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One problem that a lot of people have when trying to establish themselves as an authority, is that they bunch their existing, potential and new customers together in the same group. They might send all types of content out via email, that really the existing customers don’t need to see.
So how do you manage attracting new customers for your business without annoying those important existing customers that you have?
Let’s call on David Jenyns, author of Authority Content, to fill us in on just how you should be taking care of your customer database while you are utilising all that great content that he’s taught you how to create in some of our previous posts. We’ve got another chapter of his book to share, so have a read and see what you think!
Many business owners have been quoted as saying: “If I lost everything in my business overnight and I could only keep one thing, it would be my customer database.”
That’s true, because if you’ve still got your database of customers, you can send them new offers and rebuild your business pretty quickly.
If you’re nodding your head in agreement, now ask yourself whether you might be guilty of taking your customer database for granted. Do you give your existing and previous customers the same level of time and attention that you give to your new leads? Do you email them on a regular basis, say, every week, month or even quarter?
If you do email them regularly, how often do you send them information on anything other than your latest special offer or product launch?
This is an important point. You know that your customer list is important and you know that it’s easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to generate a new one, but what do you do in terms of making them feel valued and show them the value in your brand?
It’s a little bit like when a guy starts a new relationship with a girl and showers her with time, attention, gifts, flowers and so on. But later on, once they’ve been together for a while, his attention starts to wane. How long is it going to be before she starts to feel unappreciated and starts drawing away?
The valuable, free content that you used to attract your customers in the first place, should still find its way to their inboxes after they become clients. No-one’s saying you shouldn’t send promotional emails on a regular basis, but it should be interspersed with emails that contain great content as opposed to yet another sales pitch.
The good news is that all the content you’re creating as part of the Authority Content strategy can be used just as well to maintain your relationship with your existing customers as it can to attract new ones.
The trick to making this work is to be selective.
Every time you produce a new piece of content, you share it via social media and make sure that people know it’s out there but your customer database should only receive the best of items, otherwise they’ll soon start to get fed up or feel overwhelmed by the volume of material they’re receiving.
All you have to do is let the Internet tell you which pieces of content are the most valuable, based on the number of views, shares and comments. If after a couple of weeks, a video you posted on YouTube is getting some decent traction, this is a good choice to email to your customers.
You can direct them to your blog where the video is embedded or send them a direct YouTube link. Either way, make sure you share the popular videos with your customers within 30 days of the video going live. There’s evidence to suggest that the number of views received during the first month of publication has an impact on its ranking in the YouTube search engine.
Yes, that’s right, this is a two-way street.
Your customers get great, free content, reminding them what a great source of expertise you are, and your most popular content gets a fresh spike of traffic, further impressing Google with its popularity.
Bang! Another benefit from the Authority Content!
After sharing previous chapters from David Jenyns’ book on how to create and repurpose content for your website and social media channels, the information he has given here is really important to ensure that you are managing your existing customers expectations while also giving your search engine rankings an extra helping hand.
To find out more about how you can create Authority Content for your website and why it’s so important, we’d highly suggest reading David’s book cover to cover to get a head start on establishing yourself as a leader in your industry. To purchase your copy, visit the Authority Content website or head on over to Amazon today!