them:

Be audience-centered

Although story-driven content marketing values a brand’s story, they should never overshadow the stories of the audience and customer base. After all, the ones in control here are the customers, not the brand.

With so much content out there vying for their attention, they can easily use ad blockers or skip past blog posts. To ensure that clients do spend time reading your content, lead with their needs.

Focus on releasing content that can serve value to your audiences first. This approach may require loads of patience, but once you’ve established yourself as a reliable source, the payoff will come in dividends and improve your branding in more ways than one.

Focus on memory building

Stories have been in existence for a very, very long time, and it’s easy to see why. They are effective media that can carry life lessons and values.

At the same time, they are capable of evoking feelings and keeping us entertained. We may not remember everything about a story, but we do retain the important bits. To ensure that your content is able to do the same, focus on building memories.

Search Engine Journal explains that the only way this can be done is by creating strategic stories that will subtly highlight the messages you want to give to your audience. Your story doesn’t have to be Oscar-worthy. You just have to make your audience see the story and help them imagine themselves in it.

Conclusion

Similar to how you would arrive at any marketing technique, story-driven content marketing has to be backed up by research.

To enjoy the extensive benefits this approach offers, make sure to focus on your clients, be as relatable as you can, and always remember that your client’s stories and experiences are more important than your own.

— Corrine Porter is a long-time business consultant and part-time writer. Armed with a passion for writing, her main interest is evaluating how new innovations in marketing and technology will impact society. On her free time, she enjoys reading and film photography.

• Posted 11.4.20 at 04:05 am by Roy Osing
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November 2, 2020

Why the ‘Magic Question’ is important to your career

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Why the ‘Magic Question’ is important to your career.

Everyone looks for a silver bullet to have a successful career; the one piece of advice that if practised consistently and correctly will result in a rewarding future.

I’m not a believer in singularity; that there is one factor that explains the essence of anything in life.

Ceteris Paribus — all other things being equal — is not an assumption that’s particularly helpful in most instances because all other things surrounding any particular issue or challenge matter are NOT and never will be ‘equal’.

Attempts at formularizing messy real world outcomes have never been particularly effective since they rely on a degree of predictive precision — y = f(x) — that doesn’t exist when there are so many random variables at play.

No one variable can accurately determine a successful career.

That said, I did develop a simple but very effective qualitative tool that was amazing in terms of helping me in my career; I called it ‘the magic question’.

In retrospect, it was probably the most useful thing I used to successfully navigate my way through several positions in the organization to eventually reach president.

Of course there were other factors at play in my journey — right place-right time, personal relationships, mentoring — but I am absolutely convinced that the magic question had the most influence.

Are you ready for the question?

‘Now that I find myself in a new position in the organization, what do I have to do differently?’

The need to ask the question is triggered by change. Whenever you find yourself in any of these common circumstances, pose the question and spend serious time answering it.

— There has been a major organization change and you have been appointed to a new position.
— You are being moved laterally to another job in the existing organization structure.
— You are promoted to a higher level role.
— Your existing job role has been changed; you have either been given added responsibilities or the scope of your current role has been reduced.
— You, unfortunately, have been demoted to a lower level position in the organization. You need to include this possibility in your thinking even though it is unpleasant.
— You’re a small business owner that’s just expanded into a new market.

There are 3 possible outcomes in terms of how you approach the question.

1. You don’t ask the question

You continue in your new role acting the same way that you have in the past irrespective of the new challenges that you face.

You assume that the things that got you here will get you where you need to go in the future. After all, you have attained success so far by practicing certain skills and competencies; why shouldn’t this work on a going forward basis?

Momentum continues as you practice what you are used to. There is no change in your behaviour and you eventually fail.

New challenges require new thinking and new ways of doing things; repeating what got you here in an entirely new set of circumstances will simply not work.

2. You ask the question but answer it incorrectly the first time

In this case you are at least on the right track having asked yourself the question, and you enter the trial and error process of discovering the essential things you need to do differently to succeed in your new position.

The result of your efforts might be eventual success, but it takes a while as you iterate among several possible answers to find the right blueprint.
You need to get on with finding the answers FAST if you are to survive long enough to see the final result. What you learn from your first one or two attempts is crucial to your eventual success.

You don’t have the luxury of pondering what changes to make in your strategy for very long, so do a quick study of what isn’t working, then act quickly to implement what you think you learned and monitor the impacts. Then move quickly to another tactic if you see more shortfalls.

3. You ask the question and you nail it

You discover and successfully execute the essential thing you needed to do differently to be effective in your changed position.
Your bosses and others in the organization are amazed how quickly you adapt and learn in the face of a new challenge.

The results of your efforts produce success not only in terms of your productivity in the new position but also in the growth of your personal currency for future career advancement in the organization.

‘The magic question’ process is not an easy one; it’s arduous and time consuming. It requires honest self analysis, development of options and selecting a path that you believe will yield the success you expect. And being prepared to modify it on the run as you experience results.

Use feedback you receive from your boss, colleagues and those that report to you to decide what you have to do differently.

Be prepared to make agonizing decisions that place yourself at personal risk, but have faith that it will work out for you.

The question requires dedication and discipline. You can’t casually approach it; you must be all in otherwise don’t waste your time.

In every leadership position I held, I coached my team to employ this process to enhance their career; the ones who chose to do the work were rewarded.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.2.20 at 05:30 am by Roy Osing
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October 26, 2020

6 tested ways to handle a really distrustful person

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6 tested ways to handle a really distrustful person.

There is one person in your group or on your team that is a 180 degrees out of phase with everyone else.

I’m not referring to someone who aligns with the values of their fellow teammates and merely finds a unique and special way of expressing them; a person who imprints their personal signature on everything they touch; who finds conformance to standard pedagogy repugnant.

No. I’m referring to an individual who is ideologically distant from their colleagues in literally every respect; someone who is constantly in the ‘no’ position when everyone else is ‘yes’.
And who is a condescending specialist who constantly criticizes past efforts of others.

It’s exhausting dealing with an outlier person because you know with every issue comes a battle with a predictable outcome.

And at some point, after trying all the conflict management and team building tools espoused by the experts, you have no choice but to adopt more draconian measures to deal with the dysfunction the outlier creates.

As the leader of a team with an outlier you and others have to work alongside, what can you do to press ahead in spite of them?

1. Know and ‘accept’ the beast

Accept the reality of who the person is and that they will forever be out of synch  with the rest of the team; this is the hand you’ve been dealt so work with it.

This is all about setting realistic expectations of what they will do and how they will do it in order to manage them in a team setting. Consensus is impossible; achieving likemindedness on any issue is the impossible dream.

Some will say this is a defeatist attitude and they’re right in a sense. But it’s also a necessary and realistic one that defines the context within which a leader sometimes has to work if any progress is to be made.

With an outlier the leader’s energy must be challenged into managing the beast rather than trying to change them.

2. Call for a vote

Forget about investing the time and effort in trying to reach consensus on an issue; it won’t happen.

Of course you have to engage in conversation on the topic at hand, but realize at some point as the outlier lands on their polarized position you have to call for a vote to move things forward.

More debate with an outlier isn’t productive; it merely gives them a platform to promulgate their narrative.
So allow a certain amount of air time for discussion — call the vote — make the call.

3. Avoid entrapment

These types love to carry their narrative on and on and on and suck others into the never ending conversation hoping they will be able to sway you to their side.

But the conversation and email string never end. There’s never closure because they want their minority view to win the day.

The only way to avoid entrapment in the discussion do-loop is to state your views once and let it go at that. You may think that by continuing to engage with them that they will moderate their position to that of the rest of the team, but they won’t ..... ever!

This is where resisting the temptation to engage and feed the outlier’s narrative is essential.

4. Be polite

After all, we shouldn’t stoop to their level should we?

For me, gritting my teeth and biting my tongue are the tools I rely on to get me through experiences with the outlier and masking it ever so genuinely by being polite (or at least as much as I can stomach).

Otherwise I would be ‘stressed to the nines’ constantly with nothing to show for it but high blood pressure and migraines.

Politeness is supposed to be a Canadian thing so it should come easier to me, but it doesn’t when it comes to dealing with an outlier. But soldier on, wear the grin, pretend you care about their message… but never relax.

5. Call them out

The outlier needs to understand when they have pushed too far and are pummelling the needs of the majority.

These are the times when they need to be rocked back on their heels forcefully (but politely) and told that they have occupied way too much airtime and are infringing on the rights of others.

You need a call-out tool for such circumstances; one that allows you to cease the unacceptable behaviour of the outlier.

Mine is always to literally say ‘STOP!’ directly to them and ask that everyone move on to resolve the matter at hand. It’s not a comfortable action for the leader to take, but it’s essential if productive work is to be achieved.

6. Find greener pastures

For the greater good, the outlier must eventually move on and find another environment where perhaps they will find greater comfort and prosperity — they will be happier as will your team.

The leader must take responsibility for seeing whether a change can be made and to make it happen.
It’s tough to do because of the bad blood that exists with the outlier; working with them to find another role is at best an unpleasant task.

Let’s face it, as a leader we always would prefer pleasure to pain. The outlier represents the latter; the 6 actions we discussed will not only make your life easier, they will also allow you to maintain the effectiveness and harmony of your team.

Cheers
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 10.26.20 at 05:29 am by Roy Osing
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