As a start-up, it’s not easy to stand out among competitors (whether they’re big or small), let alone build a loyal customer base. The secret is to understand that people nowadays are busy, and that it’s your job to make using your product as simple and straightforward as possible. Here are just a few simple ways to do that.
A User-Friendly Website
Customers these days are not forgiving of a bad website. As well as being visually appealing, your website should be easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. You could hire a web designer to perfect this, but building your own is way more cost effective. A drag-and-drop builder costs as little as $100 to $400 a year, while a custom website will cost between $2,000 and $10,000. You also need to ensure that your website complies with industry standard cybersecurity measures to ensure that your customers’ data and information remains safe and secure.
Fast And Reliable Shipping
Anyone selling a consumer good is competing with giants like Amazon. Sure, you may not be able to do one-day delivery as a start-up, but you can make sure that everything about the process is as fast and smooth as possible. StartUp Nation has some good advice on how new e-commerce ventures can effectively compete with Amazon, such as including a personalized message or free gift to first-time customers.
Personal And Helpful Customer Service
According to research by SalesForce, 84 percent of customers feel it is important to be treated as a person by the companies they buy from. On one level, this simply means your customer service needs to be friendly and helpful. Nothing sours a relationship with a company more than rude or incompetent customer service.
It also means that customers want to feel like you “remember” them, and that all their interactions with a company feel connected. For this, you need a reliable customer-relationship management (CRM) system that will keep all your customer information in one secure, easy-to-access place. There are several CRM software options that are perfect for small businesses, including some that are free.
Useful (Yet Non-Intrusive) Marketing
The secret to reaching customers without annoying them often lies in your campaign metrics. For instance, when carrying out email campaigns, you can use data like click-through and open rates combined with the industry averages for each of these figures as a comparison to adjust your strategy. If you’re getting an unusually high bounce rate, your emails need to look less spammy. If you have low open rates, you may need to improve your subject lines.
Figuring out a social media marketing strategy also relies on using metrics. Take AB testing: this is where you create two different versions of an ad and run them simultaneously to see which one works better. It is a great way to use the data available to you to optimize and refine your strategy in real time, something which more traditional forms of marketing never allowed for.
As a start-up, it’s never enough to just have a good product. We live in an age when everyone can start a business with a few clicks, and where essentially any product can be bought for cheap from online mega-stores. Creating a connection with your customers through reliable, personal, and convenient service is the best way to stand out.
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