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Do You Have A Buyer Persona? If Not, You Need One!

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As a small or medium-sized business owner the more data and information that you have regarding your operations, the better. Especially if you are working to establish a cohesive branding message to appeal to a specific type of consumer.

With the widespread use of technology, companies of all sizes have developed content strategies to build loyalty, trust, and authority within their selected niche

The most significant part of this marketing strategy is fine-tuning your content, whether it is blog content, social media shares, or email messaging to meet the needs and wants of the buyer persona – or ideal customer – you are seeking to attract or retain.

What is a Buyer Persona?

What exactly is a buyer persona, you ask? Typically, a buyer persona gets constructed using interviews with real buyers. People who are interviewed give real-world answers to what prospective customers might be thinking and doing when evaluating consumer options. This data provides valuable insights into the concerns, attitudes, and other criteria potential customers use to help them make a buying decision.

As you can imagine, knowing the motivations that fuel your ideal customer is beneficial for numerous reasons.

  1. Gives you a greater understanding of the language buyers use.
  2. Aligns your messaging to improve company communications with clients.
  3. Helps you streamline your marketing campaigns to appeal to your preferred audience.

Luckily, it isn’t as hard as you might think to establish a buyer persona to define your preferred market sector more effectively.

Who Is Your Customer?

The first step in setting up a buyer persona is envisioning the person in your mind and giving them a name. This imaginary person should broadly represent the demographics of your ideal customer. Be sure to outline the habits, hobbies, interests, values, and other indicators that help drive his or her consumer decisions.

If you already have an existing customer base, you may already have a substantial amount of information available from platforms including Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, internal tracking, Facebook Insights, and Facebook Analytics to learn more about the type of people who are already engaging with your content, products, or services. These comprehensive reporting platforms contain a treasure trove of data regarding your website visitor profiles and your social media audience and reach. Some of the core demographic data provided include location, gender, age, general interests, affinity groups, relationship status, buying habits, and more.

Business owners who have a presence as a ‘brick and mortar’ operation may also use tools like transaction history, customer questionnaires, or feedback forms to gather more invaluable information about their customer base to define the buyer personas of their business better.

For this example, let’s use Sienna the Salon Owner. Whenever someone comes in for services, she gathers information to serve her clients better. The type of information she collects includes the customer’s name, contact information, age, birthdate, how frequently the client visits, what services they have purchased, if other family or friends are customers, the amount of money they spend on average, if they add-on services while at the salon, and if or how often related products get purchased.

Digital Solutions for Real World Business

Using a CRM (customer relationship manager), she saves this information for future use, as well as integrates it with her email marketing software for appointment follow-ups, special offers, promotional offers, and birthday greetings. To streamline her operations, she synchronized appointment setting software that allows customers to book or cancel appointments from the convenience of their smartphone or computer.

When each client leaves, she asks them to fill out a questionnaire or feedback form on that day’s visit. Sienna makes a note of their feedback in her CRM for reference. If a pattern of complaints arises, she is in the first line of defense to handle them.

This information can help detect issues and provide a better customer service experience. If someone had a bad experience, this issue can be resolved quickly and in a professional manner. A prompt and courteous resolution is always better than letting the client leave without saying a word to you and writing bad reviews or comments on social media platforms instead.

Keep the Conversation Going!

Asking what clients think is essential to connecting with them on a deeper level. Many of Sienna’s customers share their thoughts and concerns about beauty, offering an opportunity for her and her staff members to provide their expertise. (Or product and service recommendations!)

Let Data Be Your Guide!

On an aggregate level, Sienna can get a broader overview of her entire customer base. She can figure out, on average, what each client spends at the salon, the frequency of visits, and other data that helps improve the bottom line of the company.

These buyer habits play a critical role in her buyer persona. Knowing this, she can then aim to attract other new clients like her existing ones.

In addition to operating her physical location, she makes sure to maintain the company presence on social media platforms to engage with clients, as well as promote her salon.

She takes the time to ask her clients to leave a review of the salon on her business page, as it helps build trust and authority in the area she serves, which is good for business! By evaluating her insights and stats programs, she can learn more about her audience, so she’s able to adjust her content and share to appeal to them. Since her business has everything to do with image, she learns that pictures and videos always outperform other types of shares. By sharing more photos and videos, she is appealing to her core audience to get more shares, likes, and comments.

Her website plays a significant role in providing more useful visitor data including conversion rates, time spent on the site, the total number of page views, and ecommerce sales.

If you haven’t already established your preferred buyer persona, be sure to contact the branding experts at Colleen Eakins Design for more information today!

Let’s Get Personal–How Emotions and Empathy Play Into Branding and Marketing Campaigns

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As an entrepreneur or startup business, it isn’t uncommon to find yourself wearing many hats during your day to day business operations. Of all the hats you’re likely to wear, probably the most challenging one to slip on is your marketing and advertising hat.

In today’s modern world, that means completing hundreds of technical steps in just the right way. You have to be sure that your business website is user-friendly, that you have a matching mobile app, keeping your social media profiles updated, as well as everything else you have to do to keep your company running smoothly.

You might be thinking, “How in the world can I do all the things I need to do, plus run a successful marketing plan to attract new business?”

Many small business owners, freelancers, mompreneurs, etc. that handle their marketing and advertising campaigns on their own are forced to “think outside of the box” to promote their business without breaking their advertising budget. While this may seem like an overwhelming task, this is actually an excellent opportunity to get your creative juices flowing and create a strong bond with your audience and customers.

Here are a few ideas to help inspire you.

Tell Your Story – One of the best things about running your own business is getting the chance to share the story behind the company. No matter how big or small your Organization is, your story should be woven into the tapestry of your business image and branding to build stronger ties with your target demographics. Don’t forget to mention the ‘When, Why, and How” of your foundation. By sharing your story, people can relate to you and will choose to do business with you instead of your competitors. For example, if your business is a third generation family business, this is “boast worthy.” Tell the story of your family and the company that got built as a result of the hard work and passion of the founders and the generations that came after them.

Branding Elements – In 2017, it’s all about your ‘brand.’ By tying in branding elements with your story, you’re creating something that is truly unique to only you. For instance, if you are creating and selling handcrafted goods, you might consider using your name or your image to represent the business on business cards, product packaging, letterhead, your website, and on your social media platforms. If you have an idea in mind, but you’re not sure how to implement it, the best way to turn your branding vision into a reality is by speaking with a branding professional as soon as possible. Explain to them your basic (or even complicated) branding ideas and let them help you bring them to life. The more you’re able to communicate what you want clearly, the easier it will be to target on your online and offline branding and marketing creatives. If your creative energy isn’t as sharp as you would like, you can trust that the agency that you choose to work with will have their team come up with designs that suit your requirements. Your creative team is your ally in all steps of the branding life cycle.

Colors Matter – It’s no secret that color psychology is an integral part of all branding and marketing campaigns. If you aren’t familiar with the concept of color psychology, this is primarily using specific colors to help elicit the desired response. Usually a purchase. One strong example is McDonald’s. Missing those bright golden arches is hard! While their branding and advertising campaigns have been modified and changed over the years, a few things remain constant. The arches and the colors bright yellow and red. (It should come as no surprise that both of these colors are both known to stimulate the appetite!) Other large brands that use these bright colors in their branding elements include Burger King, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, and many others. Your branding team should be able to work with you to establish a memorable and unique logo that represents your company.

Your Brand Voice – Once you’ve created your basic branding elements, you are in business! The next step in strengthening your brand is finding the ‘voice’ of your company. When I say ‘voice,’ I am referring to the tone and demeanor of language your company uses when communicating with potential clients, existing customers, and your fans on all of your social media platforms, in email, in live chat sessions, and other sales and marketing channels. By staying consistent in your communications, you help establish more trust with the people who interact with you, regardless of whether they are new and existing clients, vendors, or partners. Your brand voice is part of your organization’s identity, so choosing one that resonates with your core demographics is key to your brand. No matter whether you decide to adopt an informal or formal approach in your corporation or organizational messaging, you always want to be sure to keep things professional. Using simple pleasantries including the words “please” and “thank you” are always recommended when communicating in any capacity.

People Like To Do Business With People They Like – It should come as no surprise that people usually prefer to do business with people they like and trust. Now more than ever, personal marketing is a big part of many small businesses who have grown to much larger enterprises. If you are taking on the role of a spokesperson or a salesperson, one of the biggest ways to affect someone’s emotions is for them to like you. If you provide a valuable product or service and you have a great personality to help promote your company, there is unlimited potential for where you can go and what you can achieve!

You Don’t Have To Do It All Yourself – One of the biggest misconceptions is that you have to do everything yourself when working on your marketing and sales. Unless you have years of experience in building a brand and running a successful marketing campaign, there is no reason not to consult with an expert in the field. Colleen Eakins Design is here to help with all aspects of your advertising and marketing needs. Contact Us Today!

Push Notification Marketing Best Practices

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If your business has recently launched a mobile app, you’re probably enthusiastically entering the world of push notification marketing. Congratulations on your new app and for taking a powerful first step towards expanding your marketing program! However, it’s worth pointing out that you should temper your enthusiasm with some of the important realities of the technology.

For instance, the fact you CAN push messages doesn’t mean you should always do so. People will start to think of your brand as annoying if you send too many messages. That’s why most brand managers now expect push messages to follow the same general principles that email marketing follows. For example, get subscribers to opt into push messages and give them a way to turn them off if they don’t want to hear from you. The basic principles of exchanging value for their consent to send messages applies. Once that is in place, continue to follow best practices to achieve optimal results.

Seize on Events to Send Push Messages

People will be happy when you send them reminders of important events. If your product or service has updates, let them know. Reminding someone they have an appointment with your office is a perfect use of a push message! They’ll love knowing you care enough and are professional enough to let them know ahead of schedule. Obviously, the type of app and the nature of your app dictate the kinds of messages you send. Stay timely, and you will have an advantage.

Pay Careful Attention to Your Language Usage

Push messages are succinct. That’s fantastic, but means you have added responsibilities. You need to be entirely precise about what you say. Don’t ever use language that is scary or scolding! Be as friendly and professional as possible. If you have a new version of something, tell people! Also, include any information that you consider to be crucial to communication. It also makes sense to use a “voice” that’s congruent with your overall marketing. That way people will identify with your brand easier.

Location-Based Messaging Is Possible

You may want to notify people based on proximity to your location. If they are local customers who happen to pass within a mile or two of your business, let them know you’re open! You don’t want to be creepy about it, but a gentle nudge based on proximity tends to convert well. You have a unique chance to create a bond with people through the use of mobile marketing. Think like them and get feedback from individuals who use your app and frequent your business. They’ll have plenty of actionable advice for you to use to improve your offering.

Send Alerts That Users Simply Must Have

Another successful class of push messages is the alert of an important trigger. Perhaps a product reaches a certain price point that a user wants. In such a case a push message will drive them to purchase directly. You may even decide to offer a discount to someone who is on the edge of buying. There are a number of ways to approach the subject, but notifications that directly help create sales are always powerful.

Your Imagination Is the Only Limit

You can use push messaging in any manner you like, as long as you meet the technical requirements. If your app sorts or ranks, you can send notifications of items based on sorting and ranking! Whatever functionality your app has can be translated into messaging. What matters most is that the output is useful and demanded by users. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting, especially if you take feedback. Adding features based on customer suggestions is one of the strongest ways to encourage loyalty. Brainstorm with your team to come up with unique and engaging ways to use the technology. It may be surprising just what you discover!

Build in a Response Mechanism

As you know, people don’t like waiting around for answers! If people get in touch with your company, they expect you to respond. Don’t make people wait when using your app. If you do, they’ll simply drop it and move on to greener pastures. Give some serious thought to the structure of your messaging. Automation could be the road to take, when possible. If your user base grows rapidly, you may be unable to respond to messages or users individually. If that’s the case, set up mechanisms that help them discover answers for themselves. That will keep everyone happy when using your program.

Think Like a Marketer

Apps are a chance to reach broad markets. Push notifications are a way to keep people coming back. Those companies who implement marketing strategy across their entire spectrum of channels are making fantastic use of this form of messaging. All it takes is a mindset that says “how can I serve this customer best?” Once you think about what they need and how to provide it, the rest comes easy. You aren’t alone in your project. If you think handling this many details is overwhelming, find a qualified professional to handle it for you. Your campaign needs to work well but it also must satisfy your business objectives. If it doesn’t, you’ll be supporting an app without reaping the rewards. Put marketing at the forefront of everything you do and you won’t have any problems growing your user and customer base significantly.

These are exciting times for mobile marketers who use push notifications. In many ways, the industry is still in its early phase. There are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of if you’re willing to put in the effort. Don’t have a mobile app yet? Contact us today to have one developed. We’re big believers that small businesses benefit enormously from having a mobile app and push notifications are the extra frosting on the cake. Developing an app is a strong first step towards reaching the vast network of mobile users who dominate the digital landscape. Once you achieve a foothold, you’ll be able to work on growing your user count every year. With the right framework in place, you’ll find that this is the most responsive type of marketing you’ve ever done.

Push Notifications Are an Essential Marketing Tool for SMBs

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As more people engage, consume and make purchasing decisions using their mobile devices, the popularity of push notifications by business mobile app owners continues to grow. Not only will more companies build mobile apps and employ this technology moving forward, but they will also continue to explore the marketing potential it brings. For marketers, push notifications represent an ideal way to stay in touch with prospects and customers.

Push notifications are the fastest way to stay in contact with a connected customer and are a quick way to let people know about updates and new features.

Cross-Channel Promotions Are a Necessity

Small businesses need to use as many cross-channel promotional strategies as they can. There’s no reason to focus on just one channel because that’s not how the modern digital landscape works. These days, people spend time on their favorite sites and apps and respond differently to communications. Because of this need for diversity, the role of digital marketers keeps changing. It’s crucial to create specific content and messaging not just for specific platforms like social media, email and websites, but also for mobile apps.

Push notifications have proven efficient and should make up a significant part of any SMB digital marketing strategy. In addition to using social media channels and email marketing initiatives to highlight a new product offering; coupon; event or special, consider also using a push notification to make the announcement.

Following up with Customers Brings New Business Through the Door…or Site

Push notifications are a great way to augment your current follow-up process. Most companies already use newsletters and email autoresponders to stay in touch with customers. It’s worth going one step further, by implementing push notifications when possible. Not surprisingly, people tend to pay more attention to a push notification. They have been getting them for a while, so they are used to receiving them and know them to be important or to contain information of interest. Because users routinely ignore emails, marketers have been transitioning to push notifications instead or in addition to their email campaigns.

There are a few rules worth considering before you begin sending these out like a maniac! Remember they’re most effective when something unique and important is going on. For example, a coupon or special will get most people to look. Any vague or unrelated messages will eventually make them want to turn your business’ mobile app notifications off. That’s why picking your spots makes sense. If you don’t overdo it and get your timing right, you’ll have a very high click-through and conversion rate. The job is not to annoy people, but to give them something of interest instead. Make sure any messages you send are brief and to the point.

Add Some Extra Pizzazz with Rich Text Push Notifications

Rich text push notifications contain more than just text in their messages. They may contain web links to click for more information, a link to a specific area of the mobile app and even maps a user can click on for a location or directions that are specific to the push message notification.

Like with standard push notifications, you always want to be as focused as possible in your messages. Since push notifications tend to be short in general, make your meaning simple. People are busy, so don’t waste their precious time.

Push notifications are going to remain popular because of convenience. Any company that supplies an app will want to notify users about updates pertaining to their company and also to the app itself. In the case of bug fixes or feature upgrades, the fastest way to get users to update their app or try a new feature is with a push notification. Offer users the chance to install the new app and a significant percentage will do it quickly. Tell customers to allow notifications for the very purpose of receiving updates and if your mobile app allows for it, sign-up for the list that meets their specific interests.

Remind Inactive Users You’re Still Around!

Sometimes people forget they installed your mobile app or haven’t used it in awhile. In cases like this, a notification is in order. You can use the old “I missed you” ruse to try and drum up interest. Or, you may consider telling them about a new feature you added since they installed the app. That might be enough motivation to spur them back into action. It’s worth a try at the very least because people often install and forget apps. If someone is inactive, you have little to lose by attempting to spur them into action.

If you don’t have time or the staff to implement a push notification marketing strategy, you can always turn it over to a third party. There are many providers that can step in and fill that gap. If you used a third party to develop your business’ mobile app, your app developer may be able to assist you with a campaign strategy and implementation. Either way, understand this is a dynamic form of marketing and will require testing and tweaking along the way. Once you see patterns emerge, you’ll be in an ideal position to craft campaigns and push notification marketing strategies that work well. Just make sure your notifications are succinct and useful.

Now’s the Time to Begin Your Journey

Adapting your current strategies to mobile platforms will yield a whole new market of potential customers. The app market for small businesses has grown enormously and having the ability to “push” a message to an engaged user base is always going to be beneficial. If your business does not yet have a mobile app, get in touch with Colleen Eakins Design (CED) today, to get started developing one. CED has mobile app development plans that include push notifications (standard and rich messages) to your mobile app users.

Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing: What Is It and How It Helps Small Businesses

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Digital marketing and inbound marketing are slightly different disciplines that both serve to boost sales. Companies that have an online presence want to reach new markets. Digital marketing helps them do that by stitching together a framework that gets them attention. Inbound marketing attempts to draw new prospects into the customer’s sales funnel. Together, both disciplines are a way to get useful results for any business.

Attracting Clients Through Inbound Marketing Works

The idea of attracting customers is surprising to some people. Many people assume that new customers come in naturally for reputable organizations. However, this is not usually the case. For the most part, companies that attract business through inbound marketing invest heavily in the effort. The process may look seamless from the outside, but the campaigns they orchestrate are accurate. Everything from website design, SEO, and content through email marketing fall into the category of inbound marketing. It’s worth looking at each of these in some detail.

Start with Fantastic Web Design

How your site and app look and function is crucial. People have grown to love fast-loading, easy to understand applications and websites. They won’t put up with anything less. If you plan to embark on a mission to do inbound marketing, don’t neglect the importance of design and functionality. Focus on quality during these initial stages, and your overall task gets easier down the line. Ugly or poorly functioning apps won’t spread your message. A slow website with no clear navigational hierarchy will not improve sales! Marketing starts with a slick presentation and grows from there.

Build in SEO from the Start

Search engine optimization is the discipline and art of creating pages that rank highly in search engines. On-page optimization helps pages rank naturally for keywords that assist the business. Inbound marketing experts are well aware of the benefits of SEO and never neglect this crucial component. When you’re building a new site, it makes sense to think about the ways people will find the site. It’s also worth considering what content you’ll have waiting for them when they arrive. Inbound marketing experts direct the people towards purchases with content, social updates, and email follows-ups.

Inbound Marketing Is a Great Way to Have Constant Qualified Leads

Inbound marketing remains popular with digital marketers because this method of gathering and closing leads is very useful. Inbound marketing as a discipline is changing the way people access online information continues to evolve quickly. Inbound marketing is moving towards catering to mobile devices more now than ever before. Mobile devices are stronger than they used to be, so content created for mobile devices should probably appeal to the particular technology each device uses. One idea is that interactive touch screen content is likely to be an excellent idea in coming months. The level of personalization you offer helps differentiate your company in a crowded marketplace.

Congruence Matters for Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is challenging because people online are now using many different services to access content. Tailoring content for each particular service makes complete logical sense but gets expensive in a hurry. A solid strategy to combat high prices is to analyze which services are most applicable to an individual business and then bulk up the content that’s precisely likely to improve sales. Why spend money on creating content that won’t earn a return?

This trend towards more accurate content is already underway and will likely accelerate in coming years. The mobile revolution is not slowing down. One thing that always remains consistent regardless of what technology you’re using is to create a corresponding message for your inbound marketing. People expect clear and coherent branding and messaging from companies.

Deliver Timely Updates to Strengthen Your Message

Content marketing is an essential part of a successful inbound marketing strategy. A good tactic involves having a few major, anchor pieces of content receive traffic from paid ads and live updates. A lead magnet of some type should be in use, which helps people seamlessly join the sales funnel. Congruent follow-ups serve to answer many of the prospects general questions. They also contribute to warm the person up to the product or service. Define an editorial calendar if you want to establish a logical flow of content.

Automated marketing efforts are being used by successful businesses to bolster inbound marketing results. A digital marketing strategist can put all the many pieces in place to ensure that your online presence is a well-oiled inbound marketing lead generation machine. Any time your organization can utilize automation, it’s worth doing it. The costs are less expensive, and the results are consistent. Inbound marketing and automation go together like peanut butter and jelly!

Inbound Marketing Continues to Rise in Prominence

Inbound marketing is likely to gain even more importance in coming years as the ROI has been increasing as technology improves. More people than ever use social media channels to help inform them about purchasing decisions. Savvy companies are helping their potential clients to make the decision to buy from them. Give them as much information and motivation to purchase as possible, and make it easy for them to ask any questions they have.

Once a sale happens, inbound marketers continue to contact clients. Creating a robust mechanism to assist your business with inbound marketing will make a significant impact on the type of numbers you do online. Make it a point to hone your strategy until it’s powerful enough to generate leads and sales. Since you collect data through lead generation, you never have a problem following up with people. Whether it’s a month or year later, you can introduce new products to people who already went through your sales funnel. With the proper configuration, you can make more money year over year for as long as you want! A significant promise of inbound marketing is to add consistency and long-term stability to your revenue generation efforts.