Convert More Clients with These 5 Tips

Earlier this week, our founder and president Jorge Villar shared 3 important tips on developing messaging that will help you convert sales. Every word within your messaging matters, and some words more weight than others. 

But what other tips should you consider as you strive to convert more prospects to clients?

Let's take a look at these 5 ideas:

1. Listen. 

Are you listening to your prospects? Are you talking over them or interrupting them? Do you take the time to hear them out and then paraphrase what they say to make sure you understood them? This critical - and simple - tip can change the way your prospects see you. Be clear and concise when you speak and respond to them, but make sure you provide them ample time and space to speak first.

2. Be irresistible. 

What do prospects really want from you? What can you offer them to solve their problems? Identify those solutions and kick them up notch by creating offers that compel them to do business with you. The offer should provide convenience and highly competitive advantages and should also showcase your exemplary level of service.

3.  Help them make the right decision. 

If you're talking to a prospect, you have both already recognized that your services are needed and are being considered. Don't focus on selling her your service; focus on selling her the solution that fits her needs.

4. Remember your manners. 

Just as your parents said, "yes m'am" and "no sir" go a long way as do "please" and "thank you." What impression of a business are you left with when one or more of its team members are discourteous to you? What does it say to you when someone you do business with goes above and beyond to exercise exemplary etiquette with you? Provide your prospects with not just the treatment they deserve but the treatment they will talk about to their friends.

5. Follow up consistently. 

By following up, you not only increase your opportunities to convert sales but you also create opportunities to build relationships and develop trust with your soon-to-be clients. These relationships are what will inspire clients to stay with you long-term and to refer business to you.

What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments or tweet us: 

@rme360

#convertthissale 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Engaging Advocates: 5 Tips to Earn Brand Advocate Online Support

Think managing online reviews isn’t worth your brand’s time? Think again.

      88% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business. Prospects who are unfamiliar with your brand are likely to reach out to the digital space to find what your customers say about you.

      72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more. Do you have advocates who are praising your brand on social media and encouraging prospects to trust you? Check out these 5 tips to help you earn and engage with your advocates!
  

1.     Focus on managing customer expectations. According to the Gartner Group, 80% offuture profits will come from only 20% of your existing customers. These are relationships are at your fingertips and deserve to be fostered. What do you expect from brands you love? How do those brands interact with you and show their appreciation for your business? Every point of contact you and your team have with your customers should begin with those questions in mind. Exceed their expectations and give them an experience they will talk about online. 

2.     Be proactive. If there is a mistake made, be aware and don’t wait for your customer to complain. Offer your customer something that not only makes up for the mistake but also the inconvenience. This level of attention and service is what prompts customers to speak out for your brand. 

3.     Establish a customer rewards program. According to Forbes, a rewards program for your top brand advocates creates “and environment of exclusivity” and is appealing because your advocates want to be first in line to get a peek behind the curtain. Customers love to share reviews on rewards they've earned. 

4.     Offer helpful (and shareable) original content. Walk your customers’ journey with them and anticipate their questions and needs. Include links to infographics, videos or other types of compelling content that focuses on answering those questions and making their journey more convenient and easy to understand. Customers will share this content online and talk about how it helped them. 

5.     Turn employees into brand advocates. Recent research shows that employees have “10X more followers than corporate social accounts” and that a “12% increase in brand advocacy generally generates a 2X increase in revenue growth.” Harness the power of your employees’ voice and social sharing clout to give your brand an authentic voice and to achieve higher ROI.

What would you add to this list? Tell us below or tweet us!

@RME360

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Jorge's Thoughts: 10 FAQs Can Earn You Brand Advocates

Seminars - or social dinner events - are viable and powerful avenues to convert qualified prospects to satisfied clients. But these conversions don't happen during the event; the event is only the beginning of earning them. It's also the beginning of creating brand advocates. 

Advocates are loyal: they repeat business with you, they choose you over your competition and they promote your brand in both the digital and non-digital world to their friends, family and colleagues. They are valuable to your overall marketing strategy, and your seminar can serve as the first step in earning them. One way to begin creating advocates is to establish yourself as an expert who understands your prospects needs and provides a level of comfort when speaking about them. 

Picture this: you're wrapping up your seminar where you've just spent 45 minutes discussing Social Security and strategies for your retirement income. You look out into a sea of worried faces and ask if there are any questions. One or two hands may go up reluctantly if you're lucky, but more likely no hands will go up. Can you blame them? Would you be willing to possibly embarrass yourself by talking about your finances in room full of people you don't know?

Break the air of awkwardness permeating the room by providing a top 10 list of questions you are most frequently asked (see how to get the list I recommend for advisors below). These will be the questions your soon-to-be brand advocates lack the confidence to ask, the questions they need answers to before they take the next step and make an office appointment with you. For instance: "What happens during an appointment at your office?" Anticipate such concerns and answer them honestly.

Here's what will happen once you begin to answer:

1. Your prospects will realize they aren't alone in their concerns.
2. They will understand your core values.
3. They will trust you and see you an expert.
4. The air of awkwardness will be replaced by the air of social approval as heads nod in agreement and understanding. 

By addressing their concerns in a way that doesn't risk embarrassment on their part, you will inspire a sense of comfort that makes it easier for them to make an appointment with you. You will also be taking a critical step in creating brand advocates. That air of social approval will leave with them, and they will share their seminar experience with others. Brand advocates are the heart and soul of any marketing strategy; revive your strategy by focusing on creating and engaging with them. 

If you'd like to a copy of the top 10 questions I recommend advisors ask, tweet me: 

@JorgeVillarRME

By: Jorge Villar, President and Founder 

#whosyouradvocate

Make Your Customers Fall In Love Every Day

Oh, Valentine's Day. That doe-eyed darling of a holiday that evokes both swoons and shuns depending on how one feels about love and if one sees the day as mere commercialism. We here at RME360 are Team Swoon and have focused our social media content this week on things businesses love as a tribute to dear ol' Cupid.

Out of the many things we as a business love, our customers have planted the largest flag on our collective heart. As a consumer, don't you love when your favorite business appreciates you? When you feel valued and have no doubt that you'll receive tip-top customer service? Of course you do! We all want to spend our dollars with businesses that go above and beyond to show us that we matter to more than just their bottom lines. 

So how can we make our customers fall in love with us every day of the year? Here are some ideas. 

1. Interact with customers promptly and pleasantly on social media. 

I am Starbucks' #1 brand advocate. Well, at least in my mind I am. Besides my favorite drink there, I adore how the company interacts with its loyal fans. Here's an example: 

Nice, right? A fan felt compelled to not only pass the love for paying it forward but also to tell Starbucks about it. Within an hour (promptly), Starbucks tweeted the customer back their response (pleasantly). The company's Twitter page is full of such conversations as well as conversations with customers who are upset and Starbucks promptly and pleasantly addresses their concerns. 

Now, do I think every business has the social media team, power and presence that Starbucks does? Absolutely not. But it's easy to model your strategy around Starbucks' strategy when your business is ready to maintain a consistent connection with fans via social media. Why not learn from the best, right? 

2. Be there for your customers before, during and after their buying experiences. 

Before:

GE Capital Retail Bank's Major Purchase Shopper Study found that 81% of consumers go online to research products they are interested in before buying them. What does that mean? You need to be digitally present at the stroke of your customer's fingers. A website is a good start, but it isn't enough in 2015. Be consistently present on social media, post various types of content, including videos and images, start a blog, and use display ads as well as remarketing ads. Leave a digital trail for your customers to follow. 

During: 

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. What is excellent customer service to you? How would you want a company to earn your business and possibly a long-term connection with you? What would qualify as going above and beyond? What would inspire you to choose one business over another? Answer these questions and then do those things for your customers. 

After: 

One transaction does not equal a relationship. If you want to build a long-term connection with your customers, provide them with ongoing support. Call to check in with your customers after their purchase, provide online support chat, create multi-channel promotions targeting new customers and/or go old school and send them snail mail like thank you cards, birthday cards, etc. Recognize them as valuable to your business even after the transaction is over and they will remember you when it's time to buy again. 

3. Listen to your customers' suggestions. 

 "Wow, I wish they had..." is a phrase we've all finished with lengthy lists of our suggestions for businesses. Your prospects and customers may have that same phrase in their minds from time and time and may follow up by contacting you about their ideas. Listen to their ideas and implement them when you can. Don't be so in love with the way you do business that you ignore plausible suggestions that will satisfy customers. Starbucks has an additional Twitter profile and a website for the sole purpose of accepting such suggestions. Fans get to vote on ideas they like and get to take part in the discussion of changes with Starbucks leaders. 

4. Shine the spotlight on your customers. 

Has a customer given you an amazing testimonial? Have she said something thought provoking on social media? Does he have a success story that involves your business? Turn the spotlight over to customers with stories like these and give them the fame they deserve. You might highlight them on social media, in your newsletter or in your advertising. This will resonate not only with those customers but also with new prospects who are considering your business for their needs. 

What tips would you add to the list?

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360

Marketing to Your Social Media Audience is A Two-Way Conversation

This week, our social media content focused on a critical topic: marketing to different audiences. Being able to understand the concerns of different audiences and connect with them in meaningful ways is an art that should show through in each of your marketing efforts. But sometimes that’s easier said than done.

We often forget that marketing should open the door to a two-way conversation, not simply a way to for your brand to be heard.

The following list can help you with your social media audience, but many of these tips can be applied to other audiences as well. Think of them as tips to create those two-way conversations.

Establish a level of trust.

Why should prospects trust you? What resources and services can you offer? What interest have you shown in your audiences’ various values and concerns? Your marketing should easily answer these topics so that your audiences will be compelled to open up to you.

Show your social media audience that you’re trustworthy by sharing client testimonials, posting links about trends that affect their communities and providing resources that speak to those trends.

Earn your connections. 

How do you show your audiences the way your business works? How do you put a face to your brand? How do you connect your brand to their lives? What kinds of conversations are you having with your audiences? Beginning such conversations may take longer with marketing efforts such as direct mail or other traditional media, but that’s not the case with social media.  Like Skip Prichard, CEO of OCLC, reminds us that “traditional media shape brand preference," but “digital leads to loyalty.”

Show your social media audience you care about connecting with them by posting behind the scenes videos of your office, sharing interviews with your brand’s leaders as well as team members and engaging with them via entertaining content. 

Bring back story time.

We loved story time as children, right? Of course we did. And we love it as adult consumers as well. Think of the poignant Anheuser Busch commercial honoring New York City that featured the well-branded and well-loved Clydesdale horses. The music, the landmarks, the clopping of hooves and finally the bow of the majestic horses to the New York City skyline come together to tell a story of sorrow, love and homage in just over a minute. The power of storytelling in marketing is irrefutable.

Show your social media audience your effective use of storytelling by creating interesting Vine videos, connecting your marketing to popular and timely topics and shaping your marketing around the human side of your brand. 

Respond to all feedback.

Responding to positive feedback is easy. You can thank your audiences for their thoughts and assure them that what they think matters to your brand. Responding to negative feedback is of course a bit more difficult. You may be tempted to ignore such feedback or to delete it altogether. Instead of following those inclinations, be respectful to your commenters and reassure them that a solution is in the works. (And then make sure it is.) This goes back to our second tip, as it allows you to be open and honest and show your audiences that your business is one that cares about earning their loyalty.

Show your social media audience you care about their feedback by being active on your chosen accounts and providing consistent responses.

Be likable.

Sure, you want to talk to your audiences about their needs and how you can serve them, which inevitably means discussions of business. But there’s no need to be stoic or unpleasant during those talks or for that matter any talks leading into to the brass tacks. Think of how you like for brands to talk with you and what makes you loyal to them. Likability is right up there with price and value for many consumers; you may offer a great deal to your audiences, but if they don't see you as likable, their business can quickly find its way down the street to your competitors.

Show your social media audience how likable you are by listening to them and focusing on more than just the brass tacks. Need inspiration? Check out Senator Cory Booker’s Twitter account. 

      By: Susan Gail Taylor, Copywriter and Marketing Coordinator at RME360

"You Are My Cup of Tea": How to Create Fabulous Customer Experiences

Do you create fabulous experiences for your customers? Is your brand their cup of tea?

Check out this infographic for tips of how to improve your customers’ experience with you. Click here for the enlarged image. 

By: Susan Gail Taylor, Social Media Manager and Copywriter at RME360