There is certainly no shortage to the amount of outreach that can be accomplished digitally. However, you might as well be shouting into the void if you do not have a cohesive strategy for how you are going to be making these efforts add up to real leads.
Tweeting, instagramming, or just posting for the sake of being “present” online is not enough to create a loyal base of clientele to pull from for the long haul. At best, you will be perhaps creating buzz for a few minutes amongst existing followers. At worst, you are wasting resources i.e. time or money. Yikes!
Here are 3 ways to make actual personal connections in the digital age.
Stuff Your Service Full of Pleasant Surprises
At the end of the day, your clients will remember how you made them feel above all else. Mistakes can be remediated, and prices can be adjusted, but first impressions matter. So does consistency.
Every time you provide a product or service to your customer, go the extra mile in a way they were not expecting. For example, a lot of ecommerce sites will ship orders with extra goodies or personalized envelopes and letters…or both!
Personalizing your service in general is a great rule of thumb. Steer clear of automation which clients and potential leads can see coming from a mile away. Investing anything that your clients can see is usually a good idea: this could be in the form of freebies or it could be in the form of your personal time, as the boss making a special appearance at a job site.
Cultivate an Enthusiastic Employee Pool
If you can not win over your own employees, after all, how do you expect to win over clients? Make no mistake: the type of corporate culture you foster does, in fact, matter. It trickles down naturally to clients through the most obvious channel: the employees interacting with them!
So take care that the message they are transmitting about your business’ philosophy is actually reflective of what you want clients seeing by making that culture a reality! The easiest way to keep your clients happy is by keeping your employees happy. If you create an environment worth sustaining, they will feel a natural inclination to share that with existing and prospective clients alike.
Prioritize employee needs and make good on open door policies if you have them. And if you do not have an open door policy…make one! Communication is the backbone of any good company culture, and, by extension, the work that company produces.
In the wake of COVID-19 related shut downs in 2020, this rings truer now more than ever. A little understanding and compassion on the part of the boss goes a long way in helping your employees invest themselves personally in your business.
This kind of affection, when earnestly felt on the part of your employees, is palpable to clients. At worst, they can feel when employees are not enjoying the place they work.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is marketing method in which you can tap into your creative writing skills to make personal connections on a massive scale. It helps increase audience retention in the long run for the rest of your brand.
You can also use it to capitalize organically on trending social media topics without it feeling forced or hokey. Another advantage is the creation of brand authority. With content marketing, you establish a presence on the web that helps shape your brand in the minds of consumers to associate with certain topics.
But what is content marketing? Content marketing is just a means of distributing or providing content to relevant information seekers. Creating a digital content marketing strategy is integral to keeping your brand at the forefront of the minds of consumers who are being inundated with useless information and adverts from competing brands.
Content marketing can be as complicated or as simple as your business operation can handle. For example, e-books, e-courses, and personal coaching lessons are all content marketing strategies that fall under the teaching angle. However, they clearly all involve disparate levels of engagement on the part of your business and content creators. So take into account the amount of resources you can dedicate to your content marketing strategy.
Regardless of the route you choose to take as far as the meat of your content strategy, some things should remain constant across the board. For starters, keep your branding, colors, and messaging consistent across each piece of marketing.
After a while, your visual brand should be so clear, consistent, and distinctive that as soon as your customers catch a glimpse of your color palette, they are triggered to think of your brand.
