Small Business Touchpoints

A thin business card is like a limp handshake and an unanswered social media comment is like walking into a business and getting completely ignored by the staff.

Sometimes the things described above are the first impression a customer receives from your business, and these days first impressions can come from ANYWHERE... so managing your touchpoints and creating positive first impressions is what this post is all about.      

Touchpoints?

EVERY part of your business that a customer comes into contact with is a touchpoint. Your Answering machine message, brochures, email signature.... your vehicle access, choice of toilet paper and EVERYTHING in between.

If a customer sees your brand or anything about your business it means they are already SEARCHING for a product or service that you may provide.You need to properly manage these customer contacts. You need to make your touchpoints consistent with your brand AND your touchpoints need to be geared towards meeting the needs of your target audience. 

"Customers are looking for confirmation,

 that what you offer

is going to meet their needs." 

Because every business is different, touchpoint selection changes as well. An online business relies heavily on providing easy site navigation and usability, a retail store utilises in-store displays and customer service; each have there own unique touchpoint requirements. If your customer reaches a touchpoint and thinks that your business may not meet their needs they will simply walk away and purchase somewhere else.... if your touchpoints lack impact customers have plenty of other options available to them, they won't even bother to walk through your door even if you do have products that meet their needs.

Real World...

A quote from a plumber can be hand written or it can be an opportunity to display their logo and relevant promotions to the customer... and although only a small aspect of a business, with proper analysis any touchpoint can have more impact.

EG:  Your plumber comes around to do a quote on a bathroom renovation. When you receive the emailed quote a clickable promotion for kitchen renovation plumbing is found  at the bottom of the email with a few short testamonials. 

This indicates that...

• the plumber does regular renovation work
• combining bathroom and kitchen plumbing may lead to a greater discount
• the plumber has experience
• positive testimonials indicate the plumber does a good job   

The plumber also benefits from...

• greater awareness of additional services
• direct marketing to generate future sales
• click through onto the business website
• increased customer engagement

Do your emails contain links to your current promotions?  If your prospective customer is already engaged make the most of it!

A word of warning... 

Badly executed touchpoints will turn customers away. Following up a positive customer service contact with 10 automated promotional emails will undo your customer service efforts and lead to instant distrust. A hand written quote may seem unprofessional compared to a printed quote on company stationery... on the flipside... some people may perceive a hand written quote as more genuine and personal ...it all comes down to your customers perception!

Now is the time to sit down and write a list of ALL the ways YOUR customers come into contact with your brand. Analyse each touchpoint and note how a customer would perceive your brand via that point?...are your touchpoints as good as they could be? If your touchpoints don't match up to your brand its time to get to work, prioritise the list and make that first impression count. 

 What innovative ways have you used to create memorable touchpoints? 

What are your thoughts on Touchpoints for your small business? 

Feel free to comment below.     

  




       

"Cry Poor Syndrome"

“I can’t justify spending money on a website yet”

“Last Christmas was a slow one so we had to halve the marketing budget”

It is an epidenmic growing at an alarming rate, in fact its been present in small business for as long as i can remember...what I call the “Cry Poor Syndrome”... owners too “poor” to spend money on their business.

The other side of cash flow

Every business owner needs to control their business spending; cash flow management is a top priority for everyone. But you have to remember there are two sides to ever story and concentrating too heavily on where your money is being spent and not on where its coming from is the root of the "Cry Poor" problem. Just as your outgoings need to be managed, your revenue streams need to be managed just as meticulously.

Please correct me if I’m wrong,  but all your income is generated from your customers is'nt it? Your customers essentially put a roof over your head and food on the table...they paid for your nice car and your family holiday.  Without them your STUFFED. So you need to find a balance between being thrifty and being a tight ass to make sure they still put money in your till and not someone elses.

How do you attract more customers?

What can you do to bring in more customers?

Planning helps; a marketing plan in place allows you to know who your target market is and how to effectively communicate to them. If your not willing to invest in marketing, are you guessing your target market? Is your advertising really reaching them and making an impact? Customers can be fickle, and if your business isn’t in plain view...or cannot be heard customers will head to your competitor instead... 

"I can't justify spending money on a website..."

Thats OK your competitors already have, and they are getting the rewards.

 

If you dont have a website, or a website that is mobile phone friendly, how many people will find you?  Can you still justify not having a website while your losing sales? And im not talking about purely online purchasing here, im talking about the woman from Lismore heights looking online for a $2000 wedding photography package, or the guy from Goonellabah who is comparing $1800 HDTV's. So how much money will end up in your competitor’s pockets before you stop crying poor? 

"...we had to halve the marketing budget."

If last christmas was a bit slow, how effective was your advertising? Would halving your advertising have a positive impact on this coming christmas? If you stop communicating with your customer, they will stop listening. But then they start listening more to your competition who are still communicating with your customers; but now they have the customers undivided attention.

SO.. 

• Keeping business spending under control is very important... but a balance needs to be found in order to maintain your current revenue which is provided by your customer. 

• "Crying Poor Syndrome" can cripple your business and prevent it from reaching its fullest potential.  

 Cut too hard into the marketing budget, or skimp on your website and you will find a steady number of customers purchasing from the busines down the road.Its not because what they sell is any better or that the products are any cheaperIt's because while you have your lights turned off to save electricity, the competitors have left theirs on...and they are attracting all the moths.  

Does Social media always work for small business?

Without a doubt social media is the most cost effective way to establish ongoing contact with customers. It allows new and existing customers to have direct interaction with your brand and enables you to provide something them with something of VALUE, even when your doors are closed. But what if social media was actually harming your business...?!

Here are a few reasons why you really need to look at the viability of social media for your small business...

1. Social media may not be a good fit for your business.

Every marketing guru in the world just pulled out the daggers...but please hear me out.

Social media works extremely well for businesses that are SOCIAL in nature... florist, hairdressers and cafes are a perfect match for sites like Facebook, Instagram and Pintrest, kind of makes sense, customers meet there...they are social places, there is a never ending supply of what i call immediate content...that is..... general content that most demographics can relate and engage with.....like this pork belly photo (YUM).

But a local accounting firm that specialises in business taxation....should be spending more time creating  engaging and informative email updates that better meet the needs of their target audience; busy business owners. Managing social media accounts may be a waste of company resources (although Linkedin would definately fit in this case).

Your target audience should be at the

 centre 

of what social media you choose

 for your business. 

Real world....
Define Design Deliver is not on twitter because small business owners who i talk to are simply not on twitter...most small businesses in the northern rivers and (as a guess) most of regional Australia DON'T HAVE TWITTER...so why spend time managing content that won't be seen by my target audience? The hour spent managing my content each week is better spent calling a past client to touch base or take the time to introduce myself to a new business...i hope that all makes sense now...(you can put your daggers away).


*** NOTE ***
Since this post we have created a twitter account for the Define brand...it is going quite well, although it must be said that our overall business strategy has changed which created a need for a global business voice. I.e. Twitter   

 You can find us here...  @DefineLismore 

2. Social media takes time... and time equals money

Let’s not kid ourselves, social media is not an easy task. The amount of time and effort required for social media is definately part of the reason more than 70% of Facebook business accounts are inactive.

Quality content is what you should always strive for; quick updates are okay, but they need to be supported by structured content. Ask yourself, what are you able to achieve without a clear social media strategy and well planned updates? 

ALL your posts must be consistent to your brand message, focused on your target audience and they must provide VALUE. Simply broadcasting a message is not enough anymore. Your social media needs integration into your overall marketing plan so that ALL your communications complement each other and meet the objectives of the business. If your running a newspaper promotion....you should utilise social  media to boost engagement with the promotion, regularly post links to the promotion page on your website and maintain a consistent message delivery.

3.  Social media needs consistency

Consistent posts maintain attention, but if your business gets busy, social media is usually the first thing to go. Why should customers follow you if you don’t regularly update and the value you aim to create is sporadic? Without consistency your social media account could actually do more harm than good.  

The other big no-no is that small business really needs to reconsider using social media if they regularly fail to acknowledge follower comments in a timely manner. Not responding to a Facebook message or ANY social media comment, share or mention is the same as if a customer walks into your store and you completely ignore them! Social media requires planning and foresight, but more importantly it requires you to understand that it is an important communication link that needs to be maintained. Getting back to a customer enquiry needs to happen within 24 hours; feedback should always be acknowledged and complaints should always be addressed ASAP.

So... 

Social media is here to stay, but it really needs to be viewed as PART of your overall marketing strategy (both online and offline)...Social media is not the be-all-and-end-all. Social media can play a positive role in your communications strategy and it is certainly great for maintaining customer relationships, but time, planning and management are required in order to make it truly effective. Small business really needs to develop the marketing fundamentals of social media in order provide customer engagement and lead generation. If you can’t commit the time and energy into your social media maybe it’s time to get a professional in to manage your social media accounts ...or look at dropping your less productive or wayward accounts in order to increase the quality of your content overall.  

 

My First Blog

It has begun

So ive finally bit the bullet and started my blog...Its all about marketing ....small business marketing to be exact... tips to improve your small business....

Who am i

My name is Jason Banister
Im 37 yo
i live in Lismore, NSW, Australia...
im married...and have 4 awesome kids....
im a marketing guy.... who also plays drums professionally

A few things to point out

No one is perfect.... im far from it (just ask my wife) i may sometimes miss a spelling mistake...OOPS....i do value grammar and proper sentence structure... but i really love placing these dots into my emails and now this blog..... because its quicker... 

The other thing i do that may drive you crazy is using a lower case "I" ....my self esteem is perfectly fine so lets not get all phsyco-analytical over it.......i just dont see the importance in hitting shift half way through a sentence...once again it slows me down.

So why small business marketing?

At school you wouldnt pick me as a marketing consultant... on the contrary... i was (and still am) a bit alternative to include myself into the business world. But ive always been interested in how large corporations "sell" to us.... and why we buy...

so deep down...im a sceptic observer of capitalism....who likes to wear business suits on occasions... 

But the more ive worked in marketing ive realised its all about the customer...and why we buy what we buy...... large corporations have millions to market their products to us...they automate their processes and reduce their customers to a "number" to make things more efficient...thats how things work on a large scale...thats fine with me...i can still sleep at night.....

but small business KILLS the corporate goliath everyday through personalised service...they have far less money available for marketing but they need it to be competitive...

So i choose to help small business make the most of what they have...i know that the difference between surviving and thriving....is marketing.

Its all about your customers

I remember as a young apprentice chef, an owner once told me to look after the customers because they ultimately pay your rent.... he was right... without customers a business is dead in the water...working in the hospitality industry showed me how important everything a business does is important to its success.... its the little things that add up to make a business...

SO how do we get customers through the doors??    and more importantly...how do we keep them???...the answer is different for each and every business... what works for one business may not work for another... there is no one size fits all....and certainly no magic formula that you use for marketing success...

What this blog will deliver

this blog will provide you with tips and insights into making your small business more competitive and more successful.....not everything that i post will be directed at your industry...but it will be relevent to small business in general.... this blog is here to make you think about your marketing, provide my opinion on certain aspects of marketing that i love and hate and give you ways to improve your marketing piece by piece...we want small business to be successful....and we want to provide you the marketing information and support to do it...because...

  "Your success is our success"

Define Design Deliver is a Small Business Marketing Company Basedin Lismore,NSW, Australia. For more information on what we do,  feel free to visit us online at www.definedesigndeliver.com.au