Sign in
Courtesy navigation
Search
Blog posts tagged customers
Too much information! Where's the line between sign-up and turn-off?
August 20, 2010
I thought I’d take a moment out to tackle a personal bugbear of mine: excessive sign-up information requests.
Many websites quite reasonably ask users for sign-up information in order to access specific features like forums, or to join mailing lists, but sometimes, they just go too far:
- Mother’s maiden name?
- Annual net profit?
- Favourite after dinner mint?
It’s very understandable to want to know as much as you possibly can about a customer so that you can serve them better, but if you ask too many questions, you’re encroaching unnecessarily on their time, and if your questions get too personal, you’re encroaching on their privacy.
Remember, by its very definition, sign-up information is usually requested at the beginning of your relationship, so why ask in depth questions about a person’s business practices and personal life that you wouldn’t dream of asking at a first face-to-face meeting? At best, your customers will plough through the questions with a feint feeling of resentment and at worst, they’ll change their mind and go somewhere else.
Of course, asking for too little information may make it difficult to follow up with customers and target future marketing campaigns, so think carefully about the core information you need to know, and ask for that and only that. Otherwise, prepare yourself for a barrage of aborted sign-ups and false information.
Emily Cagle is director of Emily Cagle Communications
Two ways to add to experiences through communication
April 29, 2010
To heighten an experience you can create expectations and/or you can condition the experience.
- To heighten an experience can be fairly straightforward. For instance, you tell the customer what to look for.
E.g. Wines2You, the wholesale organic wine importer, include tasting notes with their wines stating things like ‘notice the flavours of buttered toast, some say slightly burnt toast’. Suddenly the client tunes in to these flavours and probably passes on this titbit of information to friends when drinking the wine. - To condition the experience you need to add a creative idea. This adds to the experience, often in terms of romance or mystique.
E.g. Wines2You tasting notes go on to say how Keith, the owner of Wines2You, first met Enrique, the owner of the vineyard, early one scorching summer’s morning in the northernmost part of Spain, celebrating the birth of his first child in one of the sixteenth century caves at his smallholding…
It adds to the “sizzle and the steak”.
Five tips for a successful product launch
March 08, 2010
I have recently been spending a lot of time thinking about product launches. My employer, Actinic , is a few weeks away from rolling out a major update to one of its ecommerce software products. While we have the advantage of an existing user base, many of the fundamentals for launching are the same whether it is an existing product or something completely new.
1. Understand the Unique Value Proposition
If your product is sat on the launch pad I would hope by this stage you know what it is that makes your offering different from the rest. The importance of your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) cannot be understated; it’s the lifeblood of any product launch. Review, discuss and research until you are totally convinced you have got it right; you only get one launch window.
2. Talk to prospective customers
Get out there and talk to the very people you want to sell your product to. Discuss your plans for the product, both now and in the future. Get their feedback; it could be you missed something.
3. How are you going to sell and market?
Choosing where to market your product can be difficult. Make informed decisions based on research. It might even be a good idea to run several small pilot schemes to see where you get the most success. However prepare to be ruthless if you’re not seeing the results. It’s easier to make decisions before you have spent the entire budget on something that’s not working.
4. Make yourself heard
Find out who the influential people are in your space and hustle, annoy and pester them. That is until you get a chance to demonstrate why your product is the best. Nothing is better than a personal recommendation regardless of the product or service. Go to events, chat to people and network, network, network!
5. Bring the whole team on the journey
A successful product launch requires commitment and understanding throughout your organisation.
When President Kennedy visited NASA in 1961 he came across a cleaner, and asked him what his job was. The cleaner replied “My Job is to put a man on the moon, Sir”. Now that probably is the greatest launch of all time.
Strong, surviving or tired – Five key questions for established brands?
March 04, 2010
A strong brand will help you win more sales and keep more customers, so spend time on a health check:
1. Is my brand position strong?
Think about what makes your brand unique. How does your brand stack up now and in the future? Why should people care? What your brand stood for in the past may just be that, so have a look at what your competition offers, how they operate and what they do, as well as wider influences and trends.
2. Is my brand clear?
If you are clear about what you stand for and what makes your brand unique, are you clearly communicating it to customers? Be careful of jargon and complicated wording, and be single-minded too – a list of 5 or 6 messages will just lead to confusion, leave the detail for later once you have attention.
3. Does my brand look good?
How current is your look? Think across all your activity, from the logo and identity, to your web site and promotional materials. Are layouts clear? Is your imagery current and clear? Are there elements of consistency? Do fonts work together or look a mess. Brands that look current and relevant feel looked after and worthy of attention, so customers will feel you’ll pay the same attention to them.
4. Does my brand sound good?
All flash looks with not much to say? Ouch. Supporting your central brand promise by what you say and how you behave is critical. Think about how you and your people talk about, sell and service your brand – attention-grabbing looks might get you over a hurdle, but people soon wise up to brands that can’t deliver a promise.
5. Am I my only brand supporter?
Think about who talks about your brand, and where. Is it as much as it used to be? Word of mouth, recommendations, testimonials, social media and news stories will prove it has fans. Prove your brand is worth a look, and maximize every opportunity.
If you’re feeling uncomfortable about two or more of these then it’s time to spend time paying closer attention.
Do You Suffer From Corporate Myopia? – losing customers because you can’t see the wood for the trees.
September 16, 2009
I am building up a portfolio of corporate myopia stories. The standard story goes as follows:
Robert Craven (RC): “Why do people buy your product?”
Corporate Client (CC): “Because we are the best.”
RC: “Really?”
CC: “Well, we are better than the competition.”
RC: “Really?”
CC: “Um and we are the only people to offer XYZ features”
RC: “And is that why people buy your product?”
CC: “Well we are competitive on price.”
RC: “And is that why people buy from you?”
CC: “Um, it could be our brilliant marketing campaign…?
RC: “Really?”
CC: “OK, why do they buy our product?”
What I find so scary is how fragile the arguments seem to be.
And how can you create a marketing campaign or a sales activity or design a better service/product if you aren’t clear on what it is that the customer wants, needs and deserves to get?
So, my friend,
“Why do people buy your product?”
Your answer here: “___________________________________”
“Really?”
Price and Prejudice
June 08, 2009
Some people think that price is everything.
My son currently works in my company, Actinic, sitting beside me in the home office. His job is account managing customers who use our ecommerce web hosting. It’s very instructive listening in. We’re not the cheapest offering, although we believe that we offer good value.
Since you will start losing orders and customers the second your ecommerce web site goes down, and Google research suggests that marginally slow sites reduce orders by 20%, you would expect quality of service to be the major topic of conversation. Often it is, but for a minority, price is all that matters.
In fact, there are relatively few products and services where price should be the sole criterion. These probably include electricity, where the same stuff always comes down the same wire anyway, and petrol, where rival brands across town often sell petrol from the same refinery.
But some people always focus on price. The question is; do you even want to speak to customers who only care about price? Wouldn’t these customers be better hassling the competition? They not only pay less, they can also waste a lot of time.
Competing on price requires the lowest possible cost base. So most businesses try to compete on overall value. My suggestion is if you aren’t losing a few customers on price, you probably aren’t charging enough. And those customers that you would lose from slightly higher prices, will probably be the very same ones that would be the least profitable and the most trouble.
Small business marketing - free advice, tools and resources | Marketing Donut
Copyright © 2009-2012
