If you have listened to one of our radio shows or heard me speak, you probably are aware of the book “Crush It’ by Gary Vaynerchuk. Short book, great read and really is a blueprint for getting into the mix with your business.
Our business has picked up lately in a big way. There is a reason that Gary would say we are “crushing it”. While the economy has hit everyone, one of the first areas of any business that seems to get cut is marketing. Which we all agree is pretty crazy, because if people aren’t aware of your brand, how are things going to get better? We didn’t do that. We marketed even more than we ever did through a variety of strategies. Or perhaps your business has prospered in spite of the recession and you are resting on your laurels and just “doing the needed things”, rather than trying to go out and capture market share.
But if you have been waiting on the sidelines to get into the game when the time is right, opportunity may have be passing you by. You still have time. But you need to put this to good use to outperform your competitors.
These tips are not based on Gary’s book, but as an outgrowth of how that book (among many) has inspired what we here at Social Media Dudes accomplish in order to get ahead of the competition. These 6 steps should help you be a front runner as well!
- Focus on setting goals for growth and profitability! When I say focus, I mean specifically. Not just some loose idea of where you want to be in a month or worse yet a quarter. I am talking about what you want to get done sales wise for next week! While you are setting your goals, include the steps it is going to take to accomplish them as well. Break it down into increments that you can do and measure. Don’t make the mistake of having too many projects in one week to accomplish. That all sounds good and well when you are looking at the big picture…but you are just looking at one week! Take one or two projects max until you can build support around you to take on more! So…once again FOCUS. Because chances are…that is what your competition is not doing this week.
- Think how well your competition understands your customers’ needs, wants and desires. Now focus on knowing these attributes better than they do. At the end of the day, it is about listening. But you have to listen better and for more details than your competitors currently do. I am a big believe in surveys to better understand your customers’. A lot of folks don’t like them. But if put together well, they are a great source of information. They let you know where you should be focusing your efforts. And whether it is as informal as a round table discussion or a SurveyMonkey effort, once you have the data, be sure to get that information out to the rest of your organization. Small organizations think they communicate, but oftentimes are worse at it than the large organizations who we tend to feel lose touch with their customer base more easily. And when you are communicating the results out, think about letting the customers in on the results. At least don’t be afraid to. Because if they understand that the direction you are advocating is the direction that others in their industry are also wanting, they are going to feel more comfortable in going forward. Focus on checking with your customers regularly (even if it just customer visits) and ask for areas that they need help with. You will likely find yourself branching out a bit, but also increasing revenues at the same time. Need instant feedback? Think twitter!
- Don’t take your customers for granted! Find out why they left and work to get them back! If you have been in business for longer than a minute, you should understand that it takes more time, energy and money to get a new customer than it is to keep a current one. If all of your efforts are focused just on acquiring new customers, you may be missing a huge opportunity! You are missing out because your current customers are your greatest source of new business and also customer’s that have left you will tell you straight up why they are. And that is the gift they can provide (even if you don’t get them back) Contrary to popular opinion, price isn’t the only reason customer’s change their vendor. They want to be heard and acknowledged and yes…even thanked. Don’t want to talk to the customer personally? Create an online survey and tell them to be honest. You will begin to notice consistent reasons why you are not retaining the customers you worked so hard to get. And then you can make changes to insure that more of them don’t follow that one out the door. If it is a customer service challenge, address it. Don’t be defensive. Understand that your company pushed them there because most people are adverse to change and they would much rather deal with the devil they know than the devil they don’t. Communicate the results out internally.
- Use social media to assist you in focusing outside of your world! Then create metrics to see where you stand. You knew that social media thingee would get in there somewhere and here it is. A lot of what your competition does, product offerings and brand reputation are available with tools that are readily available. Sites like social oomph and Yelp provide a plethora of information to let you know both your competition’s strengths and weaknesses. Make sure that all parts of your staff understand and are familiar with that info. How else can someone at the counter or giving a presentation respond when your prospect tells you that…”X company is doing this. Why can’t you?” Then after you have compiled the data, be honest with yourself in seeing how you compare. Not subjectively (I like what we do better than X). But through the numbers. Yes, X does that, but only on a limited basis. We offer more features than they do and we actually do it for less!
- Don’t forget about your customer cost metrics! Whether you are getting a lot of customers at a time or a few, you need to understand how much it takes for you to acquire a new one. Your business may be service or it may be hard goods, but especially if you are using the internet to do your marketing, you should have a good idea of how much it takes to get a new customer. It is only then that you really understand if the costs are worth the effort. Even if you are doing well, you can do better. And if you aren’t measuring, how will you know? Sometimes, this cost is such a revealation that you insure that your company does everything possible to keep your current customers happy. Either way, it is something you need to know and understand. Especially, if your business depends on new customers constantly feeding in.
- Split test, review. Then split test and review again. You need to know what works and what doesn’t. But if you are running a internet marketing campaign, change ONE (was that enough emphasis, because it wasn’t a typo) thing and see if you get better or worse results. What do I mean by that? Change the heading of your ad or banner and see how that pulls differently from the original. The reason you don’t change a bunch of things at once is that you want to know which change is having the most positive effect. By changing more than that, you are just left to wonder. So that means you have to track your results…CONSTANTLY (more emphasis).
If you are looking for your business to do more than survive, these are the things that will separate you from your competition. The tools are there. It sound like a lot to do. And in some regards it is. But YOU (once again no typo) can do it! Focus and apply yourself.
While you can do it yourself, you may opt to have someone else (Social Media Dudes?? Blatant plug J ) take it on for you. Either way, it has to get done if you are serious about having your business thrive going into the future. Do the things your competitors aren’t and your bank account (and your spouse) will thank you for it.
Believe it or not, not doing social media right can actually harm your business.
If you are looking for free tips or advice on how to approach your social media, go to Social Media Dudes
Or follow our tweets on Twitter at twitter.com/johnpanico
Finally, those are my thoughts from high atop my 2nd floor office above my garage. What I want to hear are YOUR comments. Please leave one now.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Top 6 Tips to Outdistance Your Competition! | Social Media Dudes
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