We were developing a marketing campaing for a bakery shop,  a client that came to us not surprisingly from our social media efforts on twitter. The task was on getting customers to come back and try our bakery shop. Up untill then the company hadn’t considered social media and their marketing efforts and resources had been spent on the old fashion way of building a following. The following they built were garnered through expensive direct mailing blasts directed to John and Jane within a 15 mile radius of a zip code and local newspaper advertisements, while it garnered some number of repeat business, we found the that the cost was too much and the results could be a lot better. Our campaign strategy with this client was to focus on a social media strategy.
Here are the steps we took:

1. We communicated this social media drive to all employees and staff.

2. Created facebook fan pages where communication could occur back and forth.

3. Developed the twitter page.

4 .Communicated this social presense to the customer.

• placed social media web address on busienss cards and print materials that touched the customer’s hands.
• Informed staff to lets customers know that “we are on facebook and twitter”
• placed “incentive motivators on reciepts and other materials that customers interacted that stated “Find us on twitter and facebook for specials and tasty treats”

Once we had put together the tactical aspect of this social media drive, we then started using our fan pages and twitters to communicated coupons, specials and offers. We held contests and challenges and very shortly we had a thriving community of followers whom the client could communicate to and vice-versa. Customer would communicate new flavors that they would like, customer service praises etc. The client love it. The result was an increase in the number of customers and repeat business that made their way back into the store.

In essence the meat of the challenge was to introduce a new and more effective marketing medium and secondly to harness it for what is inherently its purpose, communication. By offering the capacity for more effective communication channel via social media, our client was able to develop the brand and develop the business.

• Call Us feature – make it easy for your customer to call you from their phone without actually entering your phone number in their mobile device.
• Find Us feature – since most mobile device feature a map application, you want you customers to be able to locate you easily.
• Call me back – added as part for the site so that customer can click an icon on your mobile site, enter a phone number and have it automatically routed to an email for you to follow up on.
• Information updates – A feature that customers can opt-in to so that they receive your messages, whether text or email.

Everyone who as a phone today, has a smart phone, and they are using it so you want your site to display well enough for them to use it.

Sales communication is an act of ascribing value such that the subject being ascribed is more desirable and attractive; the discipline of this art is marketing, the art of fostering value. Today, it is essential to learn and understand value and how to create it, the modern world thrives on it. As our economy has shifted from that labor and production centered society to a more service centered one communicating value is now more than ever, the difference between success and failure.

Today, it is essential to learn and understand value and how to create it

Von C.

If you lack the ability to convey the added value of your services, products, and or solution to your customers, then most likely your endeavor will fail.

Through advertisements, branding, and sophisticated communication strategies value is being created on a minute by minute basis, consider the stock market. Considering the brand of toothpaste, or model of car to drive is an act that engages our internal value mechanics; now get this, it’s been and is being manipulated with our consent all the time.

Value is arrived at by understanding the underlying motives of your customers. The questions are:

• Why would my customers need this?
• What would my customers need this for?
• Where would my customers need this?
• When would my customers need this?

Understanding your consumer’s motives is peered at two levels, the first being on the macro-level and the second being on the micro-level

The macro-level analysis is simply this “what segment of the people are my customers” and “what does this population concern it self with”.The micro-level asks “who is my customers, who is she, who is he” and “what is he or she concerned with”

Once these questions have been defined then you can start to ascribe value to the products and services being sold and when you start to communicate value to customers you start communicating relevance in their lives. This is no longer the selling of products, or the satisfaction of demand giving supply. Now we are fufilling the customers needs.

My search started like this, I drove around and stopped in various places where these variables were present and used the Google map app on my iPhone to search for apartments within a given radius of that location. I would drive around, then I would bring up google maps application and search for “Apartments” the application would then pinpoint all the apartments within a radius of my choosing. I could then with street view gloss over the apartments and settle on 5 apts that sparked my interest.

I did this 2 times and settled on an apartment that I wouldn’t have found without Google Maps because it was well hidden across train tracks and a forest like area.

The applications for business search was immediately made apparent. Today I use google maps, together with street view to find everything and if what I’m looking isn’t on the map then there’s very little chance I would find it. Now, I’m not the only one like this. The marketing applications are wide and vast. I’m finding businesses on google maps displaying information out side of the pertinent info that google provides and the future is grand.

Customer service encompasses a wide array of policies from communicating your message at every point of contact, to actively building relationships, though some vital points in business growth outlined below should be a priority of any growing business.

The Follow Up

One way to build a strong relationship with the client is through the follow up, a proactive relationship building technique that done appropriately communicates your diligence and earnest concern. Following up with your clients communicates the message that you care and that you are available to handle any problems that might arise, furthermore it expresses the notion that you are proactive in problem solving and that you want their business. It is a simple gesture that equals a great deal in growing your business. Imagine for a second if your cable company, your electric company, or your bank called you to inquire as to if the services they offered were adequately meeting your needs. With a single phone call like this would you not feel an affinity to this electric company or that bank, and the likelihood of you switching to a competitor reduced. The simple act of following up with your customer fosters a business intimacy that solidifies the relational interaction in business engagements. It impresses your company signature upon the mind of your customer which results into a repeat customer.

Communication.

Communication is the basic building block in any relationship, marriage, friendship, and business, especially business. Your customers know more about your business than you. How is this possible? Well your customers are the ones on the receiving end of all your efforts, therefore they are the candidates most suited to communicate any lacking or strength you as a company might posses. The break down in communication between companies and their customer
base is the most debilitating factor in the company-customer relationship. Making sure to keep the communications lines fluid and open ensures that your efforts will contribute to what really matters, as well, it gives your company a rich and constant results analysis feedback, and further will impress your customers to know that you are taking the proactive and deliberate approach in listening. You can increase your communication-feedback channel with your clients via devices such as social media, ie: facebook, twitter, etc.

ARB. (Active Relationship Building)

Another way to build business through customer service is through active relationship building (ARB) measures. Relationship building is a very important part of your growth, your larger competitors manage this activity very well, hence their size. Though as a small business you can offer a more intimate relationship through your own signature ARB. Active relationship building (ARB) is where you can be creative, but keeping in mind that the goal is to build relationship and trust with your clients. Apart from following up, ARB strategies requires that you constantly look for opportunities to build relationships.

Think to yourself:

1. How can I build a relationship with the new customers I will engage today?

2. How can I build relationships that will drive me business and drive me leads?

whether handing out brochures or business cards, the answers will vary depending on the particular work or service you are in.

Other ways of building relationships.

As a small business owner you can employ many strategies in building relationships from point of sale processes, such as having your employees say or do different things to employing a outside help, such as companies who specialize in such fields. Nevertheless, understand that the relationships you build are the nutrients that your business thrives on.

The modern times started to see the proliferation of images and ideas portrayed through ever growing channels, newspapers, radios, and then the television. The television arrived and sealed the deal. Today the web is that new medium by which the media advances, though what makes the web so unique is that singular fact that anyone can create their idea of the world for others to see. Wherein conventional Media ideas are conveyed usually by groups in power, ie: governments with propaganda, companies with marketing, interest groups, etc. The new media allows bipartisanship, it allows democracy, it allows the individual to exist.

History was shaped by the media. The historical fronts on science, art, societal equality, etc was first conceived by the media; it was our hopes, our fears, and our ideals of how it ought to be that brought about advancement in all these area.

Now, can media be used and how can it affect us?

We change and adjust from the images we see on the television, from the shows that we watch on TV, we form generalities and stereotypes from everything that enters us through our five senses. The modern media caters to two the most, the eyes and ears. Our thoughts of who we are from what we have received from these five senses, in theory a society can be influenced to act, to hate, to like, and to love. The individual can be influenced by the media. The individual and the society can be manufactured. Consumers buy.

The number one ingredient in a business is the combination of individuals, your employees and your customers. The interaction between these two groups is the dynamic force that grows organizations.  As an ongoing business you’re probably thinking how would I drive customers to me and in this day and age it is easier that ever. Utilizing social media an ongoing business can quickly build dialogue with it customer base; a two way communication channel where information flows freely between the two parties.

Social media has developed into a special form of marketing, but rather than seeing it as a way to broadcast, social media is more effective when it is positioned in its proper place, as a dialogue inducer, trust builder, and mindshare grower. When a business starts to develop dialogue with its customers, the business starts to build trust which in turn leads to loyalty. The increase in loyalty creates fans which leads to word of mouth advertising, which brings in more customers and so on. Social media today has expedited the way a business can gain on the mindshare front within the marketplace, what took years in the past can now be accomplished quicker with the dynamics of social media.

So what makes a business? People make businesses and the secret to a successful business is to engage your customers and your employees and we do that by developing dialogue between the two. Today we do it more effectively with social media, “Don’t leave home without it”