It’s September! Wow, 2020 has been quite the year so far, and we’ve made it to September. Whether your family is back to school in the traditional sense or moving forward with distance learning, FreshLime is ready to take business owners back to the basics, and bring you ‘back to school’ with FreshLime! And for the first lesson, we’re focusing on the importance of engaging with customers.

One of the most important things a business owner can do with past, present, and future customers is to prioritize engaging with them. Rather than just selling and focusing on the final transaction in each conversation, work on engaging and having personalized and comfortable conversations with all of your consumers. Some effective and meaningful ways businesses can engage with their customers as a priority, rather than only focusing on selling are:

• Personalize Your Conversations: When you respond to customer comments, questions, and reviews, call them by name. Knowing your customer’s name is the least a business can do to show that you value them as an individual and you have a personal relationship with each customer of yours. 

• Don’t Force Conversations: When you’re thinking of what type of messaging you want to send to your customers, keep it natural and try to avoid making the conversation feel “forced.” We have all received those marketing emails that are obviously just thrown together for the sole purpose of making a sale. If you want your business to stand out in the crowd, don’t force conversations. Instead, keep your messaging feeling natural and friendly so your customers don’t feel like they’re being marketed to–even if they are. 
• Effective Communication = More Sales:  The truth is, effective communication and regular customer engagement does increase sales for your business. If you can master selling without making your pitch seem like selling, then you’ve become the master of customer engagement. Effectively communicate with your customers by sending them targeted messages that pertain to products and services they utilize from your business. Message your customers only when it is pertinent and useful to them so they don’t feel like they’re being marketed to when it doesn’t benefit them. 

Prioritize engaging with your customers rather than just selling and watch how your business will improve even during and after a pandemic. 

For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. If any of these tips have helped you or if you have anything to add, please comment below. We’d love to hear from you!