Tips for Starting Conversations with Your Clients

By PChip | Category: Business Management | 2 comments

Recently I was involved in a converstion with peers about online conversation marketing and how it is similar to what networking is in an offline setting. Straight from an article written by Wendy Piersall:

Here’s a tip for you for the 29th day of our business challenge: a really great marketing conversation embraces three things:

An open invitation to interact vs. a pushed marketing message
A willingness to hear honest feedback vs. a censored or scripted review
A trust in the customer vs. a controlled brand image

Companies who have done this successfully are finding that even when they mess up or get negative PR, their customers and clients speak up and defend them because they have built trust, loyalty and they have empowered their customers to turn into evangelists. You can do the same thing too.

How to Create a Marketing Conversation on Your Digi-Scrap Website

Wendy goes on to say:
Create a place for online conversations to happen. This may be a blog, forum, maybe a social network or review section on your site. Your customers want to talk to you – so give them a place to do that.

Use conversation starters. Questions add value to the site experience as much as statements do. So use them often. Follow up by offering help and resources and make it easy for people to get the information they are looking for.

Listen to your customers. Don’t delete or censor comments or negative reviews unless they are outrageously rude or inappropriate for your site. Then maybe only tweek the offending words and move forward. Always consider responding to them rather than deleting them. If you messed up, admit it. If you are in the right, find a way to make both you AND your customer look good.

Create a company, product or experience worth talking about. Most entrepreneurs are remarkable people. Hopefully the digi-scrap company they started is equally terrific. Great companies and products create their won buzz – so make it easy for people to talk by being innovative and different from start to finish.

Wendy’s got some great information at her blog for entrepreneurs. So check it out when you have time.

Now did you think I forgot about the mini-tasker for our challenge? No, I didn’t. Todays tasker is to review your website to see how you are using conversation marketing to help build your business stronger and create a trusting bond between you and your clients. Make adjustments or start a new conversation today!

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Tags: 30-Day Business Challenge, 80/20-rule, Business Management, digital-scrapbooking-industry, marketing, referral-business

2 comments
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David September 30th, 2007 3:41 pm :
Tip for Day 30: In addition to the above points, it is also important to allow customers to shape your product through actual use.

See how your products are used and learn from them. Just because you designed you designed a page-sized pattern and people keep using it as a small motif, don’t get discouraged. Relaunch as a small motif and help them use it more.

If they keep changing your blue flowers to red, help them do it.

For an example of what not to do, see Apple in the news this week. They are freezing up the phones of people who have installed extra software on their iPhones. Apple uses are Apple users because they like to tinker with things. Why did they not embrace the innovation, repackage it and sell it?
Instead, customers are finding their new, expensive phones “bricked”, ie as useful as a house brick. Wait for the fallout on that one.

Know your customers better than Apple. Just by watching and learning.
PChip September 30th, 2007 8:28 pm :
OMG – I hadn’t heard the news about Apple. It’s a good idea to look at things from the other side. From the side of the customers. Good advice.