This article is the 1st part in a series of three articles on Getting New Business. On August 22nd, read part two on how you can get your clients to like you and then on September 5th, read part 3 on how you can get them to trust you. — EH Stafford, Managing Editor
Getting your clients to know you
In any business relationship you have to have three keys to open the door of new business.
The new client needs to know, like, and trust you.
If one key fails, they all do, and your client will find someone else. To know me is to like me. If you like me, you’ll trust me. If you trust me, you’ll do business with me. This series of articles will take a deeper dive into how you develop each of these in your branding and marketing.
Welcome the stalkers
Full disclosure, by the time a person is ready to buy they’ve stalked you. But take a second to understand what that really means and entails. It means they’re informed. They’ve committed time to sift you out from the competition. They are ready to buy.
All retailers know the longer someone stays in a location the more they buy. That’s why you have to walk through the entire Ikea store to leave. That’s why American Girl and bookstores have café’s inside. People will pick up other stuff before they leave either out of guilt or necessity. The longer a person stays the more they’re engaged with your brand.
Translation engagement
I hope you’re using Google Analytics, it’s FREE! Use that tool to monitor how long people are staying on your site. You should see a correlation between how long people stay on your site and sales.
Even if people don’t buy online, are they signing up for your email list?
Have calls or shop visits increased?
Look at what pages people are staying on the most. Which pages are they leaving from, also called bouncing? If you have a high bounce rate that means people aren’t engaging with your brand. They don’t see what they want, and you need to fix that right away.
My very first website was amazing. (Or so I thought!)
It was mysterious and inviting. It also took forever to load. Yes, once you got in you loved what you saw, if you were patient enough.
My bounce rate was 90%
Meaning 9 out of 10 people left my site within seconds upon arriving.
There were few sales to go with it too. Why? People don’t have a lot of time. I didn’t respect that and was penalized for it. Once I changed it sales did too.
Don’t forget
Monitor your social media analytics too. Posts that are shared and/or commented on give you clues into what your clients want to see from you.
Listen to it and give the people what they want.
I know many who’ve created products, books and services based on the engagement they received in their social media posts.
You’ve got The Touch!
Every place a client can engage with your brand is called a touchpoint. The more touches the quicker the sale because they’ll know you more. Examine how to increase engagement in your touchpoints and you’ll be on your way to transforming your business into an amazing brand. Much success to you.
