beirut

28 Jan 2017

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Happy Customers, Your Free Sales Team

Sticky Post By Mhd On January 28, 2017

Well, it’s not totally free, and it’s not something that happens by chance. Having a sales team of customers is a result of planning and carefully nurturing the relationship between your business and your customers.

However, carrying the load for the sake of keeping your customers happy is totally worth it. Your happy customers will become the defense line against bad mouth attacking your brand or products. They will testify about their pleasant experience with your business and how you made their life better after using your products. The more satisfied they feel, the more excited they will become when talking about their experience with your business and believe me, it’s contagious. Your customers will create an influence on their friends and relatives and will urge them to become your customers too.

As I mentioned before, reaching the stage where your customers are your brand ambassador is a result of building a lovely relationship with them. And after observing different business and industries throughout my career, the minor part is delivering the promised benefits. It’s mostly about the experience.. and with experience I mean the way they felt when dealing with your business.

I do believe there is no magic formulas, but for this issue I tried a way and it really worked like magic!

LET YOUR CLIENTS FEEL IMPORTANT. Create in them a genuine feeling that you really care. Ask them about their feedback, listen to them when they show objections and do it with care, engage them when planning promotions and new products.. it’s mostly a process of proper communication. You won’t need fancy gifts delivered to them or giveaways whenever you want them to remember you. All you need are good listening skills and authentic emotions of empathy.

It was and will always be a matter of human interaction. Your customers need to feel that you care. Your products maybe found elsewhere, your competition may have cheaper prices but when you can give your customers the pleasant experience, everything else is regardless!

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch 🙂

Mohamad Bajouk

Marketing Consultant & Trainer

07 Apr 2016

Sticky Post By Mhd Permalink

Big Data = Mighty Marketing

Sticky Post By Mhd On April 7, 2016

Since long, marketing depended much on insights collected from competitive analysis,market research, customer behaviors, and more. We all heard companies bragging about the data they own and seducing retailers and marketers to sell them categorized information about markets and individuals. In the past few years, the importance of data boosted after introducing the fancy notion of “Big Data” and it became an era itself that captivated us all.

What is Big Data anyway? Is it really that BIG?
Data was always taken care of and usage of data isn’t really that new, but after introducing digital media and socially connecting the world on a micro level, the concept gained momentum. Consequently, huge data like images, interests, behaviors, clicks, tweets etc.. emerged and needed to be collected and structured in order to become useful in business activities.

“Without data you’re just another person with an opinion” – W. Edwards Deming

The simplest definition I found for Big Data was in an article written by Lisa Arthur posted on Forbes:
“Big data is a collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside your company that represents a source for ongoing discovery and analysis.” Click here to read the full article.

The availability of this data enabled tracking people’s personal activities like how much time they spend surfing the internet and when they are there, the spending on online shopping, what are people interested in and looking for, and much more. This allowed marketers to tailor the suitable content for the right audience minimizing wasted dollars and efforts and even explained what products can be offered.
I see Big Data as if you’re sitting in your office receiving calls from people clearly telling you about their needs and when they want them. No need to guess or use the “trial and error” approach. Possibilities are infinite!

My Own Experience:
A friend of mine, Ali Rebai – a real Big Data Guru – introduced me to Big Data and I was really inspired and provoked! Few months ago I started educating my clients about Big Data and we started recording activities about their own customers. Activities included the frequency and time of visits, their social media presence and the type of content they share, their lifestyle, brands they endorse, cars they drive, what food they like, where they live and many others depending on the industry of my clients. The information was categorized clearly in simple excel sheets and outputs where AMAZING!

Although these activities aren’t as big as the real big data since they didn’t need any complex software to be analyzed and processed and I totally understand it, but we succeeded in introducing new products, opening new branches, tailoring the right content, improving the attractiveness of offers, defining weak points and planning ahead for the future.

Overall , what I can say from my “primitive” experience is that it’s really exciting. I became more enthusiastic about collecting data and started to taste its sweetness! If the minimal usage of data was that fruitful, what would happen if data was structured and used on a big scale using the suitable technology!

I can confidently say that Big Data is really BIG!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant& Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

07 Apr 2016

Sticky Post By Mhd Permalink

Stop the Shout Marketing on Social Media

Sticky Post By Mhd On April 7, 2016

You are in a busy street, you head to someone randomly, hand them your business card and start explaining your business to them! How did that sound?
Well, it’s the same when you use your social media pages to promote your services to everyone without connecting and engaging with them first to break the ice and winning their interest!

“Social Media is about the people, not about your business” – Matt Goulart

We always face this dogma with our dear clients. Trying to sell their products and services comes first when we are discussing together their social media content strategy, and this is why we work on changing their priorities:

– People on social media aren’t there to shop, they are there to enjoy their time, learn, connect with people they know and follow topics that interest them.

– In order to attract more subscribers, Social media platforms are always biased to the user’s side and tend to show users what interests them as a content. If your content is always promotional, your users won’t appreciate it and you’ll lose their interest. This will lead to very low visibility for your content.

– As Maya Angelo said, people may forget anything you said or did to them, but they will never forget the way you let them feel!
This is why social media is a perfect place to deliver an experience rather than delivering a product. It’s more about being effective in marketing than directly selling your products.

Social media is a very effective way of marketing, but we shall never forget that it’s about being “Social”. promoting your products can be one of the goals of your presence there, but connecting, engaging and building a strong bond with people stays the major goal!

Ideas, comments, questions? Feel Free!

Mohamad Bajouk
Marketing Consultant & Trainer
BrandLift
Beirut – Lebanon

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