Six tips for connecting with customers: Part 1
Nicole Smith, Business Partner
As we chart our way out of the COVID pandemic, Australian consumers are hungrier than ever to support small businesses. But, as always, the key to growing a business is building meaningful connections between your customer and your brand.
According to The Global Consumer Trends Reopening Report from market research firm Dynata, following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia in March, three in five Australians (59 per cent) say they prefer small businesses over large companies. That’s a 20 per cent increase over pre-COVID consumer sentiment.
That’s great news for the more than 2.3 million actively trading small businesses in Australia. But how can small business owners capitalise on consumers’ preference for the smaller end of town to grow their business?
How to build meaningful connections with customers
As a full-service marketing agency and business consultancy that has been helping to grow SME businesses in Sydney for nearly 20 years, we have found that developing meaningful connections with customers is essential for growing a business.
To make sure your small business puts its best foot forward, here are the six ways that
Icon Visual Marketing can help you build lasting connections with your customers and capitalise.
Clearly define your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Your UVP is a statement that clearly tells your target market how they will benefit from using your products or services. A well-considered UVP concisely communicates how you will add value to your customer by addressing their needs and solving their problems. It also explains what makes your offer different from the competition.
A key part of a
strategic marketing plan, a UVP is not necessarily overtly stated. Rather, it lives in internal documents that are shared across your business. It acts as a guide to ensure everyone who is marketing, selling or speaking about your product is on the same page when it comes to language and selling points.
When it comes to creating your UVP, the best place to start is to put yourself in the shoes of your core customer. Using active verbs for your UVP is one of the most effective ways to communicate your product’s benefits to your audience. Using active language helps the potential buyer see the value in what the product or service does, rather than what it looks like.
Develop your brand identity
Your brand identity is much more than just your logo. It’s everything from your logo and typography to the packaging and customer experience style you choose.
A brand identity is made up of what your values are, the story you tell about your product or service, and what you want your target audience to feel when they interact with it. Essentially, your brand identity is the personality of your business and the promise you make to your customers.
“A brand that establishes an unforgettable face, and maintains that face consistently over time, develops credibility and trust with its customers.”
So why have a brand identity? Because it makes your product more memorable, and more authoritative in the marketplace. A brand that establishes an unforgettable face, and maintains that face consistently over time, develops credibility and trust with its customers.
The more cohesive and consistent your brand identity is, the easier it is for others to understand and connect with your company. At
Icon Visual Marketing we create your brand identity with you and help to pick the right visuals and content to represent your business through the prism of your brand identity. It’s about maintaining a consistent style and tone to support your business’ brand.New Paragraph
Develop your key messages
Think of key messages as the foundation of your marketing strategy and communication plan. Once developed, your key messages should be used in all communications with your target audience. Key messages are not taglines; rather, they are factual statements about your business. You don’t need to memorise and repeat them word for word, but they should be used as guidelines and included naturally in all of your content marketing activities.
There are several important factors to keep in mind when creating key messages. They should be:
· Believable and backed up by evidence.
· Distinctive and attention-grabbing.
· Purposeful to generate further investigation by your audience.
· Kept brief.
· Written in simple language to make them accessible to the broadest possible audience.
· Positive but not exaggerated.
One of the most important reasons for using key messages is the level of consistency that they help develop. The messages should remain the same across every platform available to you. Even public relations campaigns should include your key messages.
Keep an eye out for part 2 of this two-part blog to learn how telling your unique story, creating a marketing plan, and embracing content marketing can further help your business build meaningful connections with your target audience.
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