your customer Archives - Page 3 of 3

3 Excellent Reasons to Follow Up with Current and Prospective Customers (and How to Do it)

November 6, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

I got a great compliment from a prospective customer the other day, a fellow named Adam Katz. I called him for our initial consultation, right on time. He answered the phone and commented on my punctuality. Then he said, “I’m very impressed by your marketing and your follow-up.”

This was very nice to hear, because I make an effort to follow up with everyone who contacts me about my copywriting business, and not just because they might be potential clients.

I’ve had a few folks contact me since I was interviewed on Ed Gandia’s podcast who were interested in learning more about freelancing. I’ve taken time to talk to all of them.

Why do I do this? Because following up with people is important. Whether you’re a freelancer or solopreneur like me, following up with potential clients, or you’re a brick and mortar business working with customers. It gives your business a better reputation.

Here are 3 excellent reasons, and good ways, to follow up with your customers:

1. Acknowledging You’ve Received a Message.

I am always amazed by how many companies, from small businesses to major corporations, utterly fail to acknowledge they’ve received your message. Or if they do, it’s something to the effect of “Your message has been logged in our system.”

Okay… So somewhere, a computer has logged my message. Is anyone going to respond to it? Will my question be answered? Or am I stuck in eternal limbo?

I had this occur recently at my car dealership. They had to order a part for my car, and they may have to order a second one, because they don’t know which part is actually causing the problem.

Well, I found another problem that may be able to diagnose which part is the faulty one. So I called the dealership and asked to speak to the fellow I worked with when I came in for the first appointment. He was unavailable, but I left a message.

No one has called to follow up with me. Not even to say, “Hey, we got your message and we’re looking into this. We’ll get back to you as soon as we have an answer.”

As a customer, it’s nice to at least know that someone is working on my problem.

Now, switch that around to your business.

If you don’t respond when someone calls with a question, to place an order or to hire you to do something, they’ll assume you’re not interested in their business and go elsewhere. That means you’re out a customer, and you’ve lost income.

Following up with that person, even if it’s just a quick email to say “Hey, I got your message” can be the difference between a good month and a bad month for your business.

Personally, I follow up in 2 ways.

I have an autoresponder connected to my contact form that sends a short email to tell them I’ve received their message and will get back to them shortly. I also include a link to my online calendar so they can make an appointment with me at their convenience.

When I get the information from the contact form (via my email service provider) I send a personal email. Again, I say I got their message and I’m interested in talking to them about their project.

Both of these show that I’m interested in working with the people who contact me for my copywriting services. And, most importantly, it shows that their message hasn’t disappeared into a black hole, never to be seen again.

2. Following up after the initial contact.

If people who have contacted me don’t make an appointment or respond to either email, I send another one in a few days.

Why?

Because people are busy. Generally speaking, we’re all much more involved in whatever is going on in our immediate lives. (Or as I like to call it, whatever is on fire on your desk at the moment.)

By taking the time to follow up with someone, you’re saying “yes, I know you’re busy, but you had a concern that I can help you with. What can I take off your plate?

Years ago, when I was a professional touring musician, I had the pleasure of hearing Derek Sivers speak at a music conference in Cincinnati, OH. Derek is the founder of CD Baby, an independent music distribution company. (It’s an awesome company, and yes, you can still find my music there.)

Derek was talking about how to market yourself as a musician, and in particular, how to get the attention of the person you’re trying to reach. He said something during that speech that stuck with me over the years. “Persistence is polite.”

In context, here’s what he was saying; if a music venue coordinator or booking agent didn’t get back to you right away, you should keep trying. A lot of musicians get frustrated in this situation, swear a lot, claim they’re “too good to play this dive” and call the next venue on their list. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work out well for some of them.

I took this to heart at the time, because I was one of those musicians who spent her days calling music venues to book my band. And I made it my mantra.

When I first contacted a venue, I would make a note in my Outlook journal of when I had contacted them, how I had contacted them (phone or email) and what had happened. Then I’d set a calendar alert to contact them again in a few days to a week.

I did this over and over and over. I was always polite, and I deliberately said in each of those messages, “Please let me know one way or the other, so I know what’s going on at your end.”

I wasn’t interested in wasting my time trying to contact people who weren’t interested in talking to me. I’d rather have them say, “No thank you” so I knew and could move on to whatever was next.

Several times, I had venues who would call or email back, weeks or months later, and say “Yes, we want to book you.” Somewhere in the booking process, a couple of them said “We’re really excited to have you, and thank you for continuing to follow up with us until we responded.”

Yes. Persistence is polite. Do it. I think you’ll like the results.

3. Checking in to see if you can help

This is a great idea, especially if you’ve been contacted by people who are interested in what you’re selling, but may not need it right away.

This lets your customers (or potential customers) know that you’re still interested in doing business with them whenever they’re ready. And it keeps you top of mind when they are ready.

Again, I do this in two ways:

I write a monthly email newsletter that I send to current customers and people who have expressed an interest in doing business with me. It’s a quick update about what’s going on with me, an invitation to contact me if they’re ready to talk about their next project and a special business tip I only include in these letters.I also include a list of the month’s blog posts from my blog, so they can see what I’ve been writing about. (This sneakily acts as a set of samples and a reminder that I do content writing, among other things. Now everyone on my monthly newsletter list knows my secret.)

Occasionally, I’ll send a personal email to clients I haven’t heard from in a while, just checking in to see what’s going on and whether they need my services.

Both of these techniques have gotten me work. And I’ve gotten to help out some folks who were in a bind and needed something done quickly.

How Do You Follow Up In Your Business?

Now that you know the importance of following up, I hope you’ll make it a regular part of your business. If you are following up with current and potential customers, how do you do it? If not, why not? Tell me about it in the comments.

How to Build a Lasting Customer Relationship – What I Learned from 3 Marketing Experts During 2 Conferences Last Week

October 27, 2016 by Tanya Brody 1 Comment

I’ve spent the last few days trying to process everything I learned during the two conferences I attended last week. There was a lot of information thrown at me. But one point that came across quite clearly was, you need to build a strong customer relationship.

Let’s face it. We all hate the emails, sales letters, websites and other collateral that comes off as, “Me, me, me, buy my stuff.” We look at those and think, “Why? Why should I buy your stuff? You don’t care about me. You only care about yourself.”

But when the message shows us that whoever is marketing to us cares about us. That they’re invested in our success or solving our problem. That they’re interested in building a relationship with us, we tend to pay more attention.

That’s the beauty of building a strong, lasting customer relationship. It’s worth your while, even though it may take longer. A customer who is happy to open your emails and eager to buy your products is worth 20 people who expressed interested in your product, but never respond to anything you send after the initial contact.

Your goal, as a business owner, is to build that customer relationship with as many people as possible. And it’s easier than you might think.

Here is some excellent advice from 3 marketing experts on how to build lasting customer relationships. Their presentations stood out from more than 30 I heard during my 2 days at CONVERTED and 3 days at AWAI’s Bootcamp and Job Fair.

Some you may recognize, some you may not. But they’re all great business people and they have a lot to offer to help you up your business game plan.

All Customer Relationships are Person to Person (P to P) – Pat Flynn

I adore Pat. I had the pleasure of being his Speaker Liaison at last year’s CONVERTED conference, so I got to know him a bit. He’s a genuinely great guy who is interested in seeing everyone succeed. (Yes, I’m biased. I admit it.)

One of the things Pat talked about during his presentation at CONVERTED is, regardless of whether you’re in a business to consumer (B2C) or business to business (B2B) industry, all of your relationships are P to P or person to person.

Whatever your selling, whatever problem you’re trying to solve, there’s a human being on the other end of that transaction

It’s interesting, because before radio and television (which are broadcast, or one to many, mediums) businesses had that personalized touch. Your bank teller knew your name when you walked in to make a deposit or a withdrawal. Your grocer, butcher and baker knew your shopping preferences.

Yes, a lot of that still goes on, thanks to automation and tracking software. But it feels a lot less… personal. When was the last time someone in your neighborhood supermarket called you by name? When was the last time you walked into a shop and the shopkeeper said, “That (insert product name here) you like so much just came in. I set a couple aside for you.”

That’s the kind of customer relationships we can build now, thanks to demographics information and customer relationship management software. We can track customer’s interests, buying habits and more. (Yes, it’s a bit creepy, but stick with me here.)

We can use that information to segment our customer base and send them the specific information they want. Here’s an example from Pat Flynn.

Pat sends this great Welcome email that talks about serving his audience. (If you’ve never seen it, I recommend that you subscribe to his email list, just to see this welcome email.) He tells you straight off that he’s here to help you, and if his emails aren’t serving you, please unsubscribe. He doesn’t want you to waste his time.

Then, he segments new subscribers so he knows what to send them, using this section of his email:

He deliberately asks you which stage you’re at in your business, so he knows what kind of content to send you. He’s building a customer relationship with you where you are.

(FYI, I’m pretty sure Pat uses Leadlinks from Leadpages to segment his list quickly and easily.)

I confess that whenever I get an email from Pat, I usually open it and read it within the first 24 hours. Why? Because I know it will speak to something I’m going through right now as a business owner. Because I know Pat has experience that will help me overcome my problems.

He’s speaking to me as a person, not just an available source of revenue.

(To Pat’s credit, he doesn’t sell anything directly. His website is Smart Passive Income and it shows folks how to make a good living off of creating great content and selling other people’s products.)

He’s continuing that Person to Person, or P to P, relationship every time he sends me an email. And I love it. I’ve directed several people to his website as a resource for various issues. Just today, I sent someone the link for his podcasting guide. And I’m telling you about him in this blog post.

Pat is investing in me, so I invest in him, even if we’re only giving each other time.

That’s a strong customer relationship. I’ll be more likely to buy products that Pat recommends, especially knowing he gets an affiliate payment because I bought through him.

Your Customer Relationship Should Follow the Same Path as a Healthy Human Relationship – Ryan Deiss

I met Ryan for the first time last week at CONVERTED. (At least, we think it was the first time, because he said I looked familiar. Who knows. This is what happens when you hang around marketing conferences.) He is a delightful person and an excellent speaker. (Okay, I already knew that second part from listening to recordings of other presentations he’s given.)

What I loved about Ryan’s presentation is the way he compared a successful marketing funnel to his own relationship history and marriage. It was fun, witty and an excellent comparison.

Why?

Because when you enter a relationship with your customers, you should be in it for the long haul.

So many companies (both B2C and B2B) pursue a customer for the sale, then drop off the face of the earth, until they want to sell something again. Really? (I’m not going to mention the obvious comparison here. I’m sure you can draw that conclusion on your own.)

As soon as you begin your customer relationship, you should think of it as a courtship with a long-term goal of marriage. You want that person to think of you as a life partner. Someone they can rely on. Someone they can turn to when they need their problems solved. (That’s why your product exists, after all.)

One of the simple ways to do that is to make a good impression. We all do this at the beginning of any relationship. (The clothes on the floor and the open lid on the toilet come later.)

As a business, you give make a good impression by putting giving your prospective customer (or current customer) your best content right away. This can be a free sample of your product or trial of your service. It can also be useful content that will help your customer make a decision about your product, and build trust in your company.

On the other hand, if you treat your customers like a convenience, they’ll be looking for a new company to solve their problems. One that will treat them with the respect they deserve and give them the support they need. (Sound familiar? See, Ryan’s got it right.)

Think about the way you treat your customers. Do you give them flowers (or a coupon, or a special sale) for no reason? Do you take them out to dinner (or treat them to a free service) on a regular basis? Do you remember their birthdays every year?

All of this can be automated through your ESP or CRM. It doesn’t take a lot and it’s worth every penny you spend.

Remember, you’re maintaining a relationship with another person. How do you want to be treated as a customer? Treat your customers the same way.

Guide Your Customer Gently Toward Their Decision – Clayton Makepeace

If you haven’t heard of Clayton Makepeace, you’re missing out. Clayton is a copywriting genius. His promotion packages have sold well over $2 billion worth of products. He also works as a marketing consultant, where he’s helped four major direct marketing firms quadruple their sales.

And, like Pat and Ryan, Clayton talked about the importance of building a relationship with your customer.

Specifically, he talked about guiding the customer toward the purchase. He rattled off a bunch of great ideas during his talk at AWAI’s Bootcamp. Here are a few of them:

Educate your prospect to help make the sale: If you give your prospect the information they need to make a decision, they’re more likely to trust you, and give you their money.

Help your prospect overcome a barrier by meeting them halfway: A great example of this is the loyalty card that comes pre-punched in two slots, so your customer is automatically closer to getting their free (fill in the blank).This can be done for B2B as well. For instance, you can offer your prospect a bonus of a specific tool or done-for-you service that will get them one step closer to achieving success with your product.

Get your prospect to take some sort of action to show them how easy it is to succeed when using your product: This can be as simple as writing something down or having them do a simple test with objects they have on hand. You’re nurturing that bond you’ve created.

Congratulate your customer when they make the decision to buy: You can do this on the order form or the checkout page. Show them how their life will change now that they’ve made this decision. Then tell them exactly what will happen next, so they know what to expect.

All of these techniques can go a long way to getting your customer to trust you, and help push them toward making the purchase.

I hope my quick review of what I learned on how to build a lasting customer relationship helps you with your customer base. To make things easier, I’ve put together a Customer Relationship Cheat Sheet for you that highlights the main points from each speaker. Click on the button below to download your cheat sheet.

Download the Customer Relationship Cheat Sheet

How do You Build Relationships with Your Customers?

Tell me what you do for your customers in the comments.

The Top 6 Reasons to Have a Facebook Page for Your Business

August 8, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

I just created a Facebook page for my copywriting business. You’re welcome to check it out here. I haven’t gotten a lot up there yet, but it’s a good start.

I decided it was a good idea to have a separate Facebook page for my business. And after doing a bit of research, I figured I should write a blog post about why it’s a good idea to have a Facebook page for your business. So here are the top 6 reasons I discovered for having a Facebook business page.

1. Increase Your Reach

A personal profile limits you to 5,000 friends. Most people don’t have that many Facebook friends, so it’s not a big deal. But for your business, you want to be able to reach everyone who may be interested in what you’ve got to offer.

When you have a separate Facebook page for your business, your posts will reach folks who have liked your page. Yes, this is about the same as having a personal profile.

A personal Facebook post limits the audience who can see it. For instance, I limit all of my posts to my friends list. But once your post hits your fans’ pages, it’s there for all the world to see.

Now, when I tell the world about my new blog post (about Facebook pages) on my new Facebook page, it will show up on their newsfeeds. But instead of exposure being limited our shared friends, it will be seen by all of their friends. And if some of those folks share my post with their friends, it will go even further.

So without a lot of effort on my part, my blog post, my Facebook page and my business have been exposed to a whole new audience of people. You can do this for your business too.

2. Target Your Audience

Facebook has 1.7 billion monthly users. That means 1/7th of the planet’s population logs into Facebook once a month. Most do it daily. That’s a huge audience! Way more people than you want, and certainly more people than will be genuinely interested in your products or services.

Facebook has one of the most sophisticated demographic tracking systems around. They collect a heck of a lot of data on their users. (That whole thing about “if the product is free, you are the product, it’s true.)

Yes, this feels a bit “big brother-ish” but as a marketer, this is to your advantage. Because you can target, down to very detailed demographics, who you want to see your Facebook posts. This is a great thing for you, because:

• You spend less money on advertising.
• You reach people who are more likely to become your customers.

I haven’t done it yet, but there’s a button on all of the posts on my new Facebook page that says “Boost Post.” That button lets me customize my audience to region, gender, age and interests.

So if you own a vintage 50’s malt shop in Berkeley, CA, you can target your audience to people who live in a specific radius from your restaurant, like ice cream and are interested in vintage stuff from the 50s. (Yes, you really can get that detailed.)

3. Drive More Traffic to Your Website

You spent a lot of money building that website. And it’s where people can get detailed information about your products or services. So use your Facebook page to drive more traffic to your website.

If you visit my Facebook page, you’ll notice that I’ve already posted some of my older blog posts to the page. I wanted something for people to look and click through to. I’ve already gotten more views on my blog posts from my Facebook page.

If you’re running a special on a certain product, your Facebook page is a great place to promote that, with a link back to the product page on your website where customers can buy the product.

If you’re going to be at a special event, post a link to your events page, where people can find more information about where you’ll be and what you’re doing.

4. Gather More Leads

Yes, you can collect email addresses on your Facebook page. There are a variety of ways you can do this:

Use the button feature on your Facebook page to get people to sign up for your mailing list. (Choose the “Sign Up” option.)

Put a tab with a squeeze page or sign-up form on your Facebook page. (I use Leadpages to do this. Check out my landing page and get a free copywriting guide while you’re at it.)

Direct site visitors to a sign-up form or squeeze page on your website.

Why should you do this? I mean, after all, you’ve got all of these Facebook likes. Doesn’t that duplicate your efforts? No. What if, for some reason beyond your control, your Facebook page was suddenly and irrevocably deleted? How would you communicate with your fans?

If you have their email addresses, you can tell them what happened, let them know where to find you from now on, and stay in touch.

5. Get Messages from Interested Customers

One of the pitfalls of personal profiles on Facebook is that unless someone has already Friended you on Facebook, they can’t send you a direct message. So if you’re using your personal profile and a potential customer messages you to ask a question, you may never know about it because the message disappears into the “Message Requests” folder in your Messages section.

I just checked that section and discovered a message from a potential customer who wrote to me in April. I never would have known it was there, had I not written this blog post.

By contrast, I got a notification on my new Facebook page about a message from a friend who wants to talk about having me help her promote her book. Because I was able to see that notification, I responded right away and we’ve set up an appointment to talk.

6. Look More Professional

Okay, I confess, I’ve been posting announcements about my new blog posts to my personal Facebook page. And my friends are all very tolerant of my doing this. Some of them even share them with their friends. (Thank you very much to those of you reading this who have helped promote my blog posts and my business.)

But let’s face it. My personal Facebook wall is covered in silly cat videos, funny stuff my friends have shared with me, and personal commentary. My clients and potential clients don’t need to see this stuff. Nor will they be able to, unless they’ve friended me on Facebook. (Some of them have.)

So having a Facebook page that is specifically for your business means you can post announcements about your business, as well as share articles and opinions that you think will interest your audience. You can ask questions with polls. You can build a professional relationship with your potential clients. (And yes, you can post the occasional cat video.)

Go Create a Facebook Page for Your Business

I hope the 5 reasons above have convinced you that creating a Facebook page for your business is a good idea. So if you don’t already have one, go make one. If you do have one, make sure you’re paying attention to it and posting to it regularly

Do you have a Facebook page for your business? If not, why not? Please tell me about it in the comments.

Why Your Marketing Needs to Be Conversational

July 29, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

“Be conversational. What does that even mean?” I hear you ask.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary it means:

An informal talk involving two people or a small group of people: the act of talking in an informal way.
Something that is similar to a spoken conversation.

I’m going to focus on that second definition: “Something that is similar to a spoken conversation.” Obviously, you and I aren’t talking right now. You’re reading words on a screen that I wrote earlier. But because of the style and tone of my writing, you may feel like we’re having a conversation.

Why?

Well, to start with, I used a question I thought you might ask as the opening line to this blog post. Second, I’ll use the words “you” and “I” a lot in this post. Third, I assume that you’re interested in what I have to say. So I write about the topic as though there was a back-and-forth rapport between us.

What does this get me? Well, a few things. It gets your attention, it keeps you reading, and a conversational style makes it easier for you to digest and process what I’m trying to get across.

Think about the last time you had to read something written in a formal writing style: It was probably very dry, boring and hard to wade through. Your attention probably wandered a lot and you had to drag it back to focus on the page, as much as you didn’t want to. You probably wanted to be just about anywhere else than sitting there, reading that thing, whatever it was.

Now think about the last time you read something written in a conversational style, like this blog post. It probably grabbed your attention and lead you through the entire piece. You probably really enjoyed whatever it was you read. You probably mentioned that piece to a friend later on, because you enjoyed it and you remembered the point it made.

You received a benefit from reading that piece.

Now turn that around and look at your current marketing. How do your customers view the tone of your marketing? If your marketing tone is formal and dry, your potential customers may not be getting the benefit you’re trying to give them. They may not hear that you have the solution to their problem, so they may not become customers.

If your marketing tone is conversational, your potential customers are more likely to get that benefit. They’re also more likely to become your customers.

So how do you make that happen? Here are a few techniques you can use.

Talk to Your Customer

I wrote a different blog post about this a few weeks ago, but it always bears repeating. You’ll notice I do that throughout this blog post. I’m talking directly to you, not at you.

More importantly, I’ve made this post about you. You are the focus. You receive the benefit. You find the solution to your problem.

Notice a pattern here? The word “you.”

Use it throughout your copy and your potential customers will feel like you’re interested in them and their problems. (Which is what you want, since you have the solution to their problems.)

For more on this subject, please check out the other blog post, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Use Contractions

I know. It goes against every rule of grammar you learned in grade school. But when we have a conversation, we use contractions all the time. I’ve used them throughout this post. (See, I just did it again.)

Using contractions does two things:

It makes your words more accessible: Some people get hung up on the formality of “they are” versus “they’re” and they tune out.
It lowers your Flesch-Kincaid score: I’ll talk more about this later. But it’s a good thing, and it’s important.

Write in the Active Voice

“What does that mean?” I hear you cry.

This is another one of those weird grammar things that you probably internalized in grade school and don’t even realize you do (if you do it).

Here’s an example of writing in the active voice:

Sarah kicked the ball.

Sarah is the focus of this sentence. Sarah takes action in relation to the ball.

Here’s an example of writing in the passive voice:

The ball was kicked by Sarah.

The ball is the focus of the sentence. Sarah, though she was the one kicking the ball, is passive.

What does this mean for your marketing?

Active language sounds more compelling. Therefore, it’s more likely to get your customers to… well… take action. And since that’s what you want them to do, write in the active voice.

Write to Your Audience’s Reading Level

As I’ve mentioned before, I used to write marketing copy for lawyers. The most common complaint I heard was, “This isn’t sophisticated enough. My clients are smarter than this, and other lawyers will think I’m stupid if this is on my website.”

Okay. I agree, to a point. If your audience is particle physicists, write to particle physicists. They’ll get what you’re trying to say.

But (to use the lawyer example again) if your audience is people who may or may not have a high school degree and need a lawyer because they’ve been arrested, you need to write in language they’ll understand. They won’t understand legal jargon and complicated ideas. They’ll skip right over your website and go on to someone who “gets them.”

“Okay, so how do I write to my audience’s reading level?” You ask.

Use simple words: This is the difference between “citation” and “ticket” (to go back to the lawyer example). You need to use the same vocabulary as your audience.

Use contractions: Using contractions makes a sentence easier to read for most people.

State your message simply, clearly and to the point: Don’t clutter up your writing with fancy words or ideas that don’t support your message. That will just confuse your audience. Clear messaging is easier to understand and will result in more people saying “yes” to your marketing.

Keep your Flesch-Kincaid Score at 8 or lower: Told you I’d get back to this. The Fleisch Kincaid score (or scale) indicates the grade level of a piece of writing. This blog post has a Fleisch Kincaid score of 5.5, which means someone who is half way through 5^th grade can understand it.

“How do I figure out my Flesch-Kincaid score?”

Well, if you use Microsoft Word, it’s easy:

Go to the menu at the top of the screen and click on “Word.”
When you see the dropdown menu, click on “Preferences.”
When the Preferences box pops up, click on “Spelling and Grammar.”
In the Spelling and Grammar window, look toward the bottom of the list and check the box that says, “Show readability statistics.”

From now on, you’ll see this box after you run your spell check:

The readability statistics are at the bottom of the list. The higher your Flesch Reading Ease score, and the lower your Flesch-Kincaid grade level, the easier it is to read your writing.

If you don’t use Word, I recommend the Hemingway Editor. It includes the readability statistics and it points out which sentences are hard to read. It also helps you remove adverbs and complicated words, and it shows where you’ve used the passive voice.

“But isn’t writing to my audience’s reading level like talking down to them?” You may wonder.

No. Not at all. Most marketing copy is written at a 7^th grade reading level or lower. People are busy. They’re not going to take the time to read something they can’t understand right away.

Ernest Hemingway wrote at a 4^th grade level. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote around the 6^th grade level. Seth Godin writes at the 7^th grade level. Don’t believe me? Check out this chart of Flesch-Kincaid scores for various writers.

Go Forth and Be Conversational

Now that you have a bunch of tools to improve the tone of your marketing, go use them! I’ve put together the Conversational Language Checklist for you, so you remember to include each of these tools in your writing from now on.

Get the Conversational Language Checklist

As always, if this seems like it’s too much for you to handle, I’m happy to help you with your marketing projects. As you can see, I have the conversational language thing down.

Do you use conversational language in your marketing? If not, why not? Tell me about it in the comments section.

How to Talk To Your Customers, Not At Them

June 21, 2016 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

“My customers don’t listen!” This is a common complaint among business owners.

Getting your current and prospective customers to pay attention to your marketing message can be difficult. People are busy. And these days, everyone seems to have the attention span of a gnat.

But I’m going to ask you an honest question: Are you talking to your customer or are you talking at your customer? Because there’s a huge difference. And that might be why your customers aren’t listening.

A lot of business owners still think all marketing and advertising should be a broadcast medium, like TV, radio or billboards. They think they’re speaking to a broad audience that is engaged and hanging on every word they’re saying, as though they’re in a play or at a political rally.

This is speaking at people. The assumption is you have to be all things to all people to make sure your message is heard. While this can work in broadcast advertising, it rarely works online.

Why? Because you’re not speaking to a broad audience on the internet. Even though millions of people may visit your site or read your emails every day, you’re really talking to one person, sitting in front of their computer, possibly in their pajamas, looking for a solution to their problem.

This gives you a unique opportunity to talk to your customers. (Instead of talking at your customers like many of your competitors.)

“How do I do that?” I hear you cry.

Have a conversation with them.

“But, they’re reading words on a screen. I can’t actually talk to them.”

Actually, you can. Here’s how…

Write to One Person

As I mentioned earlier, even though your website is viewed by millions, you’re dealing with one person at a time. Why? Because the internet isn’t a great big huge audience. It’s billions of audiences of one. That gives you a unique opportunity to connect directly with your customers.

Instead of writing a broadcast style message, write directly to the person reading your website. Your copy should read as if you were chatting with a friend about this awesome product or service you discovered recently.

Be Conversational

Really. Make your copy sound as if you were having a conversation with your customer. You’ll notice I do that throughout this blog post. I refer to you, my reader. I also refer to myself. And my language is casual and friendly.

Nothing is pushy. None of my copy sounds like I’m giving a speech. It’s just a conversation between two friends. (Even though we’ve probably never met. Hi, I’m Tanya, by the way.)

You’ll also notice that I fill in your part of the conversation every once in a while. A good example is at the end of the opening part of this blog post. I use quotes to say what I believe you’re thinking. It’s a nice way of “bringing you into the conversation.”

Use the Word “You”

I do this regularly in this blog post. A lot of good marketers do. It’s a really simple way to personalize your copy. Why does this matter? Because when you use the word “you” you’re including whoever it is that you’re talking to. (Did you feel included with all of those “yous” and “you’res?” See, it works.)

Here’s an example of a company that uses “you” in their copy:

Email from Orbitz that speaks to me instead of at me.

I received this email from Orbitz last week. Notice that the word “your” is in the subject line and in the headline. This email is a good example of a conversational message, or talking to your audience. When I read this, I feel like Orbitz is talking directly to me. I feel like they care about what I want. It makes me more likely to buy my next trip through them.

Here’s an example of a company that doesn’t use “you” in their copy:

Email from Travelocity that speaks at me, not to me.

I received this Travelocity email shortly before I received the one from Orbitz, their direct competitor. This would be a good example of a broadcast style message, or talking at your audience. There is nothing in the subject line or ad copy that makes me feel any attachment to Travelocity. I’d even go so far as to say their ad feels cold and impersonal.

Focus Your Message on Your Customer

I’ve said this in other blog posts and I’ll say it again. Your entire marketing message should be focused on your customer and how they’ll benefit from your product or service. This doesn’t mean your copy has to be long and complicated. But it should be customer-centric.

Here’s a great example from Apple:

Apple does an excellent job of focusing on the customer in this ad.

The tagline focuses on the customer. It tells you that you can do everything you want with a MacBook Air, as long as you want to. The message is attention grabbing, clear and concise.

Your copy can be as long or as short as you want it to be, but it needs to:

Show your customer that you understand their problem.
Position your product or service as the solution to their problem.
Show the direct and long-term or future benefits of using your product or service.

Build a Relationship with Your Customer

Remember that the internet is a two-way medium. Your customers can contact you via email or your website contact form. They can leave comments on your blog posts. (Please do, by the way. I love hearing what you folks think of my posts. Please also let me know if there are specific copywriting or small business subjects you want me to write about.)

They can also post reviews of your product or service all over the internet. We’ve all heard about companies losing business because they have one or two bad reviews floating around on Yelp or Google Reviews. Having a good relationship with your customers can help you avoid this problem.

All of the techniques I’ve mentioned above will help you build that good relationship. Other ways you can encourage this relationship include:

Sending all of your emails from a real person: You’ll notice my emails come from my email address and have my name on them. Lots of companies, large and small, send their emails from a general or info@ account.

Give your company or brand a “face”: The Verizon Guy, Flo from Progressive Insurance and Tony the Tiger are all company mascots, or faces of their particular brand. Your “face” could be your company’s founder, a member of your team, or a character like the ones mentioned above.

Respond quickly whenever a customer contacts you: I’m sure you’ve contacted a company about something and they’ve taken forever to get back to you. Or they’ve never gotten back to you. Did that leave a bitter taste in your mouth? The same thing will happen to your customers if you don’t respond to them.Responding quickly, or at least saying “we’ll get back to you within 24 hours” and sticking to that, goes a long way to building a good customer relationship.

Worried that you’ll never remember all of these techniques? Download my Customer Conversation Checklist.That way you’ll have all of these ideas handy when you start to write.

Download the Customer Conversation Checklist

Now That You Know How to Talk To Your Customers, Start a Conversation

What will you do to start the conversation with your customers? Tell me about it in the comments. I really do enjoy hearing what you think about these posts, and what you’re doing in your own business. So let’s start a conversation.