Page 269 - Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing

Tools aren’t always about computers, though. Another example of
an employee-empowering tool might be the ability to say yes to certain
types of customer requests or offer a certain type of free trial service up
to a certain value. This type of investment lets your employees know
that you trust them and allows them to make snap marketing decisions
when they matter to the customer most. Become a student of new
technologies and you will discover a host of ways to give your small
business big-business service. But never forget: if you’ve got happy
employees, you will provide good service and your business will grow.

Create Community
Another very powerful way to build client relationships and gen-

erate referrals is to bring your prospects and clients together. What I
mean is to actually create opportunities for your clients and prospects
to meet each other. This suggestion can take many forms, but the key
ingredient is that when your clients meet one another, they can form
a potentially stronger relationship with you.

I think a couple of things are at work here. When you bring a
group of your customers together, they can indeed see firsthand that
others, very much like them, put their trust in you. In many small
businesses, clients can bear many common characteristics, so provid-
ing the opportunity to connect with other small business owners, for
example, is a powerful way to increase their connection with you.

Here are several ways I have found to use customer community
building as a marketing tool.

Peer-to-Peer Lead Conversion
The focus group format presents an interesting marketing oppor-

tunity. Most people think marketing research when they think focus
group, but with a nifty little twist on this concept, you can turn it into
a sales conversion machine.

This works particularly well if you can focus on one specific

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