sales

small design web icon

Mastering the Art of Client Retention: Building Strong and Loyal Relationships

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Many businesses are cutting budgets and laying off employees to stay afloat in today’s economy. These times are certainly tricky for small operations and agencies. That is why they must find a way to maintain company sustainability. What better way to do this than mastering the art of client retention?

A strong client retention strategy can give you the means to build long-lasting relationships. The longer they stay with your business, the more they contribute to your revenue stream. Plus, you save money and time retaining clients rather than acquiring new ones. Start by adopting a few tactics today.

1. Understand Your Clients and Their Needs

You must truly understand your clients’ needs to excel in client retention. Customers who feel heard and understood are more likely to stay loyal. Their needs guide you in providing value and enhancing their overall experience.

Effective communication and active listening are essential. To understand what your clients want, you must hear them clearly. Once you listen to what your clients express, you can better align your services and offerings to what they seek.

Start diving deep into your clients’ needs by conducting regular surveys or feedback sessions. Allow them to provide their input by sending questionnaires after they’ve worked with you on one project. That way, you will have time to gain insights and refine your strategies for next time.

2. Provide Exceptional Customer Service

Customer service plays a critical role in client retention. When you provide an amazing experience for your clients, they will want to keep returning for more of your services. This allows you to maintain your client roster and sustain a business relationship needed to succeed.

However, customer service requires responsiveness. A prompt reply to a client’s question or concern shows you value and prioritize their needs. People should also feel like they can count on you. Showing them your services are reliable builds trust. Consistently delivering gives them little reason to look elsewhere.

Meanwhile, going the extra mile will differentiate your business in a saturated market. Turning in a project a day early or going beyond measures to solve their problem are unexpected gestures that leave a lasting impression.

Invest in technology like live chat to ensure you provide excellent service. These website tools offer real-time assistance and address client concerns immediately. Consider a 24/7 answering service for continuous support. They guarantee your calls are always taken, reassuring your business never misses a beat.

3. Foster Personalized Connections

Your goal may be to retain your clients, but have you noticed them leaving you for another service provider? This could be because your competitor created a more personalized connection with them. Companies are constantly flagging potential clients for their attention. However, there’s more to standing out than the quality of the products or services. It is the depth of their relationships.

Personal connections make clients feel unique and valued. For instance, mention a personal detail they discussed with you last time. Your client will see that you listen, taking your relationship to the next level and forming a genuine bond. People who feel a business truly knows them are more likely to remain loyal and become ambassadors for your brand.

Investing in a CRM (customer relationship management) system is the best way to build these personalized connections. Tools like Hubspot and Zendesk can track client interactions, enabling your team to have relevant, personalized conversations.

4. Offer Value-Added Services or Benefits

Client retention can increase your profits by up to 95%, so consider offering services that add value to their lives. Customers seek more than a service or product — they want solutions and experiences that benefit them.

A value-added service acts as an extra layer. Offering something outside the scope of work reinforces a client’s decision to engage with your business. These perks enhance your services and make your clients feel they are getting more than what they paid for.

For example, a software company may offer free training webinars. An accounting firm could provide periodic financial health check-ins. Little services like these show you prioritize clients’ welfare over profit.

Before adding benefits, consider understanding what your clients need help with first. For instance, if you provide cybersecurity services, you know your clients may struggle with maintaining best practices. This is where you could offer a free e-book or newsletters that provide tips and industry insights.

5. Monitor Client Satisfaction and Address Issues Proactively

You must always ensure clients are satisfied with your services. Otherwise, 80% may decide to leave after repeatedly experiencing issues. That is why it is important to continue monitoring feedback. Doing so allows you to anticipate potential concerns before they become bigger.

Consider conducting regular check-ins. This allows you to truly understand the client’s feelings when discussing them in person. You could also keep a channel of communication open with them. For instance, many businesses use email as a means of communication. Customers can email whenever they feel they have an ongoing issue and it will come to your attention when you check your inbox the next day.

Build Lasting Relationships by Boosting Client Retention

Keep your clients happy and retain them long after they work on a project with you. They are more than a third-party vendor — you should treat them as a life-long partner. Use these strategies to help you build solid client relationships. Doing so will add value to your service and have them return for more.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Small Business Retail Website & Logo Design

Author: Sean H.

We created a custom retro 1980s logo design with lettering that is ideal for maximum visibility on the store’s signage. A custom matching website was created with an easy-to-use and edit back end as well as an easy-to-sell e-commerce package. The site was up and running in just a few weeks, and now you can buy unique vintage one-of-a-kind hats from Slim Daddy hats any time of day.

How to Boost E-Commerce Sales with Data Analytics?

Author: Ryan Erwin

According to the research conducted in 2019, the ecommerce industry is expected to grow to a $6.54 trillion in terms of retail sales by the end of the year 2022. Within the past few years, ecommerce shops have been popping up, intending to grow into international brands. However, the goal is not only to have a shop but also to generate significant revenues.

You need to adopt a unique business strategy that will make you stand out among your competitors and acquire as many customers as possible. E-commerce sales data analytics plays a fundamental role when you plan to elevate the number of sales that you record within a particular duration.

To be in a better position to elevate your ecommerce brand to the world, you need to secure more customers who will enable you to skyrocket the number of sales that you record. When talking about data analytics, you need to reflect on a specific kind of data mainly generated from your daily business operations.

Do you know that you can boost your ecommerce sale using data analytics? This sounds like magic, right? That is not magic since it is doable! Let’s check out the actionable insights shared below to give you a concise picture of how this aspect can be converted into reality.

Collect Data from Multiple Sources

To secure a more competitive position in business, companies have heavily invested in collecting data from different sources. Apart from ensuring that the data they collect is reliable, the organization ensures that customers from different domains have been factored in within the collected data report.

However, the problem is not with the collected data; the main issue is how to analyze the data from different platforms. Once you have the data in your hands, you need to incorporate the power of data visualization to analyze the findings. Try to create simple visualization such as Sankey diagram, Donut chart or a Dot plot chart to make it easy to understand for both your client and managers.

The data is used to evaluate different customer needs and preferences. Organizations use the information in tailoring their products and services depending on the nature of their customers. In return, this increases their chances of recording more sales, thus impacting the continued growth of the business brand.

Generating Data-Driven products

The current ecommerce world gives consumers more choices compared to the past days. Besides, business brands have a huge role in creating a better customer experience, and generating and delivering quality products to consumers. Data analytics has made the entire process easier since organizations can easily understand what customers want.

Using the data gathered from your customers, you get a chance to visualize the information and generate insights that offer guidance during the journey of product development. This means that you get a chance to involve your customers in creating particular products and services.

Also, the data gives you a good source of information that you can utilize when targeting a specific market audience. You will be better positioned to sell most of the generated products using data insights, recording a considerable revenue at the end of the day.

Elevate the Returns on Ad Spend

Data analytics can enable you to maximize the ad spend. By doing in-depth data analysis, you will be able to limit the chances of spending huge sums of money on ads that do not convert. Note that ads play a key role in ecommerce marketing. The problem is that if you do not rely on the available data, you may choose the wrong keywords.

Ecommerce data analytics digs deep into different customer sources, generating insight into choosing the most appropriate keywords that you can use in creating ads that convert. Even though applying the wrong ads to the wrong audience increases your chances of getting more clicks although you will also record an increased bounce rate.

This is likely to affect your search engine rankings and the general performance of your business. The only secrete is to do proper analytics, and you will have your needs sorted.

Invest in Smarter Inventory Management

The most common challenge across the ecommerce world matters to do with inventory management. When you invest in data analytics, the inventory management process becomes simple and consumes less time. Proper inventory management enables you to have an accurate stock record and identify where various products are stored.

If you have a smart system put in place, you will limit the issues of various items going out of stock without your consent. Also, you will identify some of the products that last in the stock for a longer duration and reduce the rate at which they are produced. However, it will take a while before you collect the amount of data that can help you make such moves.

You need to be more creative, think outside the box, and identify some of the products you can stock depending on your customer preference. This will make your choices unique, increasing your chances of recording more sales than usual.

Create a Better Customer Experience

Many entrepreneurs within the ecommerce world are struggling with the issue of creating a better a customer experience. Note that customers only go to organizations where they feel like their presence is much appreciated. It doesn’t matter how good your products are; if you do not offer a good customer experience, you won’t manage to retain any customers in the long run.

This is a common issue with many ecommerce sites that are heavily cluttered and difficult to navigate. After collecting data from your business operations, you need to incorporate the power of data visualization tool such as AnyChart, ChartExpo, Tableau, and Power BI in the process to generate insights and evaluate what your customers want. Even though this sounds like a difficult task, you need to read through all the customer reviews.

Note that the customers’ reviews give you a clear picture of what your customers like and dislike within your business. Focus on your areas of weakness to ensure that customers have something good to talk about your brand. This will place you on a better end and increase the number of sales you record after a given duration.

Final Verdict

Research has revealed that 49% of ecommerce managers believe that data analytics plays a crucial role in effective decision-making. When it comes to skyrocketing the number of sales recorded, you need to be mindful of your business data since it is a rich source of information that you can use to make decisions that propel the business to the next level.

Author Bio:

I have more than 12 years of experience in the field of Digital Marketing and Data Analysis, currently working as a Digital Marketing Specialist at ChartExpo.

How to Boost Your Sales with a Smart Web Design

Author: Sophia Young

There’s no question about it. Websites are a must for businesses who want to reach out to their target audience. With almost every modern business having an online presence, it may be more difficult to set yourself apart from the competition and lead your target audience to your website, which makes it even more important to have a smart web design. You spent so much effort and resources to drive traffic to your site, so don’t let your website visitors cut their session short just because of a slow and outdated web design!

3 Main Benefits Smart Web Design

First impression

For most users, your website will be their first introduction to your business. They can already have an impression of your company from the first few seconds on your website, so make sure to put your best foot forward with a smart web design. Dysfunctional or slow websites can turn off potential customers, while a smart web design can increase engagement, drive leads, and boost sales.

Build credibility

A smart web design will not only help you create a good first impression, but having a well-functioning website that looks good and is easy to navigate adds to your company’s legitimacy. If your site is difficult to load with outdated design, clients might be hesitant to trust your business with their hard-earned money.

Better conversion

An improved web design will lead to better engagement with your clients and, eventually, successful sales for your products or services. The key here is to make the visit easy end-to-end: from navigating the page to adding to the cart and the entire checkout flow. Achieving this will help you turn a visitor into an actual customer.

Smart Web Design Tips to Help Boost Your Sales

  1. Don’t make customers wait; improve your page loading speed.

Don’t keep potential customers waiting just to see what your website looks like. You may have a great, aesthetically pleasing website, but your target audience may not have the patience or time to wait too long to see it; they could even switch to your competitor’s site instead. To make sure your customers don’t have to wait too long, ensure that the photos on your website are minimized or compressed while still maintaining good quality. Additionally, you can consider minimizing third-party plug-ins or even moving your website to a better host. In today’s fast-paced world, you need not only a good-looking website but also one that is functional and fast.

  1. Make your website look good and function well on all types of devices.

Your web design must load fast and look good on all types of devices, from desktops to tablets to mobile phones. It’s always good to remember that most people do make purchases from their phones, but it’s also important to continue to optimize your website for various devices because a one-size-fits-all approach is already outdated, including for web design.

  1. Embrace the white space and avoid a too-busy web design.

While it can be so tempting to jam-pack information and elements in your web design just to communicate everything to your customer, it can backfire. Try to embrace white space to create more balance in your web design. It can also help your website visitors navigate the site better and direct them to the elements that you really want to highlight, like a featured product or call-to-action (CTA).

  1. Easier navigation and clear CTAs can improve the customer experience and increase conversions.

To make their visit even easier, consider implementing sticky navigation for users. This way, your navigation bar and perhaps even your main CTA are always available to the user while scrolling through a page on your website. Utilizing contrasting colors to make your navigation bar easier to spot and click can also make a big difference in your visitor’s website experience.

When adding CTAs, it’s important to know where your client is on your page and in their customer journey. Additionally, you should also try to create urgency and make CTAs brief.

  1. Feedback from actual users can add confidence in your products.

Include client reviews of your products or services. While you might be the one that knows your product in and out, feedback from actual customers can help potential ones make the purchase. This can apply not only to your web design but also to your marketing strategies like email marketing to target those with abandoned carts or through social media efforts.

Because technology trends are ever-changing, you should also keep up by continuously improving your web design. Just because it works well now, it may not be what you need in the future when you want to scale your business. It’s important to religiously measure customer experience and maybe invest in ways to make your web design better for customers. Ideally, your website should also have strong cyber security and sustainability measures in place, creating a truly smart web design.

How to Showcase Your Clearance Sales

Author: Eleanor Hecks

Running regular sales allows you to move inventory you’d otherwise take a loss on, bring in customers seeking a bargain and drive traffic to your site via smart marketing methods. However, if you don’t showcase your clearance sales in the right way, you may impact your overall revenue.

Statista reports quarterly on U.S. e-commerce sales. In the second quarter of 2021, online retailers drew in an estimated $222.5 million in revenue. This was an increase from Q1 and an overall increase from 2020. One reason for the increases includes small business owners becoming smarter about their marketing and inventory management.

If you need to clear out old merchandise or offer loss leaders to bring new customers to your site, here are the best ways to showcase your clearance sales.

1. Put Sales Front and Center

One way to highlight your sales is in your hero image. Add a banner telling what’s on sale, sharing an image and a link to the clearance items. This is a great way to encourage impulse sales and move inventory that would otherwise sit stagnant.

Marie Nicole children’s clothing boutique features their current sale in their hero shot, with an image of a little girl wearing an outfit on sale and a note about how long the promotion runs. Note how they also run a narrow banner across the top of the page announcing the current clearance sale.

2. Know Your Audience

Start by knowing who your target audience is and then use language they’ll respond to. If you send out a note about the clearance items, you need to choose words encouraging buyers to take action. Think about what’s worked in the past, run surveys and look at analytics to figure out the best approach.

3. Highlight the Savings

People love a good bargain. Go ahead and advertise just how much they can save by buying the discounted items. Will they save 20% or maybe more? You might use a percentage, or you might use a dollar amount.

Be upfront about how much items are discounted. Ideally, you’ll break even after handling fees, but you may not make a profit on clearance items. The goal is to keep cash flowing through your enterprise and not get stuck with things that never sell. Seasonal items, in particular, can be hard to move as the holiday approaches. A discount can move them out so you aren’t stuck with them for 12 months.

Neway Packaging does an excellent job of highlighting the latest things to hit their clearance aisles. They use an image reading “Up to 50% Off” to grab attention and let users know just how much they can potentially save by ordering from the clearance section.

The headline reading “new items on clearance” indicates additional things get added to the clearance category from time to time, so even those who’ve visited before are likely to check out the page.

4. Use Social Media

According to Worldometer, there are approximately 5 billion internet users with the number growing constantly. Social media is also growing by leaps and bounds.

You can reach your target audience through a social media page, taking out targeted advertising and getting your current customers to share your posts and talk about your brand.

Give them a reward if someone new buys from you, even if it is a clearance item. Points or other perks will encourage your fans to share.

5. Host a Buy a Bag Event

One way to increase sales of clearance items is by bundling them or offering a perk when people buy. For example, some brands team up with companies offering incentives toward a cause and run sales at the same time.

You can also offer a certain percentage off for anything in a category people can fit in a bag. So, if you go to a hobby supply and craft store, you might see a 20% off all fall-themed items back. Or you might use a certain color tag for clearance items.

Look for ways to promote the bag and use it for more than one season. If you run a fully digital store, then the bag is a virtual one, while a brick-and-mortar store might offer a physical bag for sale items.

Ben Franklin Crafts & Framing offers a bag sale on the last Thursday of each month. The discount applies to the lowest price, so people can even get an additional savings on clearance items. They also offer online specials for those who prefer to shop from the comfort of their couch.

6. Time It Right

Moving seasonal merchandise requires perfect timing. You want people to still be interested in whatever season it is. If you try to clear out winter coats, you might have some luck in early January, but you aren’t going to sell many come April or May.

Think about how people use the item and when the right time is to push to clear the last of them out. Some things get used year-round, so may not have a time crunch on them. However, you may have ordered too many and need to make way for more inventory, so can offer a discount to move things out and create space or increase cash flow.

Reach Out in Multiple Ways

When you run a clearance sale, you must let your users know in a variety of ways. Send them a postcard, shoot off an email, post on social media and update your website. The more signs and info pointing to the sale, the more likely people will buy your discounted products.

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.

Startup Digital Marketing Strategies to Double Your Sales

Author: Arslan Haider

Assuming you are maintaining a business over the web, there should be amazing advertising systems. Here we will talk about a couple of tips for improved online deals.

Deals Cycle:

It is smarter to plan a business cycle for the item. The business cycle is the system to pitch your item to a client. It includes every one of the means to sell the item. Characterize the business pattern of your item, since it will decide the stage where you ought to do publicizing for your item. So, all showcasing systems depend on the business pattern of an item. Research does as well, and testing for deciding the ideal deals cycle.

Checkout Measure:

It is prescribed to improve the checkout cycle for your item. This is the most dismissed showcasing procedure in a business. You try sincerely and contribute a ton to arrive at expected clients, so don’t leave space for the client to forsake the truck relinquishment. Build up the checkout cycle simple, smooth, and intelligent with the goal that clients may not face trouble. It is the best methodology for keeping your clients unblemished. On the off chance that there are a few pages for shopping the item, build up an advancement bar, so clients realize the means to be taken further or have taken as of now.

Item Portrayals:

Clients consistently search for item portrayals, so it is strongly prescribed to add the item depiction. You can likewise give an item direct having each insight regarding the item. It adds believability to your item in the event that you incorporate client criticism or surveys. These surveys give a gauge to clients to buy your item. It is obligatory to add a different page for regularly posed inquiries. It is prescribed to compose portrayals alongside catchphrases. It will improve the SEO of your site. Not only that, but it is smarter to upgrade the representations that will in the end expand the positioning of the site, and your business will get obvious, prompting more deals. Along these lines, item portrayals assume a focal part in moving your business higher than previously.

Transportation Costs:

For better client experience, it is prescribed to show the transportation expenses of an item. It is seen that organizations frequently don’t show the delivery cost and lose the clients, since clients become more acquainted with the transportation subtleties toward the finish of the cycle. Show dispatching subtleties at the corner where the client begins entering his/her data. Clients don’t feel better in the event that they begin filling in the delivery data without having the expense shown over the screen. Make your clients of each minor insight concerning the item and the installment. It will carry more clients to your business.

Continue to Shop:

It is prescribed to put the alternative of ‘continue to shop’ close to the ‘proceed with checkout’ so clients can without much of a stretch discover it on the page. In the internet business, such alternatives are not difficult to fuse in the checkout cycle.

Types of Installment:

To carry believability to your item and site, it is prescribed to add the logos of various types of installments that your business is tolerating. You can add real and well-known security instruments to acquire the trust of the client. The security logo will make clients believe their charge card data will be handled correctly.

Retargeting:

Retargeting is the best advertising methodology. This system becomes effective when guests leave the site of your business without purchasing anything. Retargeting is a well-known strategy to catch the crowd for most extreme deals. You can put your items on the sites which are visited by the clients. Then, clients will see your items. Email showcasing is another helpful instrument to publicize your business. Send special messages to the guests of your site. This will expand traffic on your site, in the end prompting expanded deals.

Computerizations:

Email showcasing is more viable than web-based media crusades. Gather the messages of the guest through web-based media missions and make an email list. Mechanization is important for the email-promoting methodology. Set up the email computerization like invite email, request booking email, checkout email, truck surrender email, and so forth.

Update Your Site:

It is prescribed to refresh your site every now and again. More established sites are an obvious objective for spammers. So in the event that you have as of late built-up your business over the web, consider making a refreshed site. Clients additionally feel good when they visit the site with similar pith as other business sites; in any case, there comes a sensation of suspiciousness.

Web-Based Media:

Web-based media is one of the developing and famous discussions across the globe. Try to have a record on each web-based media stage, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and so on It is additionally important to consistently post the material about your business, yet a savvy technique is to construct productive showcasing efforts to develop your business. You can likewise remember recordings for your showcasing efforts and post the video on all web-based media stages.

Assume you are selling the lash tweezers over the web, at that point make a video using the lash tweezers. You can transfer recordings of the person utilizing your item. This will build the commitment of clients to your business.

Author Bio:

Arslan Haider is the author of the above blog. He is a Senior SEO Expert at MediaHicon (deals in SEO services). Apart from that, he loves to post blogs with valuable content.