Why is a brand audit important? A brand audit is a holistic way of looking at a business. The brand audit examines all the areas in which your business interacts with the world. Before your business can prepare any effective marketing strategy or campaign, it must first understand where your brand is currently positioned and how that position is perceived by your employees, customers and market.
The month of February is the month of LOVE. It is a time to show how much you care about and cherish those closest to you, by doing something special, personal and heartfelt. Like with personal relationships, businesses should be taking a similar position with their customers.
You want to be sure you are doing more than just the minimum which, unfortunately, is what many deliver. Here are eight suggestions on how to show a deeper love for your customers and, in the process, enable you to stand out from your competition:
In our first post centered on Loving Your Customers, we shared nine foundational steps to showing your customers that you genuinely value, appreciate, and care about them.
In our first of three posts centered on Loving Your Customers, we shared nine ideas to show customers that you genuinely value, appreciate, and care about them. These foundational practices will help you begin to establish trusting relationships with your customers.
In the second post, we added eight suggestions on how to show a deeper love for your customers, where you would take your service beyond the basics and, in the process, stand out from your competition.
The following is an example of a popular business motto that is used by many corporate departments of Customer Relations:
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him.
Every company depends upon a vital part of their business: customers. The goal of any company is to create a product or service that uniquely meets the needs of its customers and market it with respect, integrity, and overall concern that the buyer gets what he or she wants. How does a business understand the desires of its customers, and how does that business receive honest feedback from its users?
Understanding your customers allows you to provide better service: this is clear. But exceptional customer care involves getting to know your customers so well that you can anticipate their needs and exceed their expectations. Collecting data and then studying it allows you to understand the habits of the customers. Another way to get feedback is to simply ask your customers what they honestly think.
All companies and organizations need to do the following in order to be successful and profitable:
Our last blog discussed the value of investing in research and information gathering up. We also listed a few of the key items research can tell us. But how does this information benefit us if we don’t respond to it and use it?
Even more important than what you uncover with research is what you can gain by analyzing it and applying what you have learned:
At one time or another every business owner has asked herself, “Why didn’t they buy from us?” What makes a consumer choose a certain company to fill their needs and wants?
Every buyer has a specific journey he or she takes when selecting a product or a service to fill a need. Take a person who is getting sick as an example. The first thing they do is become aware that they are not feeling well. Their throat gets scratchy, nose becomes runny, and their head hurts. They know something is wrong with them and they need to find relief. So they get on the Internet and start googling their symptoms and chatting friends on Facebook to find out what is wrong. This buyer is in the Awareness Stage of their buying journey.
Abram’s Bed – The Safety Sleeper is a fully enclosed & portable bed developed by a mom who saw a great need in the special needs market place. During her own struggles with keeping her autistic son safe an night time, as he was prone to night wandering and other sleep issues due to his diagnosis, Rose began developing solutions to protect her son and give she and her husband peace of mind in the night. From that need and great innovation, The Safety Sleeper was born.
One of the most important aspects of successful marketing is positioning yourself as an expert in your industry. The key to doing this is providing consumers with information they need to address their concerns before they have to voice those concerns to you. This is a proactive form of marketing that will help ensure you are recognized as a reliable leader in your industry. Here are some key action steps to take to achieve and maintain your expert status:
