Tag: customer journey

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How can your marketing look after your existing customers?

Image shows a guest guidebook, which is one way of creating marketing to look after your existing customers.

You know that good customer service is vital to your business. You might think that marketing is all about bringing in new people, but it can also look after your existing customers.

It’s about going above and beyond basic information, like your delivery updates, booking confirmations and contact details. Here are my favourite ways to use your content marketing to look after your existing customers.

Product tips and tricks

Showing customers how to get the best out of a product they’ve already bought shows them you’re interested in more than their money. You want them to get the best results. Instructions on product use are essential, but you can enrich the experience with advanced tips or alternative uses. This could help you attract new customers and support existing ones with the same content.

Sudocrem did this in a recent advert. It’s famous as a nappy cream, but they showed how it can be used on injuries or for skin conditions.

Getting ready

Sometimes, the best way to support your customers is to help them prepare in advance. If they’ve booked a beauty treatment, you should provide safety information, but you can also offer advice on how to make their spray tan last longer or maintain their hair between appointments.

Holiday packing lists can reduce their stress, or if you sell meal kits, you could let them know what kitchen equipment they’ll need. You can use all of these as blog posts to give your audience a taste of the customer experience you offer. It’s even better if you recommend things you don’t sell, as it shows you’re not just looking to make another sale.

Destination guides

I love planning holidays and looking for fun things to do while I’m away with my family. We’ve had some holidays with Eurocamp over the past few years, and they send destination guides via email. Eurocamp design the guides for their customers, so they include details of the facilities and activities on site. However, they also tell you about other things to do in the area, how far away they are and what age group they suit. If I’d written something like this I’d put it on the website too, to attract people who haven’t chosen their destination yet.

I used to write blogs for a holiday park, where customers owned their static caravans. We got great feedback; customers felt the owners cared and wanted them to enjoy their time away.

User-generated content

Big brands often use user-generated content, which is a great way to generate social proof with minimal effort. Encourage your customers to use your product, take a photo of themselves and share it on social media with a hashtag that’s specific to your business.

If you’re sending a physical product, you could include an extra treat, like some sweets or a bar of chocolate, with their order. Alternatively, ask them to showcase the results they’ve achieved with your product by sharing before-and-after photos. You can offer an incentive, such as a discount or entry into a prize draw, for anyone who posts.

Repurpose everything

There’s more than one way to use your content. User-generated before and after photos can go into your emails, website and sales pages, as well as social media. Start with a simplified version of your destination guide on a sales page and create a longer one for customers who’ve already booked their holiday.

You can use almost anything in an email and a blog post. For example, if your customer’s meal kit is on its way, you can let them know what kitchen equipment they’ll need. It could also encourage people who are reluctant to try your product because they’re worried they’ll need lots of fancy kitchen gadgets.

If you want to create marketing content to look after your existing customers and speak to your target audience, I can help.

When you work with me, I’ll get to know you and your business. I’ll suggest topic ideas if you need them, and we’ll spend half an hour a month (or longer if you prefer) chatting about your business and our latest topic. Then I’ll write a post that sounds like the best version of you and that your audience will love. To find out more, email me to arrange a chat or book a call.

Alternatively, sign up for my mailing list here, and you could win a free copy makeover.

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How to give your customers peace of mind

Creating content to give my customers peace of mind.
Image by Julie Grant Photography

Having regular customers is a great feeling. They’ve experienced your customer service and come back for more. Some of them might even have recommended you to their friends. On the other hand, encouraging people to buy from you for the first time can be tricky because they don’t know what to expect. Here’s how your marketing can give your customers peace of mind before they buy.

Explain the process

Before your customers buy from you, they need to know what will happen next. If they buy a product, they want to know how long it’ll be before it’s delivered. If they book a call with you or come for an appointment, will they be able to go away and think before they decide, or will you expect a decision straight away? What should they wear to class, or is there anything they need to bring?

Clear information about what they’re getting into is reassuring and means they’re more likely to take that first step.

Show them behind the scenes

Showing your customers behind the scenes of your business helps them to feel like insiders. They can see new products being created or how you set your studio up for a photo shoot. It can help them feel more comfortable about working with you too. Showing a fitness class with bodies of all shapes and sizes lets people know they won’t be the only person with a wobbly belly.

Make it easy to get in touch

If you offer a bespoke service, you’ll often need a conversation with a prospective customer so you can tailor your service to their needs. Make the process clear and easy to follow wherever people find you. You could have a contact form on your website or want people to message you if they find you on social media. Make it obvious what you want them to do next.

Equally, if you’re offering a class or selling a product, make sure the link to book or buy is easy to find so they don’t have to search for it.

Use straightforward language

I feel as if “don’t use jargon if your clients don’t know it” could be my catchphrase, but it bears repeating. This is especially important if you work in a professional or technical field like finance or law. Your clients want to be reassured that you’ll help them rather than bamboozle them with jargon.

Don’t feel as if you need to use fancy words for things. Write as you’d normally speak, then edit.

Include FAQs

You can answer FAQs anywhere, from your website to social media to a sales page for a specific product or service. If you can use real customer questions, that’s great because other people will probably ask them too.

FAQs are great for SEO because they’re the questions potential customers will also type into Google.

Put yourself in your marketing

If you’re a one-person business, letting your customers get to know you helps them to trust you. Showing your face in your marketing helps people distinguish you from others who offer something similar. They see your face or hear your voice in a post and remember you because you don’t look or sound like everyone else.

If you want to write content that puts your customers’ fears to rest and lets them get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to buy. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Or, sign up below to get useful content writing tips straight to your inbox every month.

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Five reasons why your customers are scared to get in touch with you

Kirsty thinking about why your customers are scared to get in touch with you.

It’s nearly Hallowe’en, so my thoughts turn to the spooky side of life. The thing is, what if your business is the scary thing? You might know that you and your business are lovely and not terrifying, but your customers could still hesitate. Here are the top five reasons your customers are scared to contact you and what you can do about them.

They don’t know what to expect

Contacting a new business can be like the first day of school; exciting but also terrifying if you don’t know what to expect. That’s why schools send out loads of information to parents and have settling-in days for the kids.

Use your marketing to share what happens when people get in touch, book an appointment or come to a class. Tell them what they need to bring or what to wear. They’re more likely to get in touch when they can see the path ahead.

They think they won’t understand you

This probably applies to you if you work in law, accountancy or anything technical, particularly with lay clients. When I was a solicitor, legal speak created a shorthand to use with other lawyers, but I never used it with my clients. Your customers might be putting off something important because they think you speak gobbledegook.

If your customer doesn’t speak the same technical language as you, don’t use it in your marketing. Show them you’re a normal human being who’ll explain things in a straightforward way.

They’re worried about pressure sales

I hate pressure selling. When I got married, we immediately rejected the photographer who offered us a 50% discount, “but only if you sign now.” Does that ever work?

If you use sales calls in your business, there’s no single way to reassure people that you won’t do this. You can share case studies and testimonials and talk about your process on your website, blog, and emails. Knowing they’ll have time to think things over will reassure people and encourage them to book a call.

They’re scared of asking a stupid question

No one wants to look stupid or feel like they’re being a nuisance. Your future customers might have a question whose answer is the difference between them booking and walking away, but they’re afraid to ask it.

The best way to deal with this is to use FAQs. You can use these as a list or a single post on any marketing platform. Answer questions that people have asked you, but make some up, too. Talk to people in your networking groups to see what they’d ask. I love coming up with questions for clients. I’ve lost count of the number of blog topics that came out of me asking a client how something works.

They don’t know you

What’s the biggest first-day-of-school fear you can think of? Yep, will the other kids be nice? Will I make friends? When you put yourself in your marketing, you help your customers get to know, like and trust you so they aren’t scared to get in touch.

Your marketing can show people who you are before they ever meet you (if they’ll ever meet you). When you write your marketing, be yourself, and you’ll ease your customers’ minds.

If you want to write content that puts your customers’ fears to rest and lets them get to know you, I can help.  I’ll write blogs, posts, emails and whatever else you need to engage your audience and encourage them to buy. If you’d like a chat to find out how it works, you can book a call here. Alternatively, sign up using the form below for helpful hints and tips straight to your inbox every month.

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Want more website visitors? You need to speak your customers’ language

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA from Pexels

You’ve probably gone to a lot of time and effort creating a great looking website for your business. There’s a lot of technical work you can do if you want more website visitors but one of the most important bits is the one that’s overlooked most often. The words. If your website copy (the technical term for the words) doesn’t tell your visitors that they’re in the right place within a few seconds they’ll bounce off to another site and you might have lost them forever. Then you have to work on attracting more website visitors rather than deepening the relationship with the ones you already have. The great news is that the words you use can help you to attract more visitors and impress them when they get there. How do you do it? I’m glad you asked…

Know your customer

When someone lands on your website, it’s because they were looking for something. You need to show them that they’ve found it. Say they’ve found your shop by typing ‘gifts for Mother’s Day’ into Google. The page they land on should tell them what gifts you’re offering, whether it’s jewellery, chocolates, or something else. If you offer a service, sum it up in a couple of sentences, or with a question they’ll answer yes to if they’re in the right place.

Apply the ‘so what’ test

It’s important to remember that your visitors don’t really care about you. Your credentials are important in that they help you to build trust, but your customer is only really interested in what you can do for them. If you’re an accountant helping small businesses with their tax returns, make it obvious. This can just be something like ‘Want to make your next tax return quick and easy? We can help.’ Yes, it’s really that simple.

What if your visitor isn’t ready to buy?

Sometimes you’ll get a new visitor, but they’re not ready to make a decision yet. They might just be doing some research or perhaps they need to talk to someone else before they decide. Inviting them to sign up to your mailing list or follow you on social media gives you the chance to stay in touch and remind them why they were looking for you in the first place. Then when they’re ready to buy, they’ll remember you.

Are you making it easy to buy?

If you’ve got a website visitor who’s ready to give you their money, make it easy for them. If you sell products online, you know that good photos and clear pricing are both essential, along with a quick and easy checkout. If you offer a service and need to talk to the customer before they buy, show people how to make an enquiry or book a call. Give them a button to click or a form to fill in so they don’t have to go searching.

What do you want to be found for?

If you’ve done any work on your SEO, you’ll know how important key words are. Yours might be easy to identify, particularly if you offer a service in a particular location. It’s worth thinking about the kind of terms your customers will understand. Most people know what a hairdresser does, but a copywriter like me? Not so much. My customers are more likely to look for advice on how to write a blog so I talk about that.

If you want to attract more website visitors and you think your website copy needs an update, let’s have a chat. Email me or book your free discovery call here.