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Showing posts from March, 2014

Improve Customer Loyalty

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It's far more cost-effective to retain existing customers than it is to attract new ones. Here are a few tips to increase customer retention rates by improving your customer loyalty: Mail personalized thank you cards showing your appreciation for recent purchases or interest in your products and services. Create a customer loyalty program that offers special promotions and incentives for return customers, such as birthday discounts, a reward punch card, free shipping, monthly discounts, or free upgrades. Give customers a great experience with your brand. Offer a quality product and stand behind it. Encourage open communication with customers by requesting feedback and suggestions. Offer options such as e-mail, online surveys, a toll-free number, and discussion forums. Humanize your brand and create a personal connection with your customers by interacting in social media. Encourage customers to respond to your blog posts, attend trade shows, provide open houses, offer hand

Being the Apple of the Industry

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When it comes to technology, few companies have enjoyed the branding success of Apple. In certain circles, they've cast themselves as the industry standard. Customers across the country line up for days to be the first to buy their latest products, even if their latest phone has only minor improvements over the previous one. Apple's products are so coveted that many people even overlook the company requiring them to buy special parts or the lack of synchronization with other technologies inherent in some Apple products, just for the opportunity to be part of the Apple community. The power of the Apple symbol and reputation is something many companies can only hope to one day taste. What makes the power even more incredible is that among the technologically inclined, there is still a debate if Apple products are actually superior to other brands. So how in the world did Apple manage to control the conversation about technology so completely that users of their devices fe

All Brochures are NOT Created Equal

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When it comes to marketing your business, professionally printed brochures are a great way to build credibility, while also telling your story. Here are a few tips to help you create successful, sales-building brochures: Focus on your audience and their needs. List benefits your customers will receive by choosing your product. Design an appealing cover that motivates readers to look inside. Include product benefits, a thought-provoking statement, industry tips, and other items your customers will find valuable. Keep it brief. Since brochures have limited space, provide a brief summary of your information, along with links for interested readers to go online and learn more. Provide clear headlines that make it easy to find information, along with high-quality imagery that supplements your messaging. Consider a creatively shaped or unusually sized brochure to grab attention. Include information that encourages the ready to keep your brochure. This may include how-to informat

Top Tips for Generating Customer Reviews

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If you own a business, you probably know how important great online customer reviews can be to your bottom line. In fact, one 2013 study revealed that eight out of every 10 customers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. So how do you go about generating online feedback? Here are some simple things to get you started: Get social: If you don't have a Facebook page and Twitter account, now is the time to get one. If you already do have Facebook and Twitter accounts, make sure you're checking them regularly for comments. You need to keep a close eye on your social pages and respond to customer comments -- good and bad -- as they arise. And of course, you need to make it easy for people to find your social sites, so include links on your website and in your emails. Make it easy to be nice: Sure, you may like to go on and on about how great your product or service is, but your customers may not be that chatty. For the verbally shy, make review