10 ways to keep in contact with your customers
People are nosy. Fact. You only need to look at the phenomena of social media to know that this is true! Millions of people world-wide have social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit and Pinterest to name a few – and often more than one. According to Search Engine Journal, the social media platforms just listed are the 7 biggest social media sites in the world, with Facebook topping the list at 2.45 billion active users.
Great – so nosy people are interested people and social media is an excellent way to reach out to customers – and potential customers. But it’s not all about social media. There are other methods of keeping in touch and using a mixture of approaches is the best way to reach a wider audience.
Here are some suggestions for keeping in contact with customers (and potential customers!)
Up-to-date website
This is important as your website is likely to be the first point of contact with a potential customer. Keep your website up-to-date so that people know it’s active and that you care enough to keep it relevant. Post any great news – such as a sale or promotion on your home page. Make it easy for people to contact you – don’t make them search for an email address or phone number. Include a ‘meet the team’ page. This may seem like a random suggestion but it is said that the ‘about us’ and/or ‘meet the team’ pages are the most clicked upon on a website. This is because people are nosy (as we keep saying!) but they also like to ‘know’ who they’re buying from.
Pop-ups
This links to your website. Consider adding a pop-up when customers are browsing your website. A pop-up is literally a box that pops up on the browser’s screen containing information, promotions, a chatbox or a ‘call-to-action’ (where you are encouraging your customer to call or buy for example). Try to avoid more than one pop-up however as otherwise you risk annoying the browser to the point that they give up on your website.
Blogs
Another way of keeping your website up-to-date and active. This is important not just for informative purposes but Google likes to see an active website and regular blogging can help your website rank higher in the search result page.
Order confirmations
You can legally send an email confirmation to a customer, in fact, customers demand it! So why not use it as an opportunity to advertise other products, services and promotions? Just be careful not to send an offer on something a customer has just purchased at full price!
Social media
We all know about social media and used in the right way it is a very powerful business tool. Different platforms have different ways of working and different reaches so it’s wise to use a mixture of types to connect with a wider audience. Don’t forget business platforms such as LinkedIn, not just the obvious such as Facebook. Business social media pages tend to be more professional, offer great networking opportunities and they tend to be more positive and supportive than other options. Making your posts honest, informative, helpful and interesting is key to gaining followers.
Advertorial
Sometimes a good old-fashioned advertorial is an excellent way to remind people of your existence. Usually found in newspapers but of course these translate to digital print too. Advertorials can work extremely well for local businesses who have renovated; re-opened; have great new stock or have a brilliant member of staff they want to introduce for example. Keep the article balanced at around 70% informative content and 30% sales.
Newsletters*
Usually sent via email to interested parties, a newsletter is a brilliant way of relaying information about your company, company changes and improvements, new products and services and promotional offers etc. Make sure the newsletters are well-written, not too long (you can always save content for next time!) and make sure they’re interesting and relevant to your chosen target.
SMS/text*
Send text updates to your customers. This can of course be an order update but it can be for other purposes too, such as a promotional offer to a carefully selected target audience. Just be sure not to bombard people and annoy them!
Emails*
Send email updates to your customers. Perhaps send a blanket email if it’s news that all your customers need to know. Or perhaps you could target specific customers with information and offers relevant to them. Again, try not to send too many emails as it will perpetuate ‘email fatigue’ (people will just roll their eyes and delete the mail without reading it!) rendering your efforts useless and potentially irritating people too.
Pick up the phone!* An oldie but a goodie. Use your judgement in selecting customers to call but many of them will appreciate some love. It could just be a courtesy call to check in with them but also an opportunity to ‘upgrade’ their account, upgrade their order, offer them an item or service you think they might like….. the list is endless and your customer will appreciate the attention.
* Please ensure you have appropriate opt-in from customer and unsubscribe immediately upon request
Here at SwitchboardFREE we try to use a combination of the above ensuring content is updated regularly, relevant, interesting, informative and helpful. Don’t forget to add your brand or logo to whatever method you use to keep in contact with people.
One way we have capitalised on the email form of contact is this: whenever SwitchboardFREE customers receive an automated email from us it will be in a standard format. At the top of the mail is the SwitchboardFREE branding/logo. We also use the ‘white space’ at the top as an opportunity to add a banner advertisement or an information banner. These banners are regularly updated depending on what information we want to provide or service we wish to promote. This would work equally as well for order confirmation emails. Some examples of our banners below:
If you have a virtual telephone number (or are thinking about getting a virtual telephone number) it’s a great way of keeping track of which of your customers you have made contact with via which method. This is because your virtual telephone number will come with an account that can link with your customer database (CRM) automatically recording customer contact. You could also have a different virtual telephone number for each style of advertising that you do. Use numbers for social media ads and different numbers for leaflets for example and get an idea of where your calls come from and which contact methods are most effective.
If you’d like to know more about virtual telephone numbers and the benefits of having one check out our definitive guide to Virtual Telephone Numbers.
Unsure why it’s important to keep in contact with customers? Our article 5 reasons why you need to keep your customers well informed will give you some guidance.