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10 Tips for Improving Customer Service and Keeping More of Your Customers
1. Customer service is all about customers' needs first and your
needs second. If your customers expect a response from you in 24
hours and you always respond much later, that's putting your
needs first and their needs second.
2. Customers...
How My Business Made $10,000 From My First Promotional Article
Shortly before I discovered the wonders of marketing online with
well-written articles, I read a book written by well-known
branding expert Al Ries and his daughter Laura Ries, titled 11
Immutable Laws of Internet Branding. Immutable law number 6...
How to Market Your Unsold Books on the Internet: It's Easy
How to Market Your Unsold Books on the Internet: It's Easy Judy Cullins c. 2003 Your book expresses your wondrous information, your creativity, your genius. It's your dream come true. Or is it? You have already tried a few venues--maybe an expo,...
Offline Website Promotion
Offline Website Promotion
Promoting your website offline is just as important as an online marketing campaign. There are still lot’s of potential customers who don’t know how to use the internet effectively. Some people get baffled just looking...
Using Forums to Promote Your Business
When is work not really work? When it's fun! Using online forums, also called message boards, can be a fun way to promote your business in a low key way. Benefits: You cultivate relationships with others You learn about all kinds of topics Your...
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Online Marketing: A Busy Person’s Guide
Managing your online business is a full-time job. Unfortunately, most people have other responsibilities that prevent them from devoting all their attention to e-commerce.
If your time is limited, here are five things you must do to keep your revenue flowing:
1. Keep content updated
Nothing signals a neglected business like old content. If you walked into a retail store that had dusty signs and old merchandise you’d turn around and walk out. You would instantly know that the service would be poor and the merchandise unacceptable. A neglected website signals the same things. The only thing your online customer can judge is what they see on the screen. They have no idea you work late into the night improving your product. Make sure to do simple things like updating your copyrights to the current year and removing references to holidays that have passed. Which leads us to our next topic—promotions.
2. Develop frequent promotions
Excite your customers whenever possible. People respond to novelty. Create new promotions as often as you can. Even slight changes make a difference. A discount, a bundle, anything that says “ALL NEW” will catch their eye. If you get into the habit of constantly revising the way your products are merchandised, you will have a much stronger sense of what works. Which leads us to our next topic—testing.
3. Test and revise
In my marketing business, I have seen companies spend hours in meetings deciding what words to use and how to position a product. Often it is based on nothing more than a strongly held position by an aggressive staff member. The arguing continues until the loudest staffer gets his way. This is not the way to make decisions about your website. The only true way to know if something works is to test and revise it. If you are not tracking promotions you are simply devoting time to a hobby. This
is not to say that intuition should be ignored. It should be tried and tested to determine whether your customer sees things the way you think they do. Which leads us to our next topic—feedback.
4. Get feedback from your customers
If you want to know what your customers think you have to ask them. It’s not complicated. I guarantee that sometime in your career you will be shocked by how customers perceive something differently from you. I use the word ‘shocked’ advisedly. Sometimes you will be so close to a product that the obvious benefit or flaw escapes you completely. This is not a good experience, but it will encourage you to see how your customers view your offers. Which leads us to our next topic—buying.
5. Make buying easy
Your main goal for your website is to get people to buy something. You have a service or a product that needs to be purchased. Is it easy to buy? Do you require lots of extraneous information that you don’t use? Think long and hard about what your buying process should look like. Check out how the largest companies sell their products online. They streamline the process so that people don’t get frustrated and give up along the way. This should be your goal. Don’t feel you need to make the purchase seem ‘important’ by requiring lots of unnecessary steps. Amazon has reaped the benefits of "1-Click" ordering.
If you pay attention to these five areas, you should not feel guilty when you devote your time to other parts of the business. Which leads us to the final conclusion—make it fun! Busy people need fun too.
About the author:
Digital Media Works, Inc.(http://www.DigMediaWorks.com ) is an Internet marketing and design firm. A seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional, founder Stephanie Diamond, former AOL Marketing Director, is experienced in building profits.
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