“If you deal with every customer in the same way, you will only close 25 to 30 percent of your contacts, because you will only close one personality type. But if you learn how to effectively work with all four personality types, you can conceivably close 100 percent of your contacts.”
— Rod Nichols
When you are engaging with your customers, you should realize that you may not be directing your efforts to just one key demographic. If you’re like many small business owners, you are working with many different customer demographics. It’s your job to create effective engagement that will reach each of your customers, and make it much more likely for you to increase sales with each engagement.
It’s easier said than done, but there are many things you can do to ensure you customer engagement methods and messages are flexible, and reach all different customer demographics:
Utilize Social Media
Over a billion people use social media everyday. Certainly they don’t fall under the same category as far as customer demographics. Because of this, social media is a perfect tool to utilize when you’re working to engage with a wide variety of people. Create ads that are catchy and easy to follow. When it comes to writing content for your social pages, if you don’t have a specific demographic to target, focus on creating content that is general to any and all customers. Keep it light and focus on your work and your industry. Utilizing social media is one of the most valuable things a business owner can do, especially when trying to effectively engage with different customer demographics,
Use the Customer’s Preferred Engagement Method
Don’t be shy about storing your customer’s email address and phone number. Many customers will have a preference as to how you should engage with them. Some of the older generation may prefer emails, while the younger generations will likely prefer text messages. Leave a note under specific customers’ information in your CRM reminding yourself of their preferred method of contact. You’re much more likely to reach people and get a response if you’re engaging with them in a way that they feel is most convenient.
Offer Discounts & Coupons
Everyone loves a good discount! You can’t go wrong when engaging with your customers, if you’re offering a discount or coupon on your services. No matter who they are, they will want to save money whenever possible. Not only that, but people are much more likely to actually read and pay attention to your email/text engagements if they include something that catches the eye, and saving money is the perfect bait.
Survey Your Customers
Send out a survey to your customers to help you narrow down a bit more what your largest customer demographic might be. This will also help you to better understand all of your customers, so your engagements can become even more effective. People love feeling like they are cared about and listened to, so surveying them to find out more is a great way to get to know them, and make them feel more connected to your business. Survey your customers about how likely they use your business, what area of town they live in, what their age group is, what gender they are, etc. Don’t ask too many questions, just stick to the basics that will help you with engagement!
Engage with FAQ’s
It’s never a bad idea to send out an email engagement answering some frequently asked questions for your customers. You’re the expert in your industry, and your customers will really appreciate your insight and information. People of all ages will appreciate having their questions answered. This is also a great way to help your customers gain more confidence in your knowledge and quality of work!
When it comes to customer engagement, it’s hard to know the perfect recipe. It’s best to focus on figuring out what is working for you and your specific customers, and go with that. If you are having trouble, let us know! FreshLime is full of customer-engagement gurus.
For more insights on marketing strategy that actually works for small business, subscribe to the FreshLime Newsletter here. Connect with Jay Bean, Founder of FreshLime and Small Business Marketing Expert on LinkedIn and Twitter. And last of all, 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!