Keeping Your Marketing Customer-Centric
A thousand times we’ve offered a straightforward caution for “all things marketing.” Your customer doesn’t want to know how great you think are. Your customer wants to know, “What’s in it for me?” So now make that a thousand and one times.
Being customer-centric means giving customers what they want to know rather than what you want them to learn. In other words, provide guidance to your customer to the choice that they can see is best for them rather than simply selling products. Do so in your marketing, as well as your in-home presentation.
Your customer is more informed than ever – with research and reviews at his fingertips. For the complex sale (for contractors, that certainly includes home improvements and system upgrades), most prospects know almost everything about what they want before they call or press send. So they’re 80 percent there before they pop in and say howdy.
Information Leads the Way
With contracting services, customers and prospects are seeking informational, relevant content – and that will be the lifeblood of your lead nurturing, as well as your industry-leading credibility.
The current stat is probably in the ballpark of “127% of all research is conducted online,” or thereabouts. Does your site have what prospects need to create a lead – something compelling that encourages them to hang around for longer than, say, 3 seconds? If so, you’ve got a chance to get their contact info.
Once you’ve got a name and email or phone number, pursue your plan of attraction (“Plan of attack” sounds so, well, “attackish,” when really you’re drawing them in with your expertise, consistency and value).
Use your lead-nurturing email campaigns, strategic follow-up calls and get the appointment. Keep focusing on the customer ‘til you close the sale. Then keep focusing on the customer so he’ll stay a customer for a long, long time. Customer-centric marketing is perfect segue to customer retention strategies since it’s about starting a relationship.