Apologies are Part of Marketing

There are times when you’re pulled in so many directions that you overlook an important step or neglect to contact a person in a timely manner. When this occurs, it’s best to acknowledge the misstep with an apology.

How you deliver this communication will depend on each circumstance. An Email may be sufficient in some cases, but not all. I often send my apology in a handwritten note, and sometimes the envelope or package includes a conciliatory offering.

Most of all, it’s best to deal with this situation right away as part of your marketing plan. Nothing takes the sting from a mistake as fast as a speedy acknowledgment.

Handling Customer Complaints, an article featured on The Gourmet Retailer’s Web site, provides a five-step approach to resolving this issue.

You won’t lose customers if handling apologies quickly is part of a long-term strategy.

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May 26, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections | Leave a Comment 

Make Every Page a Landing Page

Web site pages that fail to make a connection with visitors may drive them away from your site, possibly for good.

That’s especially true about landing pages, which visitors reach through either online links, paid or otherwise, or specific URLs displayed in print advertising.

eMarketingandCommerce.com’s May/June edition focuses on Landing Page Optimization 101 in an article with the same title.

“So when that clickthrough visitor that you’ve paid dearly for lands at your front door, you want to make sure that she or he feels welcome, and finds compelling reasons to become engaged with your content and stay awhile.”

This is the reason I’ve dedicated a maximum of two hours daily to review each of my sites’ pages, reading the text and looking at the overall structure.

I’ve added large and/or small photographs on the all-text pages to create a more-visual site, something that I’ve realized visitors want to see. How did I realize it? By analyzing my site’s statistics. Visitors stay on the pages with photographs more often than pages without pictures.

One site’s “what’s new” page is very popular, so I treat it as a landing page, updating it at least every two weeks.

Consider every page on your Web site as a landing page so that it encourages each visitor to stay, connect, and buy.

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May 22, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Marketing News | Leave a Comment 

New Rules Won’t Matter if You Market Right

A law recently began in New York City mandating restaurants to disclose the caloric content of all menu items.

I recall reading some customers’ feedback about this when seeing the calorie count for their favorite lunch.

One person said that she doesn’t order the over 900-calorie sandwich every day and won’t stop buying it.

Another person, after seeing the astronomical number, also said it won’t change her order because she enjoys the meal’s flavor.

We want all of our customers to experience the same satisfaction, even if a law mandates that we reveal a layer of business that might persuade them to stop buying.

By the time that layer is unveiled, we’ve already hooked customers through taste, benefits, convenience, or great service.

By you provide a terrific experience, customers will return with an appetite for more, and they’ll bring their friends, too.

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May 19, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections | Leave a Comment 

Uncover What Clients Want by Reading What They Read

Subscribing to the trade magazines your clients read proves to make marketing easier.

Many of the articles provide a tutorial on how to put your products and services into their hands and convince similar industry participants to buy, too.

For example, the April 21st edition of Meeting News includes a section that showcases convention centers in Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas, Memphis, and San Antonio.

Each showcase includes the convention center’s statistics, guest specialties, and contact person. That’s a ton of information to pursue a relationship with the center or ancillary partners.

Reading the same publications as your clients has the ability to put your marketing campaigns on a new and profitable platform.

The next time you speak with clients, ask each of them which magazines arrive in their mailbox so that you can subscribe to the same.

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May 12, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Offline Ideas | Leave a Comment 

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