Acknowledging Your Customers for the Holidays

‘Tis the season to show your appreciation for those who make your business tick, the bread and butter of your profits. 2018 is on the horizon, and what an opportunity to share a small token in recognition of the year gone by. Read on for guidance in selecting the best notion for your customer list.

Determine your ‘love’ list

All this talk might have you wondering how to pay homage to such an important relationship, especially when there may be 1000s of customers to recognize. The first step is to determine how many you would like to thank. Is there a core set of customers who account for a majority of your business? If so, maybe it makes sense to create a more personal, physical gift—one that’s delivered. Is your customer list significantly more in number? Well, you’re in luck! Social media, email marketing and the online world make it easy to reach a broad audience. Consider current customers, prospects, sub-contractors and vendors.

Quantify your budget

Putting a price tag on appreciation can be the trickiest part of any gift-giving scenario—after all, these relationships are what make your world go ‘round. But alas, it must be done. Determine how much capital, and, most importantly, TIME you can afford to spend on this task. This will help make the final choice in this equation.

Find the best fit for your audience

YouTube Video: If you’re looking for an option with a very personal touch, custom messaging and easy distribution, a recorded message involving key players or the entire staff may be a good fit. This can be easily distributed to a large audience through social media and email marketing fairly economically. This content would also be very trackable.

Email: Depending on your budget and audience, this may take several different forms. A large audience may call for a templated emailed with some personalization fields. A custom email written by you might make more sense for a short email list. Either way, content options abound for this channel and can fit just about any budget and audience. Keep in mind, this messaging can carry through to your website!

Postcard or Holiday Card: Most offices receive oodles of holiday mail circulate around the building this time of year. It’s a classic that can be as unique, budget-friendly and personal as you care to make it. Consider integrating a unique feature. Confetti? Hand-written signatures? Interactive content?

Gift: This can take on SO MANY shapes and sizes. But my best advice—make it useful. Each year VistaComm conducts an employee photo contest that we then publish into a desktop calendar to share with our clients during the holiday season. It’s rewarding for our employees to share their talents in a new way, and to see their work on display when visiting clients! Alternatives might involve inviting them to your location for a free gift. Or, if you work B2B with an office anything like ours, food deliveries are always a hit!

Offer a Compelling Reward: This option walks a thin line between selling and thanking, but done properly, this can be a valued offer for both parties involved. Make sure the reward is worthy of your appreciation. Keep the reason for your offer in mind—it shouldn’t be given with the main intention of boosting sales and profits. But ultimately, your customer loves what your business offers, so they’ll be delighted to have additional access to these resources! Check out a few examples.

Host an Event: If your clientele is near, invite them in and show them a good time! This option may tend toward the pricier side, but no doubt can show the full breadth of your appreciation.

Donate to a charity: The heartfelt action of providing for those in need, especially during the holidays when those needs are most apparent, can be a rewarding gift for all involved in the giving gesture. Consider choosing a local charity, one that aligns with your business or a charity chosen by your customer. But no matter your choice, make sure to share the story of your giving. Maybe make this donation in the name of your customer for an extra personal touch.

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It’s such a gift in itself to have a customer to show appreciation for. Don’t overlook these important relationships this holiday season. This is not a ‘selling’ opportunity, but rather a chance to strengthen your brand. Keeping your message pure and focused, void of marketing language now, can boost marketing efforts down the road. If you’re looking for more ideas or help in assembling the perfect appreciation, don’t delay—contact VistaComm today! After all, Christmas is less than 39 days away!

 

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When Is It Time for a Website Refresh?

Perhaps this upcoming New Year has you doing more than updating your resolutions. When is the last time you did an audit of your company website? We all know the power of owning a website lies in its ability to share up-to-the-minute information about your company. After all, your site’s ability to grow and fluctuate with your business is one of its best assets.

Some might find that this fluidity makes it difficult to discern when a website needs a little more TLC that just some updated news stories, though. Here are some guidelines to determining when your site needs an overhaul.

Does your site look great on your laptop… and your tablet… and your phone?

Technology presenting a good-looking website at any size on any device has been in use for quite some time now. If your site isn’t utilizing this, stop reading right now—your site needs to be translated into a responsive, user-friendly format PRONTO!

Is the identity of your company still consistent with what it was when you launched the site?

When you first launched your site, (hopefully) a lot of care and coordination ensured the look-and-feel of your website best portrayed what your company was about at the time. While your brand principals will likely remain unchanged, over time you may evolve other parts of your brand identity—think colors, taglines, overall look-and-feel and social media links. Maybe the rugged, historic nature of your previous look has been replaced with a more modern approach in your other materials. Your website should reflect these updates.

Is your content current?

How many times in a week are your employees receiving a call from a user looking for something on your website? Or maybe, how often are they requesting something that could be delivered via the website, but isn’t today? Having outdated content can negatively influence your user’s perception of your company. Make sure any new services or locations are incorporated within the appropriate sections on your website. Are your images dated? A professional photographer capturing the best side of your employees, facilities and services might add a lot of value to not only your website, but other communication pieces as well.

What is analytics telling you?

Analytics is a great free service that run behind the scenes of your website. They track valuable information like who your primary user groups are, what devices they are viewing your website from, where they are spending the most time and how are they finding you. This can be very revealing over time and prove a great source for action items on website improvements. If you notice shifts in particular areas (good or bad) it can guide you on where to make adjustments on your site.

Can you make updates to your site easily?

Having a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to adjust your site over time can help keep your site from getting stale sooner than it should. If your current provider charges you for every change you’d like to make, it might be time to find a partner that has a more inclusive package with content updates included or a system in place that allows you to make them yourself. Remove any barriers between you and your ability to keep your site fresh and current.

Listen to your customers.

Most customers are not shy when it comes to letting you know something isn’t meeting their expectations. The level of technology in our world today keeps user expectations high. Does your site load too slowly? Is there information missing? Don’t brush these comments aside. Your outdated website could drive users towards the competition.

Assess the mess

Can you identify with one or more of the points above? If so, it’s time to consider making some updates. The next question is how much work does your website really need? Start the New Year out right with a website that corresponds with your company goals and objectives for 2018. Contact VistaComm today to discuss how we can help update your content, look-and-feel or even launch an all-new site website today.

Original Post Here: When Is It Time for a Website Refresh?

Top 7 Tips to Speak Human

Ever watch reruns of The Dating Game? On each episode, a bachelorette would ask questions to each of the three bachelors, who were hidden from her view. The men’s replies helped the bachelorette decide which guy to date.

The men whose comments came off as arrogant, self-absorbed, or boring rarely fared well. Those who sounded personable, intriguing, and intelligent often won the date. No surprise there, right?

That’s the power of speaking human. It works just as well in business as it did on The Dating Game.

Speaking human captures people’s attention. It helps form an instant connection with your clients and prospects. Above all, it sparks “ah-ha” moments where people say, “This company gets me.”

Speaking human also sets you apart from the competition and can help grow your business, especially in a world cluttered with information overload.

7 tips to speak human

So how to do you connect with customers and prospects in a real way? Try these 7 tips:

1. Write the way you talk. What’s your company all about and why should anyone care? Too often, companies use verbiage like this: “In 1990, the company was restructured with a specific goal in mind: Building a responsive member-driven information system that delivers value.” Not very engaging, right? It’s not even easy to decipher. What if it were written like this? “You need the right software to increase your efficiency and save you money. For nearly 30 years, we’ve designed cost-effective solutions that can be tailored to your specific needs.” Same information, but much easier to understand. Speaking human makes it much more likely that your audience will listen and take action.
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2. Simplify the complex. Too often companies complicate what they’re trying to say. It's the simplicity of our favorite communicators, brands, and products that build loyalty, because we get what they’re saying. Granted, it takes a lot of hard work to make something so complex look so simple. Some call it brilliance. I call it speaking human.
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3. Unleash the power of stories. One of the best ways to simplify the complex is to tell a story. In business, a story or case study can describe a real-life challenge, detail your solution, and show the benefits that resulted from this solution. Consider stories and case studies the ultimate “power tools” to speak human
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4. Mix it up. Storytelling is an art and a science. When you’re sharing stories and case studies, speak to the head and the heart. A story well-told will capture the imagination, while a story supported with relevant data can convince the mind. Both elements help create messages that address people’s deepest needs and position you as the expert who can help.
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5. Don’t be afraid to reveal that (gasp!) you’re not perfect. It’s so tempting to portray everything as perfect, totally under control, no problems. Real life isn’t perfect, though. Your clients know this. While you don’t want to come off as incompetent, there is a time and a place to reveal an area of vulnerability, especially if this issue has been addressed and corrected. When an ag cooperative’s earnings were lower than expected, this company used an article in its newsletter to explain that tight grain margins were a big part of the challenge. The article also highlighted other measures of financial strength that were driven by the co-op’s skilled, dedicated team. That’s speaking human.
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6. Beware of the curse of knowledge. You’re intimately familiar with your company’s products and services. In fact, you’re such an expert on them that it’s probably hard for you to remember what it was like not to know everything about them, right? This is the curse of knowledge, and it can make it tough for you to explain your product to non-experts—i.e., your customers and prospects. Speaking human helps you overcome the curse of knowledge, because it encourages you to think like your audience and communicate in ways that connects with them.
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7. Seek someone outside your company to help. Speaking human may sound like a “duh” concept, but it can be extremely difficult to do. Why? We all get stuck in our silos where we only see the world from our perspective. Your world is not your target audience’s world, though. What keeps your clients and prospects up at night? What do they aspire to? If your marketing doesn’t speak to these needs, your messages will fall flat. At best, they’ll be ignored. At worst, you’ll sound tone deaf and drive customers away. Often an outside perspective is the only effective way to help you break out of your silo, identify connections that will help you speak human and create messages that resonate.
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Ready to speak human? VistaComm’s team of journalists, designers and marketers are here to help you craft messages that create a match between you and your ideal customers. Just contact us, and we’ll set up a time to chat. It’s a date!

See More Here: Top 7 Tips to Speak Human