Your consumers are the best ambassadors for your brand name, and social networks provides you a direct line to get in touch with them in a manner brand names have never been able to in the past.
But how can you take advantage of your existing customers to win new fans online and in the real world? And how can you guarantee you keep all your existing customers happy as the new consumers roll in?
Sarah Hesz and Katie Massie-Taylor, the creators of Mush– the socialising app for mums, by mums– and Tom and James Exton– founders of fitness brand LDN Muscle– are on hand to help.
These business owners share their stories as part of the Plusnet Pioneers program; an amazing project run by Startups.co.uk and service broadband and phone service provider, Plusnet, to notify and inspire start-ups and little organisations on funding and marketing.
They describe how, with the right technique, and a strong understanding of who your audience are, you can reach hundreds, thousands, and even countless potential clients through social networks.
Continue reading for their very different and engaging marketing strategies for growing and keeping a customer base.
Mush’s two-part tried and checked marketing method:
For Mush, assisting mums discover other mums to hang out and deal with the challenges of being a new mother created a great deal of goodwill amongst its growing fan base.
It was clear the Mush app had actually struck home with mums throughout the country who would be only too going to assist get the word out.
What began as a couple of confident e-mails, motivating their customers to assist get Mush’s name out into the world, grew into the Mush Mums Marketing Huge (the 4Ms) which, inning accordance with Sarah and Katie, is now a hugely popular paid advocacy programme.
Katie describes how the ‘4Ms’ came about:
“After about a month of a mum being part of the community, we ‘d send out an e-mail stating something along the lines of: ‘If you want to assist us, we’re brand brand-new and we’re a set of mums, this is the story of us and this is exactly what we’re planning to attain. If you wish to help us with our objective, contact us’, and surprisingly a lot of individuals did.
“We ‘d send them an email telling them exactly what they could do to assist, which would generally consist of asking to name-drop Mush on Facebook or in Whatsapp groups.
“And after that we believed, ‘exactly what if we do the entire programme on a larger scale?’ We’ve got terrific goodwill within the neighborhood and they truly desire to help but are we doing enough to assist them?
“I then talked to the creator of a really famous social media for mums who stated, ‘you’re in a position where you’ve got some funding. Do not anticipate anybody to promote your brand name free of charge’.
“So, we started this paid advocacy programme utilizing the funding we had actually received. We called it the 4Ms– the Mush Mums Marketing Huge– which has worked due to the fact that it makes you feel part of something a bit enjoyable and a bit ridiculous. It began from that point.
“The fundamental facility is that we’ll send mums all the package that will make you part of Mush’s journey, with the target of promoting the app in your area with posters, flyers, social media etc. We then set obstacles for the 4Ms to collaborate and share what’s working for each of them. The reaction has been fantastic.
“We’ve now got the 4M family who form a huge part of our service in terms of product screening.”
Sarah:
“This programme is special because the mums we’re talking with are often on maternity leave and costs rather a bit of time by themselves. We’re developing a sense of belonging and these mums are our finest advocates for talking about our brand name.”
Sarah:
“We’ve found the most reliable thing to do to engage customers is to get our mums’ community to run micro-events around the country like our #mumday. It makes our task a lot easier.
“We knew that mums were putting on these events anyhow so we utilized that to see the number of we could get on one day and we had over 200 around the country, which is excellent.
“My recommendations is that you need to constantly charge for occasions otherwise individuals don’t appear. You do not have to charge loads of loan, just a small fee so people commit to it. It’s about knowing your audience, and for us we have to have buggy-friendly locations, which includes an expense.
LDN Muscle’s attempted and tested marketing technique: Prioritise social media
LDN Muscle has actually accomplished unbelievable organic growth entirely through its social media pages. By thoroughly thinking about the material it runs and knowing what works for their existing customers, LDN Muscle has reached numerous thousands of fans throughout numerous social media channels.
Tom explains how they have engaged with their followers, and how their personal social networks accounts have actually played a part in their success.
Tom:
“Our personal social networks accounts have been crucial to the success of our business due to the fact that they broaden the funnel of material. With personal accounts, you can entice people in by publishing about things they like, that will in turn lead them to our service pages. Then they’re following you, and they find out more about your business.
“For instance, loads of young people who like automobiles follow my individual account since I publish a great deal of material about the supercars I drive. If it was simply another fitness page, they may not have been interested in following me, but they take pleasure in the vehicle content and after that check out the fitness. You lure them in with your individual account and after that show them your service account.”
James:
“Our social media pages are rather diverse because we offer a lot of items now. It was easier at the starting to market on social networks when we simply offered digital items due to the fact that the focus was quite easy to drive.
“Now we’re aiming to market education, clothing and supplements, alongside digital material. We’re still concentrating on physical fitness but our social networks posts have actually undoubtedly ended up being more varied.”
Tom:
“Our customer base for LDN Muscle is really large. I believe we’re about a 50/50 split for male and female then the age variety is completely spread out, which is how we have actually marketed ourselves on social media by making it as broad as possible and not too specific niche.
“Often you can set up a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout and people will just be there for the food, and often you installed a protein shake however some individuals would rather engage with the fitness material.
“Each social media post will not reach each and every single individual due to the fact that the market is so extensive, so we set up a variety of content to appeal to a broad range of people.”
Whilst you might differ your technique to social media marketing as your business grows, staying true to your original service identity is necessary to attracting and keeping clients.
As Tom explains:
“On social networks, our followers really like honesty and a slightly controversial post every now and then. If a truth TV star starts publishing about fat burners or some unverified weight loss training scheme, we’ll be the first to put something out on social media that questions whether it is a healthy post for their audience.
“We have actually constantly resembled that and our followers enjoy that. That’s pretty much where we entered the market and how we have actually positioned ourselves.
“Staying real to our brand name is exactly what has separated us from other rival accounts so continuing with that approach is essential.”
Interviews were carried out as part of the Plusnet Pioneers programme, a stimulating series of material produced by company broadband and phone company Plusnet to assist small companies grow.
Source
https://startups.co.uk/tried-tested-marketing-strategies-help-use-current-customers-gain-new-ones/
