Todfay’s guest blog is offered by Cara Aley:
Using Social Media to Engage with Your Current Customers
Every successful business can tell you about their social media strategy, why they have one, and how well it works for them. Here, we’ll look at some important tips in how a business can utilize social media not only to obtain new customers, but also to keep in touch with current customers and encourage repeat sales.
Offers.
Reward your current customers with offers in return for their loyalty (which will, thus, encourage purchasing). When posting to social media or targeting an ad, provide a discount code and see how it works. There is a great tool for tracking the success of your tweets called Tweet Archivist. Facebook also has a fantastic campaign-tracking tool.
You should constantly evaluate what your customers are responding to (or not) and refine from there. Do they respond far better to 20% off than to 15% off? Is there a certain type of image that makes them want to click on an ad? Are they sharing the offer?
Test, analyze, and refine your social media activities based on what is working!
Test, analyze, and refine are the three critical steps in every social media campaign, because there is always something to be learned from every campaign that you can apply to the next.
Let them help you grow.
Are you considering the roll-out of a new product or service? Ask your fans for feedback. They want to help you succeed. You never know what kind of helpful nugget you’ll get from your fans that could help you refine or improve upon your new offering, and more importantly, your fans will appreciate that you seek and care about their feedback.
Social media is the new customer service tool.
Never ignore your customers’ posts.
Incredible customer service.
Many businesses utilize Facebook and Twitter as customer service tools. This is because many fans will write complaints or concerns on these pages in the hope of a response, and since this is such a public arena, you really need to respond. Give them a helpful and positive response (coupon codes and free product go a long way here), and other customers will be impressed by the fact that you care enough to find swift resolution to the issue. The worst thing you can do is ignore an issue, as you many not only lose that customer, but also others who see the lack of response.
Interesting content is critical.
Your customers are bombarded by a slew of social media posts, offers, and options for what they can do online every day. Whatever you do post, whether it is an interesting article that relates to your industry or a blog post you have written, make sure the title and associated image are compelling – that is what is going to get them to click through to purchase. More importantly, it will get them to share with their own friends and spread the word about your business.
In short, it is important not only that we are always responsive to our customers in a social media setting, but that we are always evaluating what types of actions make our customers respond positively. Our customers are our best advocates, so we need to treat them well by listening to what they want – and giving it to them!
Cara Aley is a freelance writer who covers a variety of topics and profiles businesses such as AmeriSave.
These tips will lead you to many ‘a Smooth Sale!
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INSPIRED Business A New Vision for Building Business and Communities, Motivational Press
Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results, Sourcebooks
HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews, Career Press
