#004 The Path Back to Normal Business
As most of you know, I live in Germany. Over here, there is a strong drive “back to normal”. Shops have been open for a while. Firms are starting to bring employees back into the office. The lock-down is being loosened step-by-step.
In other parts of the world, I hear similar news: life is slowly returning to normal.
As I mentioned in my last post “3 Steps for the Survival of Your Business in The Corona Crisis – Step 3”, the “new normal” will not be quite the same as the “old normal” that we used to have pre-Corona.
Getting Back to Normal
One of the first major steps on getting your business back to normal is to let your customers know that you are open for business again. This sounds simple but, particularly if you have a B2C (Business to Customer) Business, then your customers may well not be aware that you are open.
This brings us to over to the topic that I really wanted to talk about: Marketing.
Today, far more so than before the crisis, it is especially important to know that the money that you spend on marketing is effectively spent. You need to know which of your ads are performing well and leading to new regular customers and which ones look good, but are not actually selling your product or services.
To do this you need some way of tracking how your customers found you in the first place.
How Do Your Customers Find You?
Almost all long-term successful businesses use a mix of different channels and advertising to gain new customers. Unless you have some method of identifying which method your current customers used to find you, you have little way of knowing where best to invest your marketing budget right now.
So, if you haven’t implemented it yet, put some lead tracking in place today.
Lead Tracking Online
For an online business, this can be quite simple. Correctly set up, your marketing partner will deliver reports which tell how many of your ads lead to a website visit and a sale or booking.
Whether you Facebook, Instagram, TicToc, Google Ads, or some other service, you will get detailed information on: Where the people who clicked on your ad live, which page of your website they visited. Then, your sales pages will know: did they buy anything, did they abandon the sales cart, etc.
Ideally, you want to collect permission to send Emails directly to your customers.
Example:
Lead Tracking Bricks and Mortar
For real world businesses, it can be more of a challenge. Restaurant owners, hair dressers, garages, often have no idea how their customers found them.
One idea would be to introduce a small competition for all your customers: “Help us to serve you better”. They fill in a small question card and throw it into a large glass jar. (Keep the questions on your card very simple to answer, preferably just by ticking a box. Add as few questions as possible – but enough to give you some valuable guidance. Then ask for their contact details and permission to send a newsletter once a week or once a month.) Every month you pick one card and that person receives some small service or gift.
Example:
In either case, the investment to you is quite small. But the pay-off can be huge. You get to find out how they found your business. If they have agreed to receive a newsletter, you can regularly send them news and your latest offers. This lets you build a stronger relationship with customers and keeps them engaged and doing business with you.
That’s it from me this week.
As always, if you need any help, please schedule a FREE first appointment here.
I look forward to speaking to you next week.
Regards
