Today, businesses are adopting more aggressive marketing techniques to rope in new customers. Customers are hounded by companies through phone calls and email in a desperate attempt by companies to sell their products and services.
It’s a vicious circle – customers are tired of companies that chase them, while companies chase customers who don’t want to buy their products and services. Looking at modern marketing methods from the customers’ point of view, it can be extremely annoying to be hounded day and night just because you are not buying from them.
With so many companies trying to sell their products, it can be an overwhelming task for customers to choose the ones that are right for them. Small businesses in particular need to rework their marketing strategies to make this experience less painful for customers.
To find out what you can do to put wary customers at ease and convince them to consider your products and services, read on.
Don’t Make False Promises
Small business owners usually promise a lot of things in their attempt to convince customers to buy, but fail to deliver on their promises. If you do this, you can end up with a lot of orders, but with insufficient resources to deliver.
Before you promise something to gain a customer, make sure that you can give them what you say you will – whatever that may be. Nothing alienates prospective customers more than broken promises.
Don’t Burden Prospects With Emails
Customers want to receive emails from your business only if they trust you. It is futile to send a marketing email to someone who hasn’t even heard of you before (not to mention it might be illegal). If you do, they will probably delete your email before reading it – and anti-spam software programs may ensure that your email never sees the light of day.
Establish Trust and Rapport
It is easy to get customer buy-in when you identify your target market, establish a rapport with them and clearly convey the message that if customer does something for you, you will also do something for them. One way of increasing your customer base is by identifying frequent buyers and offering them some kind of reward.
Many companies and retail stores, both on and offline, offer loyalty points to customers that can be redeemed later, or instant rewards to ensure repeat business. Giving away discount coupons is also a popular way of rewarding loyal customers and enticing new ones.
Target Your Marketing Efforts
Convincing a prospect to buy your product or service, especially if they are using another brand, can be an exasperating task. To do this successfully, you’ll need to put in a bit more work. However, you’ll probably get a positive response from prospects if you offer them something that is of immense value for free. If you are
planning to use direct marketing strategies to capture wary customers, make sure that your sales message is targeted to the right customers. You also need to make sure that it is creative enough to catch – and keep! – their attention.
