Green……..with Envy

Well……here we are in the middle of March and there are a few things that are guaranteed:   Daylight Savings Time is a horrible idea (I’m still suffering from that lost hour of sleep), March 18 is the 2nd biggest ‘hangover’ day (just after New Years Day) – <thank you green beer> and IU Basketball is done for the season (no further explanation needed).

Now that I’ve gotten that off of my chest, let’s talk digital!

One of the first things most of our clients ask us is:  “How do I steal my competition’s clients”.  Well……’kidnapping’ is a Federal offense so that’s out of the question, but there are a few ways that you can……..(ethically).

In a crowded market with many companies offering similar products and services, businesses can capitalize on their competitors’ shortcomings to find new customers. “Stealing customers” may seem unethical, but if a customer comes to you from another business, you wouldn’t mind retaining them. 

You can be happy to make a business from that customer and get positive reviews about your offering. The most important thing to do is to ensure that customers are ready to switch and then adopt the following strategies to boost business growth.

 

1) Get More Google Reviews

How to increase your local business’s Google rating:
  1. Offer a quality experience to your customers.
  2. Ask every customer for a review via SMS.
  3. Make the process easy – 10 seconds on the same device.
  4. Personalize your communication so the customer understands why they are getting the message.
  5. Respond to every review, good or bad.

#5 should <probably> be #1, but respond to every response…….even the bad ones.  Sometimes those are from your competition.  7 out of 10 ‘disgruntled’ customers can be easily “persuaded” to change their opinion or be ‘saved’……..just by reaching out to them to discuss the ISSUE.  It can also help identify an internal issue within your organization, as well.

 

2) Better Customer Service

Poor customer service in many organizations may turn the customers away. If your competitor fails to give their customers the attention they deserve, they may be willing to look elsewhere. This may be a great opportunity for you to offer a level of service that your competitor is not offering.

Customers always want to deal with an organization that offers value for their money. To ensure customer satisfaction, you may include dispute management to deal with any disputed payments such as those that occur due to technical issues. 

 

3) Use Social Media to ‘poach’ Customers

A simple step to get your competitor’s customers is to check the competitor’s LinkedIn profile to see their connections. The connections may be your target customers whom you can attempt to serve better than your competitors. You could also go for connections with your competitor’s employees in LinkedIn and follow their activities.

Digital selling presents an opportunity to outperform your competitors and win customers from them. Ensure that you get quality customer, social, and networking referrals because they can convert to sales. Leads from these sources are highly engaged with real and robust opportunities. 

<Refer back to rule #1>

 

4) Interview Your Current Customers

Before you attract your competitor’s customers, find out who they are, what they are looking for, and what they are not receiving from your competitor. You can do baseline research before reaching out to them. Go through your competitor’s main social media accounts to establish major concerns and complaints.

After identifying the unhappy customers, chat with them, and ask them questions regarding why they are dissatisfied. Focus on the process of product and service delivery and how the organizations interact with them. This may allow you to provide better products and services to fill the gap.

 

5) Create Valuable Content on Your Website

 By now, you know my #1 ‘rule’ is:  CONTENT IS KING!

Blog posts. Live streaming, social media posts, infographics – they all target your existing customers and the general audience, who may include your competitor’s customers. Create blog content that may wow customers to read.  Engage your readers by creating more conversational content and show them that it is more about them. 

Create headlines that tempt people to read and, at the end of every blog and video, include a call to action; what you want your customers to do to reach you for products and services. This may present an opportunity for you to do what your competitors are not doing.

 

6) Display your strengths

Those who don’t know you – need to be told!!

Since you have control over your strengths, think of the resources and experiences that you have. If your competition is based on special prices and features, you can create a chart on your website showing how good your organization is compared to others. For instance, if you charge a flat rate for your products and services, as opposed to your competitors, let the customers know.

You could also be using more detailed images and product descriptions that are easily identifiable. When the customers are aware of such strengths, they may want to purchase from you rather than from your competitors. 

 

If you would like to know more or need help in achieving these tactics, give us a call…..we’ll be more than happy to help!

At Bullseye:   Be Relevant, Be Engaged, Be Connected!