Archives for September 2014

Focus on the Best, Get the Best: 4 Steps to Increase Customer Value Today

September 16, 2014 by Katie

Your customers are your business. It can be your worst customers, mix of customers, or your very best customers. Knowing the what and why factors of your best customers helps you to segment, target, and position your key marketing campaigns to them.

Let’s face it, with the best customer strategy approach you provide, more of what they want for the reasons why they want it. Your whole marketing model better be on that specific approach.

In doing so, it builds a greater sincerity in your campaigns, your business, and your own reasoning of establishing a win-win environment for your best customers. Here are four tips you can do to get started today:

Identify the why. The why factor is huge to building customer value. It is the sheer reason and motivation why they choose to do business with your firm. Identify the why through your own hands-on research. This research could come in the form of surveys or brief interviews. Create the framework of collecting the right kind of data, be brief, and be clear. Let’s face it survey can suck. Creating value as to why you need the insight and how it will be used, along with some customized incentive for participation may be the little things you need to get the data that can transform your strategy of increasing customer value.
Review the why. The survey data is only as good as the analysis put into it. If you send out a survey, get responses, and do nothing with it, you’re missing the complete boat as to why it is so paramount to forming your customer value strategy. You need to review the data, identify best and worst practices, identify the demographics and psychographics of the respondents, and synthesize this information to get a clear understanding of what works best and what turns off the customers, and what opportunities you have to make your current approach to customers better. The why will shape the what, how, and when of your value building strategy.
Customize the why. You may notice that you best customers span across several segments that have varying demographics and psychographics. This requires careful strategy execution to customize interactive and engaging marketing campaigns to continue to hook your very best customers. Customers can spot generic campaigns, don’t be generic. Be you. Rock what you do and provide to the what customers wants, needs, and to their why to or to not buy. If you can do this, you are one step closer to creating a sustainable, customized to your most valuable customers campaign that will lead to more engagement, interactions, sales, and high quality, long-term relationships.
Invest in the best. Why would you throw money to a unorganized or not specific marketing approach when you know what and why your customers buy? Don’t be lazy or reluctant with getting the biggest bang for your marketing dollars. You put in the time and money understanding the why, don’t half-ass it now by sending out generic interactions. Continue your customized why campaigns that fits your best customer segments, and invest in the best technology, capabilities, and strategists to help you position, and deliver the messages that build rock solid, engaging, and profitable relationships for both you and your best customers – it is simply a win-win for your firm and your best customers.

Additional Great Reads…

Demley, T. (2014). How to Sell on Value than Price. Inc. Retrieved:

Stark, K. and Stuart, B. (2014). How to Hook a Lifetime Customer. Inc. Retrieved:

Tabaka, M. (2011). Win Customers with Empathy Marketing. Inc. Retrieved:

by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.

Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC

Katie Doseck, PhD | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: campaign, customer value

Building Business Relationships Based On Trust

September 15, 2014 by Christine

Business and sales is all about making connections with other people. There’s a reason why companies look for outgoing, friendly, helpful people to be on their sales team—these are the kind of people that easily forge relationships and connections with people they've just met. Building lasting relationships is about trust.

One of the best ways to ensure that those relationships last is to make sure that your customer knows they can place their trust in you.

Here are some tips for how you can make your business relationships have a firm base in trust:

Take the time to learn about them. Learn about your customers’ goals, priorities, desires, objectives and more. If you understand what is at the forefront of your customers’ minds, you will be able to better help them achieve
When we were first starting off, our journey would have been so much easier if we had someone there to give us guidance, knowledge or even simple encouragement. This is why we dedicate ourselves to helping small business owners stay motivated and achieve all of their business goals. We believe that your needs should always come first, and our “give first” mentality of customer service ensures that you will always have a dedicated team of small business professionals helping you find success.

those goals or desires. The better you get to know your customers, the more they will trust you.
Get rid of your ego. Sure, there is a competitive aspect to sales, and there are plenty of strategies that you can take to make it more likely that you’ll close a sale. But really, the most important thing in any conversation with a potential customer should be the customer, and not the sale itself. You’re in the business of people, and as such, you need to stay focused on the people more than the dollar signs.
Listen to your customers. Allow them to talk so you can hear what they need, what their challenges are and how you can help. There’s a big difference between listening and waiting to talk.
Reach out to customers for their thoughts. Rather than waiting for customers to come to you with problems, complaints or simple questions, be proactive in reaching out to them to get their opinions on a variety of things relating to your business, like new products or services or potential promotions. You can easily do this through emails, surveys, phone calls or in person. When it’s clear to a customer that you respect their opinion, then there will be a much deeper level of trust in your relationship.

Remember: trust is vital in any relationship, and the business/customer relationship is no different in that regard. Follow these tips and build stronger relationships with a firm foundation in trust.
Copyright 2014 Viral Solutions LLC

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: connections, ego, mentor, trust

Will They See Your Tweets and Facebook Posts?

September 12, 2014 by Christine

You’ve spent countless hours building a Twitter and Facebook following and just as many hours composing engaging tweets and status updates. It’s hard work, but you enjoy it. Only trouble is, this nagging feeling: will anyone actually see your tweets and posts?

This is a valid concern. After all, many social media users have hundreds of friends and follow dozens of businesses. How can you be sure that your messages get through the clutter? With Twitter’s real-time streams, as your messages age, they get pushed further down. If someone doesn’t see your tweet immediately, it may never be seen!

As with anything worth worrying about, speculation can drive you crazy. Find out for sure by using analytical tools. Once you know your stats, you can then do something about them.

Twitter and Facebook Analytics

Both Twitter and Facebook offer analytic tools that will show you how your posts are performing. For example, Twitter’s Tweet Activity Dashboard shows you the number of impressions, embedded media clicks, link

Automating the mundane, redundant and repetitive.
While building our business, we used many tools available from the software industry. Tools such as SalesForce, ACT!, Jeffrey Gitomer’s Ace of Sales, Excel spreadsheets and enough other items I could name – that right now are making me ill thinking about. We are business minds first. We found Infusionsoft as our solution to our problem. We have become Infusionsoft experts, by building our business with this amazing tool, our certifications only reinforce it. Infusionsoft is a type of sales and marketing software that helps owners of small businesses to track their leads and stay organized. We work with you to help you develop the best plan with your business and help you get set up with these services, optimize them to fit your needs and give you any other assistance you need to get started. You can either have us help you implement your Infusionsoft strategy or let us take the keys and do it for you.

clicks, detail expands, favorites, retweets, and profile clicks your Twitter account is getting.

In order to use the Tweet Activity Dashboard, you will need to sign up for either Twitter Analytics or Twitter Ads.

Facebook Insights allow page managers to explore how well their pages are doing. Facebook Insights covers: Likes, Reach, Visits, Posts, and People. Simply log into your Facebook business page and click on Insights. You’ll see an overview of activity across the top and then individual boxes detailing recent page likes, post reach, and engagement. Facebook will also display your five most recent posts along with the type of post, who it’s targeting, its reach, and its engagement. From there, you can view additional posts as needed.

Taking Action

Using these tools will help to give you a better sense of whether or not anyone is seeing your tweets and Facebook posts. Not only that, they can help you to revise your strategy so that your future tweets and updates have a better chance of being seen.

Start by looking at your most popular tweets and updates. Do they share anything in common? Pay special attention to the time of day and day of week that you posted, the type of post (link, video, question, etc), and response (retweet, comment, like, etc.) to see if you can detect any patterns.

Next, based on the characteristics of your most popular posts, try to describe what goes into your ideal posts and what you want to accomplish with each type. For example, one of your ideal posts might include a funny photo posted on a Friday morning (to encourage likes and shares) while another might be a thought provoking link that includes a question (to encourage comments).

By examining what’s been successful in the past, you can replicate that success in the future.

But Will They See It?

Pay attention to when your audience is most active on Twitter and Facebook and post accordingly. You may need to experiment with different times of the week or day.

Consider using a social media scheduling tool to preschedule your posts at the most optimal time. Scheduling tools also help you tweet or update your page more effectively as you can handle a full week’s, month’s, or even year’s worth of posts in a single session.

Consider boosting your most important posts occasionally. Both Twitter and Facebook offer paid options to ensure that your messages get seen. In Twitter’s case, it’s called a “sponsored post.” Facebook will “boost” your posts. Both will cost you some money, making it important to choose your sponsored or boosted posts wisely.

Will your followers see every tweet or Facebook update you make? Not likely. After all, no one is on these sites 24/7. However, you can increase your posts’ visibility by using analytics, figuring out the times your audience is most active on Twitter or Facebook, and replicating success.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: audience, facebook, twitter

Using Visual Content Marketing on Social Media Sites

September 11, 2014 by Christine

Want to get more likes and shares? Ditch the heavy text-based posts and add more visual images to your social media sites. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words! Use the tips below to add more visual content to your social media sites.

Find a great source of photos – Whether your company has an in-house graphics arts department or you have a stock photography account, you need a reliable source where you can find great images to
We make sure you have defined, rigidly and systematically, your perfect prospective customer. This definition must include the obvious demographics but more importantly the psycho-graphics. Then we test your will power to prove that your approach, your tactics, your messages and your core offerings match what that perfect prospective customer is looking for. We require that you understand and can articulate your plan, your vision, your position statement effectively and with fire in your gut. With our strategic planning session your target customer will be redefined, your marketing tactics will no longer be in question, you will have a strong and decisive position statement, you’ll know your strengths, admit to your weaknesses, relish in your accomplishments and learn from your mistakes.

share. Flickr is loaded with impressive images that you can use; just make sure to pay attention to the rights offered and comply with each photographer’s terms. At Viral Solutions, we use Shutterstock and pay a monthly fee for the rights to republish any of their images – they have millions.

Set up your own Instagram account – and use it – Instagram is wildly popular, and you don’t need to be a professional photographer to create fun images out of photos you snap on your smartphone. You can easily integrate Instagram with your other social networks. Once set up, create and share engaging photos about your company, products, and brand lifestyle.

Create and share infographics – Position yourself as a thought leader in your niche by gathering the latest stats and creating an infographic. A number of free and commercial tools are available that make creating an infographic a simple matter of drag and drop. If you’d rather not invest in software or spend time figuring out how to use it, head over to Fivrr and hire someone to take your data and turn it into a visual masterpiece. Make sure to brand your infographic with your company information and website address because infographics are highly shareable.

Host a Google+ Hangout – Google Hangouts are an interesting way to share information. They take place live between remote users connected via webcams. Use a hangout to interview an expert or hold a town hall-style meeting. After the hangout, post a recording to Facebook so that those who missed the live event can view it.

Offer a special promotion or hold a contest on Facebook – Create a professional promotion or contest on Facebook. Whether you’re offering a free eBook, a discount on your products or services, or the chance to win a valuable prize, your followers will appreciate being the recipients of an exclusive offer.

Use Twitter cards – Want to stand out on Twitter? Twitter cards allow you to go beyond the 140-character limit and increase engagement with your followers. Several types of Twitter cards are available including summary cards with images, photo cards, gallery cards, app cards, product cards, and media player cards.

Use Vine – Twitter’s Vine is Twitter’s answer to YouTube. Rather than posting lengthy videos that few will watch, Vine has a six-second limit. Anyone can spare six seconds, right?

From photos and infographics to hangouts, contests, Twitter cards and short video clips, today’s social networks are more visual than ever. How will you take advantage of this trend toward more visual marketing on social networks?

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: content, content marketing, facebook, google, instagram, marketing

Communication Mistakes to Avoid in Your Business

September 10, 2014 by Christine

Everything in your business revolves around good communication. Whether it’s sales, marketing, customer service or finances, it’s important that everyone within your company is constantly on the same page and feels connected with you and with the other departments in your business. When it feels like there’s something wrong with your communications practices, it’s imperative that you take instant action to correct them.

Here are some of the most common communication mistakes that you may be making in your company:

DON'T SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE FOOT! First we seek to understand, before we seek to be understood. When the team at Viral Solutions brings their minds to your business, you are getting all of our collective experiences. We will not sugar coat the reasons behind our input. We will not withhold our best solutions. We will not limit our implementation strategies. We will tell you exactly how we see it. The results you experience will be the sum of your strategy, your defined target audience, your commitment to serve your customer and our process of delivery. That means we are an integral part of your team!

One size fits all style. You need to realize that different people in and outside of your company have different needs and expectations, which means you need to alter the way you communicate depending on who you’re talking to. You can’t use a “one size fits all” communications strategy, because you'll be alienating quite a few important people.
Harsh or negative tone. Watching your tone is especially important in written communications, because it’s not always as easy to decipher the intent or emotion behind a message as it is when it’s spoken. Keep a soft, pleasant tone when you speak, and double check any emails or other written communications before sending them to make sure they exude the proper tone.
Avoiding difficult conversations. Nobody likes to have conversations that could lead to conflict, but it’s far worse to let a problem fester, as it could cause some irreversible long-term damage within your company. Address conflict and other difficult issues head-on so that you can limit the potential damage it could cause.
Being reactive rather than reflective. It’s natural, for example, to hear bad news and respond in anger, but before you let loose with an emotional reaction you should be sure to take a deep breath and think about all of the facts surrounding the issue. This moment of reflection will allow you to avoid an emotional outburst and instantly begin responding to the problem at hand.
Assuming that everyone understands you. Never assume that everyone understood the message you were trying to deliver. Take the time to ask if there are any questions that people have, or if you can clarify anything that you've said. When you do this, if you receive no response or silence from the audience – you have a huge problem!

Rid yourself of these bad communications habits and you'll be on your way to a more efficient, communicative business.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: audience, communication, expectations, strategy