With True Love Comes Revenue: How to Make Customers Fall in Love with You
If you want a successful online business these days, it’s not enough to simply close the sale. You’ve got to make your customers fall in love with your business.
One thing I’ve noticed lately is that everyone is talking about making a business and its marketing “customer-centered.” But when you get right down to it, not all that many brands are actually doing that.
It’s a great opportunity for an agile brand to outshine the competition and achieve ever-higher levels of success.
In fact, 81% of companies who provide great customer experiences and service do much better than their competitors, according to the 2009 “Customer Experience Maturity Monitor” report from the Peppers & Rogers Group.
Smart business owners know that every customer relationship lost, either to a competitor or otherwise, costs them an average of $289 each year.
And if you’re thinking you can just make up for that cost with new customers, think again. Turns out, it costs six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.
If you’re ready to make your customers fall in love with your business, then read on for ten ways to do just that.
1. Recognize the Value of Word of Mouth Marketing.
Great word of mouth (WOM) is a priceless asset for any business, and word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is hands-down the most effective and reliable type of marketing around.
You know how the things you pay a lot of attention to and value most of all tend to increase? I’ve found that principle applies just as much to business as to the rest of life.
In my experience, when I really focus on and value the things that positive word of mouth does for my brand — either this blog or any of the successful businesses I’ve co-founded — that word-of-mouth buzz tends to increase.
So what exactly is word of mouth? And what does it have to do with making your customers fall in love with you?
Ted Wright, WOMM pioneer and author of the book Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth, defines word of mouth marketing this way:
Identifying your influencers and coming up with a story that is interesting, relevant and authentic that ladders back to qualities of your brand and then sharing that story as much as possible.
WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, defines it as any business action that earns a customer recommendation. … WOMM is about harnessing the power of people to build brand awareness.
And make no mistake: WOMM is truly powerful. In fact, it’s more effective than any other kind of marketing, according to Nielsen, which found that 84% of consumers all over the world trust recommendations from friends and loved ones.
2. Start Before They’re Even Customers.
Making your customers fall in love with you is a bit like a romantic seduction. And the art of seduction requires careful planning.
There are three steps in particular that’ll help make your relationship with your customers as strong as possible before you’re even introduced.
Know who your ideal customers are – If you want to give your customers and prospects what they want most, you have to first find out what that is.
That’s why it’s important to start with a set of crystal clear profiles of your ideal clients and customers. Ideal customer profiles help you get to know the basic demographics, fears, desires, and needs of each segment of your market.
By creating detailed profiles for each of your ideal customer “types,” you’re laying the groundwork to more effectively target those who are a better natural fit for your brand.
Profiles will also help you filter out those who will become “problem clients” which reduces the number of complaints you’ll ultimately have to deal with
Creating and attracting a loyal audience is much easier when you start by defining your ideal customers.
Your job is to understand the mind of your customers as thoroughly as possible, and deliver what they need and desire most in as seamless a way as possible. The more detailed and data-driven your customer profiles are, the more useful you’ll find them.
