Monthly Archives: April 2021

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Touch Point Touché

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Listen, even before the coronavirus shutdown crashed our Income Statements, Freelancers were always on the lookout for opportunities that look promising. Few among us could afford to leave money on the table. We’ve always understood hustle.

Savvy Freelancers are able to spot not only external, but also internal, opportunities. I’m talking about the most basic level of Inbound Marketing and the Customer Experience. Meaning, successful Freelancers will pose the question—once I have the prospect’s attention, or I’ve converted the prospect into a customer, then what? Every interaction that a prospect has with your company—-website, social media, newsletter, email, phone call, employee—represents a marketing or sales opportunity.

Those interactions are known as touch points. Individually and collectively, touch points are powerful. They impact the ROI of marketing campaigns and they shape the customer experience. They guide prospects through the marketing/ sales funnel, i.e., the buyer’s journey, or disable it.

Touch points must first be identified and then managed carefully and assessed periodically, to monitor their resonance. Touch points nourish, or undermine, your company brand in many ways, including perceived trust, dependability and competence. They have the power to encourage, or discourage, repeat business, referrals and good word of mouth, ingredients that add to the bottom line. Let’s discuss some common touch points.

Website

Lead generation is fed by numerous streams but let’s consider the most basic leadgen tool—-your website. Regardless of how many pages yours contains, most visitors start with the home page. Your home page feeds the top of your marketing funnel, the TOFU, the widest part that gets the most visits of every website. Most visitors will go no further and ghost the site.

Make your home page a leadgen magnet by making it useful and relevant and maybe even exciting with links to meaningful content and visible at eye-level Calls to Action. Depending on your business, consider inviting visitors to click and schedule a free 30 minute consultation, click to read your blog or newsletter, click to RSVP for your upcoming webinar, or click to hear the YouTube replay of your recent podcast. Add a chat bot programmed to quickly answer common questions and save visitors time. Engage and inform your website visitors and make them want more. Maximize the potential of your home page touch points.

Follow-up

If half of life is showing up, the other half is follow-up. It seems obvious, but many business owners and Freelancers fail to respond to inquiries about doing business. Many neglect to reply to phone or email messages. They lose business cards they should keep. They don’t send that private chat message to ask for the best time and follow-up method when they’ve met a potential prospect.

Unless you’ve been hospitalized and the anesthesia is still in effect, give a prospect or current customer a timely reply, ideally on the same day or within 24 hours. If you’ve been unwell, or if there’s been a family emergency, respond as soon as possible and offer profuse apologies. Use follow-up touch points to demonstrate your professionalism.

Invoicing and payment

Three years ago, I (finally) made time to search for a B2B services invoice that could serve as the starting point for a design I would customize and lucky for me, I found something. I’m pleased with my new invoice and feel that it communicates my business name and brand well. I consider my invoice to be a great send-off touch point at the close of a project.

How payments are made is another consideration. Going paperless is an option that certain of your customers may find preferable to writing and mailing a check. Some will pay faster. If payments can be made on your website or Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram account, make it known that the process offers impeccable security protocols. Again, make the touch point that is the payment process secure and easy.

Customer service

Identify the kind of support that customers need and/ or appreciate after they’ve purchased your product or service. It is imperative that you enable the results and experience that your customer expects.

Invite the always useful feedback derived from a short, well-written customer survey, which is an element of customer service. Show customers that you appreciate that they’ve done business with your company and that you care about their post-purchase experience.

Employees and helpers

Train customer-facing staff. Clearly describe your expectations regarding the level of service that will be provided (white glove) and your interpretation of a positive attitude. Devise (and refine along the way) problem resolution protocols and empower employees to approve small, relatively inexpensive fixes without your involvement, to resolve uncomplicated issues quickly and enhance customer satisfaction.

While it is unacceptable to expect anyone to tolerate disrespect, encourage those who represent the company on your behalf to go the extra mile and give the benefit of the doubt to customers. Model the behavior you expect in how you treat them.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Detail of The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo c. 1508-1512) ceiling fresco in the Sistine Chapel Vatican City (Rome) Italy

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Interns Go Virtual

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As a result of the COVID-19 shutdown, organizations around the world quickly made changes to how business was done and in many companies, a support system for the usual summer internship program was part of the updates. Perhaps company leaders realized that virtual internships present a unique opportunity for their program to operate across geographical boundaries and greatly expand the pool of desirable candidates?

Academic institutions likewise pivoted to remote during the 2020 shutdown and readied to enable internship programs in the new normal work and education environment. In May 2020, the University of Wisconsin at Madison released a white paper that discussed virtual format internships, their benefits for both the student intern and the hiring company and how to make the experience successful and rewarding for both parties. http://ccwt.wceruw.org/documents/CCWT_Report%20%2310_Online_Internships_Lit_Review_May2020.pdf

Freelancers and small business owners and leaders will occasionally bring in an intern or two, typically as a way to gain a reasonably capable assistant who can be trained to handle uncomplicated professional level tasks for just a few hours per week, at a modest pay scale. Introducing to your business a young person who will bring fresh perspectives and a familiarity with recent technologies that you and your team may not possess stands to improve productivity, profitability and the customer experience at your organization. The internship experience that you initiate may become a way to move your company more decisively into the 21st century.

While the virtual format does have drawbacks—like the increased difficulty (or impossibility) of providing your intern with sufficient networking and relationship-building opportunities with colleagues, interns can still attain a variety of benefits in the remote workplace.

Finding interns

College career centers and academic departments are your source for obtaining information and resources about either hiring an intern or establishing a formal internship program at your organization. Share your business needs and expectations with school officials to determine whether undergraduate seniors or graduate students will be most appropriate. Because schools have a vested interest in workforce preparation and employment outcomes for their students, they can be trusted to help you make the right choice.

Choose the right projects

Social media is often a natural fit for interns because they grew up with social media and probably understands the subtle differences between SnapChat and TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest. Discuss the customer demographics and presumed social media strategy with your intern, who will be tasked with helping you realize objectives.

Your intern might also be asked to create a stock image library for posts, shoot videos on a cell phone and create text content as well, in accordance with the company brand story and target customers. You can also ask a social media intern to conduct a competitive audit to let you know what your 3-4 closest competitors are posting, specifically the platforms used and how they communicate with customers.

Bookkeeping interns could be asked to prepare quarterly taxes for customers. Web design interns can be asked to write code and assist with website updates. Graphic design interns can work on logos and draft marketing collaterals. IT interns can take help desk calls and set up the controls for videoconferences. Although it will be done virtually, always review your intern’s work and give praise where it is due and corrections with diplomacy.

Intern support system

Consider how you can create online support for your intern that will include your company needs, the school’s reporting and course credit requirements, plus intern guidance and mentoring. Your goal is to promote a successful and rewarding experience for the intern and yourself/ the business. 

Schedule daily videoconference 1:1s to discuss the intern’s projects and your expectations for performance milestones and completion dates. If you haven’t been using online communication tools beyond email and Skype, for example, encourage your intern to suggest his/her preferred messaging and workflow systems, such as Slack or Asana and give your intern professional validation when s/he gets to teach you something. Institute systems also to allow the intern to interact with other team members, if there are any and encourage relationship-building and networking.

On balance

So what does the Freelancer win when working with an intern? Useful work and good karma. You get some low level, but nevertheless professional grade, work done for not a lot of money. Plus, mentoring in the form of professional development that introduces a young person to the adult work environment, its expectations and responsibilities, is so nurturing and generous (although not everyone has the patience for it).

The downside is that interns need more supervision than working adults and they can be unavailable during final exams or spring break. But then again, who among us does not need occasional time off? Anyway, you never know— in a few years, your intern might flip the script and hire you for an assignment when s/he has gone on to a good corporate job.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © DanceParent101

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8 P’s of Marketing for the 21st Century

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It was at The University of Notre Dame that Professor of Marketing E. Jerome McCarthy laid out the principles of the original four P’s of marketing, also known as the Marketing Mix, in his 1960 book Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. McCarthy and co-authors Joseph Cannon and William Perreault chose a hands-on, problem- solving approach to the challenges that marketing professionals face.

The boots-on- the-ground approach championed by the 4 P’s Marketing Mix was quickly recognized as foundational to the craft, the gold standard. The genius of the P’s is evidenced by their ability to address both the primary objectives of the marketing team and critical requirements of customers. The P’s relevance has continued into the 21st century and even inspired marketing researchers and thought leaders to expand the list.

As you build a marketing strategy for your products and services—-content and social media marketing, branding, advertising and PR, for starters—-you’ll find that the 4 P’s (+ more) Marketing Mix will guide you and your team to the most effective strategies and action plans every time. Here are the original four and four more that you may find useful.

Product: The solutions that a company sells—products or services, tangible or intangible, B2B or B2C.

Price: The value, in monetary terms, of what customers are willing to pay to obtain a company’s product or service. Company leaders are advised to fully account for the many factors involved in developing, manufacturing, or acquiring a product or service, in addition to the associated marketing, selling, distribution and overhead expenses when determining an appropriate Price. The prices of competitors will also influence your pricing.

Place: Where customers come into contact with and are able to buy the product or service—-in a bricks & mortar storefront, online, at a flea market, in a meeting after contract terms have been negotiated.

This component also refers to both which stores stock a product and the product’s location within a store. For example, certain breakfast cereals and other items targeted to children are found on shelves that are at a child’s eye level or in the children’s department.

Promotion: Strategies and tactics used by the company to persuade potential customers to buy its products or services.

Process: Where and how the customer receives the solution provided by the product or service and all that is entailed. Intangible services delivered by skilled practitioners are more obviously influenced by this component.

Will the solution be delivered in a classroom (education courses), a salon (hair styling or massage therapy), a health care facility (dentistry), or leak- proof cardboard containers (ice cream shop)? How the methods employed in the delivery or application of the solution significantly impacts both outcomes and the customer experience.

Position: The ranking or assessment that customers, prospects and sometimes even the public assigns to your product or service, as compared to similar offerings. To achieve the preferred Position for the product or service, a marketing team will through branding utilize distinctive messaging, packaging, advertising and product placement, sometimes through celebrity endorsement, to create and reinforce the desired image.

Packaging: Tangible products are more obviously influenced by this component. A product’s Price, Place, Promotion and Position are telegraphed in how a company “dresses” the product and presents it to target customers. Even the shopping bags and tissue wrapping paper (or their absence) support the story.

Intangibles are given a “verbal package” that will emphasize its most tangible advantages and benefits, which may include exclusivity (social media site Clubhouse) or rarity or other significant benefits.

People: One component of this factor refers to those who work in the business, in particular the customer-facing staff. Those who interact with customers usually have a profound impact on the all-important customer experience.

The second component in this category refers to the customers themselves, who have many opportunities to communicate to others both the perceived quality of the product or service that was purchased and the perceived quality of the customer experience. Online ranking and social media sites such as Trip Advisor, Yelp and Facebook empower people to either reward or punish a company.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Harris Farm Markets Sydney, Australia

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A Call to Action

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Content creators—-producers of marketing, sales, or advertising content and sometimes speeches, too, must remember that at the conclusion of the artfully told story that’s been delivered in words and/or pictures, it is imperative that you tell the viewer what to do next. Content creators must remember to include an irresistible, inevitable, Call to Action. Fail to do so and the content creator hasn’t done the job.

A Call to Action beckons a potential prospect to do something—-learn more, get this, click here—-that will bring him/her into deeper engagement with the product, service, or idea that’s being promoted. Once the content has made the case, demonstrated the desirable characteristics and therefore the value of what is being promoted, the Call to Action functions to reel in the convinced and the curious.

Step this way, sir! Websites, content marketing posts, videos, television commercials, movie trailers and those postcards that fall out of magazines are but a few examples of where viewers and listeners will encounter a Call to Action designed to entice.

A political action group may write an article on the importance of voting in the next election. The article will likely close with an inspiring CTA message about the privilege of voting and include a link to a voter registration site. A company website may contain two or more CTAs, perhaps appeals to opt-in and receive a weekly blog, RSVP for a webinar, or request a free 30-minute consultation.

Getting started

Before writing your CTA, decide what action you’d like potential prospects to take and what they’ll gain by doing so. Once you know what you want them to do, you can think about how to say it. The best CTAs are short, encouraging and use active verbs that speak directly to the viewer. Remember that the CTA is your closer, the culmination, the purpose, of the pitch you’ve made.

Write your CTA in a font that’s somewhat larger than the other text and use a bold color to make it eye-catching. Lead in with a brief but tempting phrase that persuades viewers to click and subscribe, browse products, opt-in to receive information, attend an event, or take any number of actions.

The next step

CTA buttons are available on Google My Business and the Facebook business page. Most, if not all, email marketing, i. e. blog and newsletter hosting platforms, have always contained opt- in capability to follow or subscribe and an opt-out to unsubscribe. Content creators can easily embed CTA buttons or hyperlinks into a website, blog post, social media site, newsletter, or marketing email. Visibility will be key, so along with bigger and brighter text, place the CTA at eye-level and in most cases, on the landing page. Viewers should not need to scroll to find it.

The CTA should feel like a natural progression of what the prospect has just seen, heard, or read. Whether s/he will be able to obtain more information about using a product or service, listen to a webinar, or attend an event, ensure that your CTA is consistent with the message in your content. A benefit that conveys value, the appearance of low-risk and a sense of urgency are standard ingredients of the well-crafted CTA.

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Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Before he became the 43rd President of the United States (2001-2009), George W. Bush was head cheerleader at the exclusive prep school Phillips Academy in Andover, MA (senior year 1963-64).