Losing customers is a good thing for businesses who realise it and take active steps to do something about it. According to the Ask Afrika Icon Brands annual benchmark survey 2019/20 brand loyalty levels were showing year-on-year declines. However now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic businesses in various industries has suffered their greatest losses yet and this not as a result of anything they did or did not do, but the restrictions imposed left them with little to no options to do anything about it.
The good news is that the pandemic has escalated the timeline for business to jump into the 4th industrial revolution, because the need for digital marketing increased exponentially and if you are not taking steps to stay ahead, you may end up losing more and being left behind.
Here are 5 reasons why you may be losing customers and what you can do about it.
1. An exhausted society
The last few months have left people tired, frustrated, sad, drained, scared and completely overwhelmed. Humanity has experienced great losses, and many are ready to move forward and rebuild but will do so cautiously.
What you can do:
Be empathetic and sensitive, not aggressive in your sales approach to your target audience
Offer value. Identify your unique value proposition and show the amazing value you bring to customers that do business with you.
2. Your business is not reliable with its customer experience
Reliability and consistency builds trust with your customers. The last few months may have been difficult, but your customers need to know that they can rely on you even when they do not buy from you. This means that customer service should always be a main priority for your business.
What you can do:
Create experiences your customers can rely on. Update your staff, your website, your social media, and any other channels where you communicate with your customers about what is happening with the business, what is on offer, valuable information and anything relevant to your business. This will keep you present in your customers mind.
3. Your brand and designs are not recognisable
Your brand is ultimately what your clients think about your business based on how you have marketed to them. It is measured in what they see, what they hear and how they feel about your business. It is more than a logo, identity or product and service. In order to meet the highest customer service standard, you also need to make sure that the visual, verbal and emotional experience with your brand is of a high and consistent standard too.
What you can do:
Create a strategic plan to develop the right content, that speaks to the right audience, on the right channels.
Refresh your content to make it consistent across all your platforms to re-establish your brand with your customers.
Engage your customers with well thought out, well designed and well prepared content that is relevant and valuable to them.
4. Poor marketing plans
Marketing management is how your business plans and executes all interactions with your customers to activate the sales function. Not managing this process could result in customers being chased away from wanting to do business with you, because the sales and marketing message do not compliment each other.
What can you do:
Plan all your marketing activities, campaigns and promotions with clearly defined messages and goals that are realistic and measurable. This includes planning, preparing and sharing the content you use on all your marketing channels.
Build relationships with your customers. If you are trying to sell with every single customer interaction, you are doing it wrong. Instead, focus on establishing trust with your prospective customers. You do this through offering value via your marketing funnels, such as blog posts, video content, tips, etc.
5. You are not targeting the right audience online
If you could appear in front of people searching for your product or service, would you want to know how? Be found on Google.
If you could share your knowledge and your product or service to people who are most likely to do business with you right now, would you? Use social media
The amazing thing about having your business online is that you can accurately target people who are most likely to do business with you.
What can you do:
Update, upgrade, refresh, monitor and analyse your website to ensure that when your customer finds you that you provide them with the best possible experience.
Plan your social media content to build consistency with your customers and refine your audiences for future targeting.
Use marketing funnels to guide your customers journey with your business. This is about building a relationship with no aggressive sales tactics. You are winning them over.
Create custom and lookalike audiences of customers that your business can target through social media content and sales offers.
These are unprecedented times to operate a business but the key to growing is to maintain the customers you already have and to acquire new ones. Customers will always be an integral part of your business success.
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We have over 11 years of experience in the marketing industry and we can help you with your brand and design, marketing management and digital marketing strategies.
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