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5 Ways To Get More Returning Customers

July 20, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Customers

For the typical brand, 90% of the sales it gets is from returning customers. In the remaining 10%, 9% of the sales come from satisfied customers who told others about you (word of mouth marketing) while the final 1% are completely new. With these statistics in mind, the key to a brand’s success is not getting more customers. Instead, getting more returning customers is what allows a brand to become successful. This is the part when brands and entrepreneurs ask how this can happen to them. Here are five tips to help you pull it off.

Create a stay in touch checklist. Is there a customer who really enjoys your brand or comes back? Put that person on a stay in touch checklist. Frequently send emails to that person and interact with that person on your social networks. It is also important to interact in a way that builds a strong connection. Don’t suddenly show up to the people on this stay in touch checklist when you come out with a new product. The connection needs to be strengthened well before the new product comes out.
Get people to subscribe to your blog. Someone who is subscribed to your blog will be more likely to buy one of your products than someone who is not subscribed to your blog. Subscribers see you often in their inbox, and being seen often creates a level of trust. This level of trust combined with valuable content will be sufficient to make people want to buy your products.
Get people to follow you on your social networks. The bigger your social media audience is, the more people will want to join that audience. We have a natural tendency to join the things that are popular. In addition to growing your audience, social media encourages word of mouth and engagement. You will be able to talk with the customers who have already bought your products. Some of my book reviews are only there because I asked my followers who bought my book if they could leave a quick review.
Have your wow factors in place. Your wow factors give your potential customers a reason to buy from you and a reason for customers to come back. Your wow factors are credentials that make people marvel at what you have done. If you do not have any wow factors, then you need to go get some.
Host giveaways, sweepstakes, and discounts. If you can give some of your customers a free prize, those customers will share it with their friends. Word of mouth will allow your message to spread and make the 9% of the customer pie larger. In addition, your product will get some extra exposure, and some of the people who did not win the sweepstakes or get the giveaway award will end up buying the product anyway. In addition to hosting giveaways and sweepstakes, you need to have discounts in place. Lowering the price of your product will result in a higher volume of sales, and some of the customers who already bought one of your products will get attracted by the discount.

If you are able to master the process of getting returning customers, then your brand will thrive. There is no such thing as overnight success, but as you get more customers, the numbers in the customer pie will get larger. Right now, 90% of your customers may only refer to nine people, but if you implement these tactics, 90% of your customers may eventually be able to mean thousands. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips to get more returning customers? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

4 Common Kindle eBook Marketing Mistakes

July 20, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

For some people, Kindle eBooks are a reliable source of income that allows them to earn six figures every year. These people have mastered Kindle eBook marketing and know how to get their books sold. However, there are also people who are just starting out and do not know how to properly market their Kindle eBooks. The people just starting out are the most susceptible to making mistakes, but there are also self-published authors who have been writing Kindle eBooks for years who make the same mistakes. These four common mistakes need to be avoided because they hurt your chances of making more sales.

Not having a keyword rich description. Many people forget that Amazon is technically a search engine. In fact, it is the 4th largest search engine on the web. Having a keyword rich description will allow you to boost your SEO on Amazon. Most of a six figure self-published author’s sales come directly from Amazon’s search engine. Keyword rich descriptions get found by the search engines.
Not offering your Kindle eBook free for the first five days. Unless you have a large audience of people who would buy your Kindle eBook right when it comes out, you need to offer it for free for the first five days. This free promotion does not last one day or three days. You need to take advantage of all five days. That gives your Kindle eBook more time to get in the Top 100 for multiple bestselling categories which tends to result in more reviews. Getting more reviews early will lead to more long-term sales.
Underestimating the importance of a good cover. People often judge books by their covers. The way your book looks may be a decisive factor of whether your potential customer buys your book or not. Do not go through the trouble of learning PhotoShop or anything like that when you can hire an assistant on Fiverr to get the job done for you.
Not utilizing your social networks. Many people think that since Amazon is one of the most popular websites on the web (and gets millions of daily visitors), there will surely be one of those visitors who will want to buy your Kindle eBook. The problem is that these visitors don’t get to know about you until you market your Kindle eBook. It is at this point when Amazon decides to promote your Kindle eBook more often.

Avoiding these four mistakes will allow you to boost your Kindle eBook sales. What are your thoughts on the list? Have you made any of these mistakes or made another mistake in your marketing strategy? Please share your thoughts and experiences below.

The True Definition Of A Personal Brand

July 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It took me a while before I learned what a personal brand is. I knew I was building a personal brand for myself, but with so many confusing definitions on the web, I got confused about the definition of a personal brand. Some articles say that a personal brand is defined by the logo while other articles say that a personal brand is defined by the size of the audience. The bigger the audience, the better the brand. With all of the confusion, I finally figured out a clear definition of a personal brand on the day I got my 96,000th Twitter followers (don’t make fun of me). To clear all of the confusion that others may be having, here is the true definition of a personal brand:

A personal brand is how people think of you after they see you in action.

That means the definition of your personal brand depends on the individual. If an individual sees you as a hard worker, that is how the individual would define your personal brand. If an individual sees you as a newbie, that is how the individual would define your personal brand.

I hope that clears up any confusion people were experiencing about defining a personal brand.

3 Things About Twitter You Are Mixing Up

July 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Twitter is a bustling social network that can be very helpful for your business. Many business owners and entrepreneurs create Twitter accounts hoping to be successful right away following an easy method. These people quickly learn that success on Twitter is not linear. It involves twists and turns, getting lost, and finding your way. Some people hear about different methods about growing their Twitter presence but get those methods mixed up. These are the three common methods that people get mixed up.

Using too many hashtags. Twitter users learn that hashtags are good for SEO on Twitter, but that results in some users including too many hashtags in their tweets. Most of your tweets should only have 1 hashtag, and you should have no more than two hashtags in the same tweet. Including 10 hashtags in the same tweet will make that tweet harder to read. If someone finds it difficult to read your tweet, that person won’t bother to finish reading that tweet…even if it is under 140 characters.
Not tweeting about your blog enough. Remember that 80/20 rule where you only tweet about your blog 80% of the time? That rule is preventing your blog from getting more traffic. I decided to tweet about my blog 95% of the time (the only tweets without links to my blog posts are inspirational quotes). I get numerous messages every day about people being grateful for the content on this blog and for my tweets. The reason is that your followers do not care who wrote the content. They only care about the content’s value. If your blog posts are valuable, and your followers would enjoy reading them, you can share them on Twitter as many times as you want.
Not tweeting about your products. There are many people who believe Twitter users would be unlikely to buy a product if you tweet it out. These people believe that you need to get these people to visit your blog and then buy your product that way. However, if you are selling a product for under $20, you can tweet out that product and make sales straight from Twitter. Tweeting out discounts and having a product that your target audience would enjoy will also help boost your sales.

Twitter mistakes are easy to find, but some people who think they are not making any mistakes are getting some things mixed up instead. By not getting these three things mixed up, you will be able to get more engagement from your Twitter audience. In addition, this engagement will help you get more blog traffic and sales.

How To Remove Yourself From The Competition With Blue Ocean Strategy

July 18, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

It has become an imperative to make yourself stand out from the competition. Removing yourself from the current competition and tapping into a new market is one of the best ways to stand out and get more attention. However, the idea of finding an entirely new niche sounds daunting. Luckily, I had the privilege of reading Blue Ocean Strategy which has been sold over two million times. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about how different businesses were able to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but all of these businesses differentiated themselves with the same rubric. These are the components of the rubric that will allow you to differentiate yourself from the competition:

Reduction. What are certain aspects of your niche that can be reduced. Do the people in your niche push out too much content? Do they post too much on Facebook? Find something that you can reduce that your competitors overuse.
Elimination. There will be some aspects of your niche that can be completely eliminated. Blue Ocean Strategy goes into detail about Cirque du Soleil eliminating the need for animals and rings in their performances.
Raising. There are some aspects of your niche that can be raised. McDonald’s and most of the other fast food restaurants do not focus on providing healthy food options. Elevation Burger on the other hand, focus on providing healthy food options, and their slogan, “Ingredients Matter” enforces this message.
Creating. There are going to be some things that no one in your niche would think about doing. This is where the creation process comes into play. In order to make the creating process easier, look at what different niches do and see how you can apply concepts from different niches into your niche.

That is the rubric you need to create something that stands out from the competition. This plan will allow you to get out of the red oceans and go into the uncontested blue oceans. If you want to learn more about leaving your competition and creating an uncontested market space, then Blue Ocean Strategy is the right book for you.