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- The Toughest Question Many Business Owners Need to Answer - April 19, 2016
- 9 Things to consider when implementing a CRM - March 29, 2016
In my last blog, I covered a handful of key ways to start generating leads and developing your customer database. But if you don’t have a plan and work-flows in place to start communicating with those leads, your database isn’t going to do you much good. This is the part where the CRM you’re using can make or break you. A CRM that has too little in the way of work-flows and communication features can hold you back. Make sure your CRM has built in work-flows to schedule drip campaigns and the ability to track campaigns that go out. The market is flooded with CRMs and choosing can be a nightmare. Check our blog on choosing a CRM to help you decide on a CRM that is right for you. Once you’ve got a CRM that can handle the job, and your staff is invested and ready to use it, you’re ready to get out there are start communicating to turn those leads into customers!
Social Media
Communicating through social media means reaching customers at many different stages in the buying process. A great social media strategy will include lots of useful content that your followers will find useful. Yes, some of this content can be from your company’s own blogs, but it is always good to share lots of content from other places as well. Sharing other’s ideas will help you to build trust and credibility with followers. Scheduling social media posts through an client like Social Scheduler, will ensure content is going out to your followers on a regular basis. On social channels like Twitter, It is also important to regularly interact with followers as well. A creative social media strategy is engaging and helps you build intrigue and trust in your business. What social media doesn’t do, is stand alone and convert followers to customers. In order to see a tangible benefit from social media, it must be used in conjunction with other marketing efforts that will better convert your prospects.
Blogging
While also being great for your site’s SEO, blogging is an excellent way to keep your web visitors engaged. The more substantive your blogs are, the more likely they are to be shared and linked back to by others and the more visitors your website will earn. If allot of writing just isn’t in your wheelhouse, not to worry. Podcasting and video are great and can even be better options too. Another way to keep content flowing is to find regular contributors on social media. Start building relationships with people in your industry on twitter. Participating in a Twitter chat is a great way to do this. Finding influencers to writer for you is also a great way to earn more traffic to your website.
Email Marketing
Email remains a tried and true medium for converting leads. And best of all, it’s very inexpensive. Like with social media, the key to an effective email marketing campaign is to build trust. Instead of cutting right to the chase and asking for their business right in an email, sending useful information is a great way to warm them up to you. When you constantly promote your services in an email, people will just tune you out and your unsubscribe rate will climb through the roof. An email newsletter or blog with helpful ideas in the industry however, is a great way to keep your leads engaged and wanting more. At first, things will take off slowly, but over time, as you continue to build trust with your leads, they will start to become customers.
Giving Them a Call
Calling prospects may seem like a daunting process, but it can go a long way for that customer who is on the fence. Really, calling is all about further building the relationship with a lead. If they downloaded an e-book from your site, the reason for the call can simply be a follow up to make sure all their questions were answered on that topic. This is a great conversation starter that can get the customer talking. When the customer is talking, they’re more likely to buy from you. Making this call conversational and on a topic you already know they’re interested in is your best bet for converting them into a customer. From there, you can develop a compelling offer to add into your calls to seal the deal.
The true key to dynamite communicating is to build trust. Trust is your number one asset in digital marketing and it is what will encourage those leads to take the next step and become customers.
