Tag Archives: customer service

Presentation: Measuring Marketing Performance

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On Saturday, we conducted the second of a three-session workshop on marketing for small-business owners for members of the Pune Open Coffee Club.

Unmana presenting at Marketing Measurement workshop for entrepreneurs

We talked about setting marketing objectives based on the business challenges you are facing, and how marketing can — and should! — help not only with getting the word out about your business, but nurturing your followers and leads till they become customers, and nurturing customers and encouraging them to stay with you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the discussions we had: and if you were there, thank you for being an active participant! And here’s the presentation.

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How to Determine Which Social Media Channels You Should Use

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FruitsAs a business-owner, you have a hundred things clamoring for your attention. But you also need to be on social media, to listen and talk to your customers and to influencers in your industry. Focusing on one or two channels will probably be more useful to you than creating profiles on many that you can’t keep up with.

The biggest factor that determines what social media you should focus on depends, of course, on where your customers are. But here are some other factors that might help you make the decision.

Facebook

If you’re a B2C business, you probably can’t afford to ignore Facebook. Facebook has a huge user base, and it’s where everyone hangs out — teenagers, office workers, stay-at-home parents, freelancers, grandparents. So you should seriously consider having an active Facebook page if:

  • You’re a B2C business.
  • Your business or product is exciting, something that people feel emotional about, or something people want to share.
  • You want to showcase a fun, vibrant, or funny brand personality.
  • You want to get your customers/audience’s feedback and opinions.

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Interview with Sahil Khan, Social Media Expert and Founder of the Tossed Salad

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We recently met up with Sahil Khan, whose online lifestyle magazine, the Tossed Salad, has a dedicated following. Sahil is also very active on Twitter, and he has been successful in helping restaurants use social media effectively. But hold on — you can listen to the details in his own words in the video below.

And if you’d rather read than watch, the transcript is below. My questions and comments are in bold.

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Why You Shouldn’t Use Social Media

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Does every business have to be on social media?

I’ve heard the arguments: it’s too risky, it’s not profitable or measurable… It’s not necessary for your industry. None of these is usually true.

Today, I tell you the real reasons why you shouldn’t be on social media.

You don’t want to listen

Contrary to what most people think, social media is primarily about listening. It enables you to listen to what your customers or even competitors are saying about you. It lets you view conversations about your industry or your competitors. It tells you what people are thinking.

If you’re not interested in any of that, sure, stay off social media. (And don’t talk to your customers, either.)

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Marketing Lessons from a Professional Photographer

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We recently talked to a professional photographer who is also a friend, about his marketing needs and challenges. Meeting Mehul brought home one of the biggest reasons why we wanted to dive into consulting with small business owners: there is so much we can learn from them.

Here are some of the marketing lessons we — and maybe you as well — can learn from Mehul.

Indian wedding photography -- grains of rice

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Weekend Reads for Better Marketing: Improve Your Customers’ Experience

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Serve up a complete experience to your customers

Do you know how many of your visitors are using phones and tablets to view your website or app? Is your website or application optimized for mobile?

This article has web design best practices that you should be aware of: it focuses on the iPad Mini, but most of this is relevant for any mobile device.

And Rand Fishkin explains why every company should have a marketing-focused web development team.

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6 Facebook Marketing Lessons from A Jewelry Retailer

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How do you get over 2,000 people talking about you on Facebook when you have less than 5,000 likes? Any brand with that kind of buzz is doing an amazing job of engaging with its fans… or is it?

We took a look at the Facebook Page of P N Gadgil & Sons. Right now, it has 4,955 likes, which is great for a local jewelry brand. What’s astounding, though, is the number of people talking about it: 2,160. That’s 44 percent. 

For those of you not in Pune, India, P N Gadgil is a jewelry brand with several stores in the city. (There’s also a P.N. Gadgil who style themselves PNG Jewelers and also have an active Facebook page.)

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Customer Appreciation: Are You Doing It Right?

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Call it marketing or customer service or just call it business strategy — you hardly need to debate the importance of demonstrating to your customers that you value them. We all want to retain customers and usually go above and beyond to please them — by giving something extra, by offering lower rates, or by providing premium service.

Larger businesses have loyalty programs to handle this, but small-business owners usually like to use their own discretion and not allow employees an easy way to make these decisions. But good employees want to keep regular customers happy. They may go ahead and offer these “extras” anyway — by giving the room overlooking the pool, making small repairs in addition to the contracted job, or by over-pouring.

These “extras” are part of your  cost of retention, but do you know how much that cost is? Are these extras proportional to the business you are getting from those customers? Are these extras in addition to the priority rates/service you are offering those customers? All these are important questions, but the most important question is – Does your customer even realize you are giving her something extra?
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