Telling A Company’s Story
Customers have their own idea of themselves and their business, but what of that is worth sharing? What are the most important aspects of your customer? What kind of image do you want to share? These are typical questions you should ask yourself when considering copy or sales leads.
Turn Characteristics To Your Benefit
In customer acquisition, you are competing with both business owners and other entrepreneurs. Therefore it is important you think carefully about how you describe your business. What are the major pain points you can help your customers tackle. It pays to concentrate on the benefits a client will receive by using your service. Traditionally in their sales pitch, entrepreneurs point out their qualities or special expertise. These facts are mainly of interest to potential clients who are well-versed in the problem you’re field.
Today I visited a car dealership to discuss the purchase of new summer tires. As a new car owner, I have no experience or knowledge in differentiating between tire models. I know that the old tires are so worn out that I have to buy new ones. In this scenario, the salesperson shouldn’t present model specific facts but clearly outline the benefits the more expensive tires provide over other models.
Keep my experience in mind when planning your own presentations. You are the expert in your industry, your customer isn’t. So use words your customer understands. Avoid technical terms and lists of properties. If your clients are business owners, tell them how your services will be beneficial to their business in practical terms. Tell them how your services will provide more value than their costs.
Tell A Story
People remember stories better than lists of facts. Use this to your advantage even when you plan your presentations. Tell a story about your services and provide poignant examples of successful customer experiences. Highlight in these stories the benefits your customers received. Stories that tell how customers benefited significantly or that show you solving big problems for your clients provide a good idea of the value that your services offer. Customers pay more for services that give them real benefits.
One of the criteria when I bought my car was that my big dog could fit in the trunk. The car salesman immediately told me a story about his family’s dog who was the same breed as mine. After this, he recommend cars with trunks best suited for such dogs. The salesperson was not talking about the car’s features, horsepower, or other things that I would not have understood. In the end, I bought the car that they recommended, not only on the basis of their dog story but it certainly affected my decision.
Think about that car salesperson, and how they evaluated me as a potential customer? What problems do your services solve? Use past customer stories and how you solved their problems to illustrate your worth to potential clients.
This subject is described in more detail in UKKO.fi’s free course on the Power of Recommendations (in Finnish).
Profile Search Engine Optimizing
Search engines generate a lot of traffic for webpages. The best part is that they will bring potential customers to your website with only a minimum of effort on your part. And you know when a visitor comes to your website through a search engine result it’s because of their interest in your services.
Your portfolio or website should appear on any search, which means you should pay special attention to the text and content search engines are optimized for. In practice, the easiest way to perform search engine optimization is to speak the same language as your customers.
Keywordtool.io and Ubersuggest can be used to find out what kind of keywords potential customers use when searching for services like yours. Then use those very keywords in your website’s copy or in blogposts. Don’t overemphasize such keywords, your text needs to be readable and to flow naturally.
Your portfolio’s visibility in search engines can also be improved by linking to your profile from your website or from Facebook. This will boost your site’s visibility leading to more visitors, and more visitors means more potential customers.