If we haven’t convinced you yet of the importance of staying in touch with your customers, stick around a bit longer – we will! Here’s why and a quick introduction on how to keep your customer’s attention. [level-members]
More importantly, I we’ve at least begun to drive home the point that you have to have something of interest to say to your customers. Of interest to them – “come in and buy some wine” isn’t necessarily going to cut it.
You may say, “OK, but I’m not writer. How do I come up with enough great content?”
You don’t have to be a writer. Being a reader is enough. For example, if you pay attention to what’s happening online and in the magazines your customers are most likely reading (something we help you do with our regular Thursday “What They’re Reading” posts), you can find all sorts of interesting tidbits to share. For example,
Finding fun items like this does two things:
- It provides information of value to your customers.
- It makes it much easier to keep the content coming. You don’t have to painstakingly write each and every word.
You can still alert folks to sales and promotions – in fact, you have to do that – but you want to balance those overt marketing messages with informational messages like these. A mix of 4 or 5 to 1 is appropriate. (4 or 5 informational messages for every 1 sales message.)
And don’t forget to leverage your content: the folks who subscribe to your newsletter might not be visiting your Facebook page or reading your Twitter feed, so you can re-purpose the same content 3 or 4 different ways, another great time saver.
Lastly, remember that the content you publish is an important part of your brand. Make sure you stay on message. It’s OK to have a little fun with your messages, but steer clear of politics, religion, and other potentially controversial topics unless you’re prepared to use the backlash to your advantage.