Each year, Small Business Week gives small
business owners the opportunity to flex some muscle and show consumers what
they have to offer. With more small businesses competing for attention, it’s
important that entrepreneurs take every chance they have to get the word out.
“While advancements in technology have
certainly made communication easier in many regards, they have also brought
some unique problems,” says Drew Hendricks, CEO of Infographics.Space. “While
the Internet is a great tool for engaging customers in content
and conversation, it’s also added noise. Instead of merely manning the
phone lines and answering emails, organizations must respond to social media
posts on dozens of different networks and outlets, seek out customer
testimonials, and produce fresh content on a regular basis.”
This year during Small Business Week, small businesses should
focus on ramping up their marketing efforts through personalization. As popular
as these efforts are for larger organizations, local businesses can gain an
edge by including information specific to local events and issues with their
customer interactions. Here are three major areas of concentration that can
provide a big boost to a business’s bottom line.
Personalized
email.
Despite relatively new marketing channels available to small
businesses -- like SEO, online ads, and social media -- email is still the
number one driver of revenue. In fact, according to DMA, for every
dollar invested, email marketing generates a $40 ROI. The problem is, while we
used to get excited for the “you’ve got mail!” chime, email inboxes have become
increasingly crowded. It’s it difficult to capture a customer’s attention.
Personalization has always given small businesses an edge over
their much larger competitors. A small shop owner could easily remember the
names of all of his regulars, while a startup ecommerce business could likely
add personal notes to each shipment. But as small business grow their customer
base, it is hard to scale the customer experience without the right
technology.
Today, sales and marketing technology tools,
like Hatchbuck and others, allow small businesses to scale while maintaining
their personal touch through personalized email marketing. A small business can
segment their list by region and create emails that reference local events or
issues that are important to locals. Or, if customers have existing
relationships with an employee, emails can be sent directly from that employee
to make it seem as though it was composed personally to each one. When
customers receive an email from someone they know personally that contains
content that speaks to them, it’s far more likely to be effective than an
impersonal email.
“At the core people are still human,” says Sergio Desoto, owner
of Desoto Consulting. “We desire to receive a hug or a thank you note every
once in a while. With all the automation tools out there today we tend to
forget that basic principle. Hatchbuck keeps it personal. It allows my clients
and me to deliver personal messages in a massive and truly engaging manner. I
call it #HatchbuckHugs.”
Localized
social media.
More than ever, it’s important that businesses stand out on
social media. Each message is surrounded by posts from businesses, friends, and
family members on a consumer’s newsfeed. A small, local business can gain the
edge by incorporating localization into its efforts. The neighborhood diner can
reach out to local residents, referencing the weather, big local events, or
causes specific to the community.
Some areas now have dedicated Facebook pages, whether for an
entire city or a neighborhood within that city. Local businesses
should join as many of those pages as possible and regularly reach out to
customers through those venues. Business owners will need to carefully check to
make sure such posts don’t violate the Terms of Use, but if your posts offer
special deals for members of that group, they’ll likely welcome them happily.
Ad
retargeting.
Retargeting is an important part of many
big-business marketing strategies today because brands leveraging ad
retargeting see click-through-rates (CTRs) 3-10 times higher than the
industry average. It’s important that small businesses work this into
their own campaigns to avoid missing out on a potential opportunity. Customers
are growing accustomed to seeing ads specific to their own interests, to the
point that generic ads are losing their effectiveness. Technology is making it
easier for even small businesses to utilize this strategy, giving them the
personal edge that helps them remain competitive.
However, it’s important that local businesses
make an effort to take their retargeting efforts to the next level. Instead of
simply presenting ads for products that a customer has purchased before,
retargeted ads can address upcoming events and local issues, just as email and
social media marketing did. As a result, customers will feel as though an ad
was sent to a small community of customers, giving it a personal touch that
much larger businesses can’t offer.
For Small Business Week, entrepreneurs should rethink their
marketing strategies and find ways to localize their personalization efforts.
The result will be campaigns that reach out to customers on a personal level,
improving conversion rates and creating loyal customers in the community. When
executed with the right personal touch, these campaigns will have the same
effect as greeting a customer by name when he walks through the door.
Written By: Andre Bourque
Credit: Entrepreneur.com
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