When Social Media Goes Bad
How to minimize the damage and bounce back when your Brand is ‘Not Liked’ on Social Media.
Social Media is great. It puts businesses in direct contact with millions of prospects and customers, worldwide. It strengthens the brand presence on the web and helps in viral marketing. The good word about a business can spread real fast on Social Media Networks. But, what happens when there’s a bad word? It can spread even faster. In this issue we put forth some tips that you can use to contain the damage when your brand is getting beat up on the web.
Analyze: There are times when the business really makes a mistakes and times when there’s a misunderstanding or mistake on the part of the customer. Analyze the situation and understand in which category it falls. If the business is at fault, make amends; make them publicly on the same medium that the irate customer used. However, if the situation falls in the latter category, speak up for your brand and make your stance clear. That way you present your side of the story to others.
Don’t Whine: So someone gave you a bad review. Be calm and collected. Don’t whine in response. Whining and mud-slinging at the reviewer will present your brand as rather immature and even give the impression that you did really mess up.
Timely Response: Respond to negative comments promptly. Ideally, the response time is less than an hour because of the viral nature of Social Media Networks.
Respond Right: While timely response is essential, a wrong response written in a hurry can be catastrophic. Refer to step one—analyze, know the facts and then respond. Be clear and on-to the point.
Be a Person: Personal touch is an important element of social Media Marketing. Bring it into your interaction when responding to negative comments. Respond as a person, not as a company. This brings in the element of accountability to your words.
Too many times one bad review can spur an epidemic of bad remarks with many people joining-in on the conversation with a “Me too!” The aim should be to arrest such unpleasant developments before it begins to erode the brand value online.
For more information visit http://www.newplans.com/ or e-mail at support@newplans.com
Social Media is great. It puts businesses in direct contact with millions of prospects and customers, worldwide. It strengthens the brand presence on the web and helps in viral marketing. The good word about a business can spread real fast on Social Media Networks. But, what happens when there’s a bad word? It can spread even faster. In this issue we put forth some tips that you can use to contain the damage when your brand is getting beat up on the web.
Analyze: There are times when the business really makes a mistakes and times when there’s a misunderstanding or mistake on the part of the customer. Analyze the situation and understand in which category it falls. If the business is at fault, make amends; make them publicly on the same medium that the irate customer used. However, if the situation falls in the latter category, speak up for your brand and make your stance clear. That way you present your side of the story to others.
Don’t Whine: So someone gave you a bad review. Be calm and collected. Don’t whine in response. Whining and mud-slinging at the reviewer will present your brand as rather immature and even give the impression that you did really mess up.
Timely Response: Respond to negative comments promptly. Ideally, the response time is less than an hour because of the viral nature of Social Media Networks.
Respond Right: While timely response is essential, a wrong response written in a hurry can be catastrophic. Refer to step one—analyze, know the facts and then respond. Be clear and on-to the point.
Be a Person: Personal touch is an important element of social Media Marketing. Bring it into your interaction when responding to negative comments. Respond as a person, not as a company. This brings in the element of accountability to your words.
Too many times one bad review can spur an epidemic of bad remarks with many people joining-in on the conversation with a “Me too!” The aim should be to arrest such unpleasant developments before it begins to erode the brand value online.
For more information visit http://www.newplans.com/ or e-mail at support@newplans.com
5 Ways To Building Better Customer Relationship
Having good client relations is important for your brand value and for revenue. Here are a few simple steps that you can take to improve them.
Personalize: Gather all information about your customers and develop a personalized communication approach towards them. Make sure the messages you send are relevant and add value to your customers.
Stay in touch: Cross selling and up-selling is great, but it is even better to stay in touch with your customers for no reason at all. You can do so by sending them greetings for during holidays and other special days like birthdays. It sends the message across that you really care about them, and that they are not just another name on your marketing database.
Accommodate: All businesses have policies, and they are needed to keep the business functioning smoothly. However, sometimes it helps to walk that extra mile and bend the policy a little bit to for the benefit of its customers. Suppose you have a return policy of 10 days, but your regular customer walks in on the 12th day with a request for a replacement, try to accommodate them. A little step can go a long way in such cases. Not only will you retain the customer, but you will be more likely to be recommended over your competitors.
Pricing: Take a second look at your pricing policies from time-to-time. How do you fare among your competitors? Has a customer ever complained about your pricing? If yes, reconsider what you are charging. There may be times when you cannot always compete on price—then play the quality card. Ensure what you are providing is worth every cent that the customer’s paying.
Feedback: Maintaining customer relationship demands that you listen to your customers. Send feedback forms to your customers. Have your salespersons call them up to check if they are experiencing any difficulty using your product or have a customer care executive place a call to check their satisfaction level with your service. Once you get the feedback, make sure you put it to use. Maintain transparency between your marketing, sales and customer service functions so that the gap between customer expectations and product/service delivery is tightly closed.
6 Tips for Better E-Mail Marketing
E-mail
is a low-cost and fairly uncomplicated medium to connect with prospects. Here’s
how to ensure you get maximum advantage from it.
Start on the right note: When a prospect signs up for your e-mails, send them an effective welcome message. This should be crisp, up-to-the point and convey clearly what the reader can expect in future, from your e-mails.
Start on the right note: When a prospect signs up for your e-mails, send them an effective welcome message. This should be crisp, up-to-the point and convey clearly what the reader can expect in future, from your e-mails.
Go easy on images: Images do make e-mails look more interesting, however not all
e-mail clients display images. Sometimes, e-mails with too many images are
filtered as spam. Hence it’s advisable to have a good mix of rich content and
some images to your e-mail.
Give valuable information: Prospects sign up for e-mails hoping to gain some value. If your
e-mails are always about your business or products, the prospects eventually
lose interest. Make sure that the e-mails are adding value to the readers by
offering useful information. That way, if you occasionally send e-mails about a
new product launch or upgrade, readers would be interested in knowing more.
Know when to send: One thing you need to make note of, as an
e-mail marketer is that your recipients are not always into their inbox.
Depending on who you are targeting, your prospects may be checking their
e-mails twice a week. Tweak your e-mail marketing strategy to suit recipient
behavior. An e-mail everyday can be frustrating if someone’s checking their
mails on weekends.
Optimize for mobile
devices: Android phones and tablets are changing
e-mail marketing as well. With executives mostly checking their e-mails from
their smart phones there’s a need for e-mail marketers to ensure that the
e-mails are optimized for mobile devices as well.
Analysis: It is essential to know the results of your e-mail marketing
efforts. Even if it is just a monthly newsletter, you should know exactly how
many recipients were targeted, how many received the e-mail, what is the
bounce, unsubscribe and click-thru rate and so on. Such details will help you
understand how the recipients perceive your e-mails.
For more information visit
www.newplans.com or e-mail us at support@newplans.com
5 Tips for Effective Marketing Collateral Creation
Prospects draw up an image of the company based on its Marketing Hence it’s important that the company’s Marketing Collateral is created such that it sends the right message to the recipients. Here are 5 steps towards creating effective Marketing Collateral.
Know the target
Understand the audience well and then structure the marketing collateral to suit their taste. For example, the CFO of an organization is the chief target; it makes sense to include statistics and numbers as to how the product can help the company cut costs. On the other hand, if it is someone in the administrative department, then the collateral should emphasize on how it can help them save time.
Look from the target’s perspective
Many companies make the mistake of talking about themselves in their Marketing Collaterals. Marketing collaterals should contain information about the company’s offerings, but it should emphasize on how these offerings will be of use to the target.
Why you?
Marketing Collaterals should bring out the company’s unique selling points. Why should the targets choose your company over others? Give them a compelling reason to do so.
Personalize
Personalized communication always yields better response than mass communication. Customize your Marketing Collaterals to suit your target’s tastes and perspective.
Keep it Simple
Marketing Collaterals must be concise and clear. Cramping too much information into marketing collaterals only makes it tiring for the recipients. Keep the content lucid and easy to understand.
For more information visit www.newplans.com or e-mail us at support@newplans.com
Customer Care Through Social Media
Customer service through social media is becoming mandatory. Your customers will be talking about you--whether you are there or not. It serves their needs, and your reputation, if you are there for the conversation they have started. The best solution is to work actively in social media and use it to your advantage. Below are suggestions for entering the social media arena.
LISTEN and LEARN: Browse around social media sites. Learn the protocols and etiquette of these sites if you are new to this world before you start talking. Before you jump in to support your brand, listen and understand what the customer is saying.
LEARN MORE: Remember that this is free marketing research. Are there certain topics that dominate discussions of your industry? What is being written about your firm? While one remark may not be representative of the majority of your customer’s views, every comment out there may contain the hint of a way to make your product better, or perhaps identify some uses you never thought of.
LISTEN. ASK. LISTEN: The best thing about social media is it puts you directly in touch with your customers. Use this powerful medium to listen to your customers. Ask them what you can do to make their lives simpler. That’s the easiest way to increasing customer satisfaction and retention…determine what they need!
ACT: If there is a problem, or an unmet need, open a dialogue with the user. Ask questions to fully understand the issue, and propose a resolution.
DON’T IGNORE: If you decide to place your brand out in social media-- be diligent. Never ignore customers. Concerns that seem simple, petty, or trivial: they are not. If it didn't matter to the customer, they wouldn't have logged-on to type. Remember, any failure to respond effectively will be broadcast widely.
FOLLOW-UP: Immediately follow-up (and tell the customer that you will be doing so) so that they know you care about service. Many people in business now prefer to be “followed-up” via e-mail, and not on the phone. Always leave room at the end for any OTHER comments they may have. “How would you improve the product?” “Could we have found a better way to resolve your concerns?”
NO SCRIPTING: Be you on your blog/Facebook/Twitter interactions. Do not use scripted answers. When someone reaches out to you on a social networking site, they are not looking for an automated response. Be the real person they want to talk to. Nothing annoys more than a canned sentence response--and yes, everyone knows if one is used.
DON’T BLUFF: This rule applies to customer service through any channel, not just to social media. But bluffing on social media can prove even more costly. Your inability to stand good on your promise will be broadcast to net surfers around the world.
ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAM: While it’s great to have your top management blog and be in touch with customers, it’s even better to have your team interact with customers. Let’s face it—the front-line team is the one in contact with customers in the off-line world. So, let them play to their strengths online too.
Interacting with your clients on social media lends you a unique perspective. You gradually learn that your customers are not just your target audience, but real people with real needs. And this understanding automatically helps you serve your customers better.
LISTEN and LEARN: Browse around social media sites. Learn the protocols and etiquette of these sites if you are new to this world before you start talking. Before you jump in to support your brand, listen and understand what the customer is saying.
LEARN MORE: Remember that this is free marketing research. Are there certain topics that dominate discussions of your industry? What is being written about your firm? While one remark may not be representative of the majority of your customer’s views, every comment out there may contain the hint of a way to make your product better, or perhaps identify some uses you never thought of.
LISTEN. ASK. LISTEN: The best thing about social media is it puts you directly in touch with your customers. Use this powerful medium to listen to your customers. Ask them what you can do to make their lives simpler. That’s the easiest way to increasing customer satisfaction and retention…determine what they need!
ACT: If there is a problem, or an unmet need, open a dialogue with the user. Ask questions to fully understand the issue, and propose a resolution.
DON’T IGNORE: If you decide to place your brand out in social media-- be diligent. Never ignore customers. Concerns that seem simple, petty, or trivial: they are not. If it didn't matter to the customer, they wouldn't have logged-on to type. Remember, any failure to respond effectively will be broadcast widely.
FOLLOW-UP: Immediately follow-up (and tell the customer that you will be doing so) so that they know you care about service. Many people in business now prefer to be “followed-up” via e-mail, and not on the phone. Always leave room at the end for any OTHER comments they may have. “How would you improve the product?” “Could we have found a better way to resolve your concerns?”
NO SCRIPTING: Be you on your blog/Facebook/Twitter interactions. Do not use scripted answers. When someone reaches out to you on a social networking site, they are not looking for an automated response. Be the real person they want to talk to. Nothing annoys more than a canned sentence response--and yes, everyone knows if one is used.
DON’T BLUFF: This rule applies to customer service through any channel, not just to social media. But bluffing on social media can prove even more costly. Your inability to stand good on your promise will be broadcast to net surfers around the world.
ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAM: While it’s great to have your top management blog and be in touch with customers, it’s even better to have your team interact with customers. Let’s face it—the front-line team is the one in contact with customers in the off-line world. So, let them play to their strengths online too.
Interacting with your clients on social media lends you a unique perspective. You gradually learn that your customers are not just your target audience, but real people with real needs. And this understanding automatically helps you serve your customers better.
For more information visit www.newplans.com or e-mail at support@newplans.com
Brand Management; New avenues for brand positioning
Branding was traditionally synonymous with logos and advertisements, mascots and bottle designs. The modern definition of “Branding” has abandoned this dated and non-customer-interactive notion. Brand management is the complex effort to ensure that once a product is positioned, every single interaction a customer has with the organization precisely reflects that positioning. In short, every touch-point should be in lockstep with the message. (Disney and McDonalds take this so seriously they created “colleges” for their employees) The challenge is managing and unifying the message as the number of meeting places with customers expands.
The challenge here is to project a consistent Brand image at all of these locations. From every contact, customers take away a perception of the company that builds –or distorts-its brand image. With the addition of each new channel for interaction comes the challenge to keep that channel in line with your internal brand positioning. On top of this, remember that social networking has created a very public space where the customer initiates a discussion of the brand, not the enterprise.
In summary, all of these new platforms offer great new opportunities to reach new markets, and new customers in old market. However, they add layers of complexity and risk to the task of ensuring each interaction is appropriate and reflective of your brand
With these challenges facing the Brand Management function, below are some of the solutions
Automation Can Help
Use of technology can simplify the complex process of brand management. A good branding or marketing automation software program can help in the following areas
CONSISTENCY - A marketing automation program can lend the all-important element of consistency to Branding. Whether the company logo is appearing on a flyer, print advertisement, sales presentation or on its social networking page, automation can help ensure that the logo and other corporate branding mechanisms are consistent with the company standards.
COST & TIME SAVINGS - By leveraging technology offered by marketing automation programs, the company can save on certain branding-related costs. For example, it would cost the company much more in terms of dollars and time if it had to individually brand every corporate communication. An advanced marketing automation program can replicate brand elements faster throughout the various communication channels, and at a lower cost than traditional methods. In short, it achieves greater accuracy, lower cost, and faster response times, all with a consistent message.
COORDINATION - A good marketing automation software program would make sure that there’s conformity among all the marketing channels. The company’s message goes to the various avenues (including social media, e-mail marketing) in the same form and manner, assuring no dilution or distortion of the company message
By bringing the various elements of brand management onto a single platform, automation might just be the solution for the problems haunting brand management today.
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