Give your customers what they want and watch your sales grow

01/04/22 • 36 min

92. Give your customers what they want and watch your sales grow
“The number one driver of growth is always sales. And the number one way of getting more sales is to drive the customer behaviours that equate to sales.”“You can't take the mindset that says, well, it's worked for the last 10 years. So we should just keep doing what we're doing. That's what Kodak tried to do. That's what Blockbuster tried to do.”In episode 92 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had a great chat with Howard Tiersky about how ecommerce businesses need to adapt and innovate to provide more value for the customer and grow.Who doesn’t remember Blockbusters? It’s all that we have left today - a memory, because as we know Blockbusters failed to take advantage of the digital transformation and... Well. You know who rules the streaming world today *cough* Netflix *cough* .Blockbusters, and many other long-established businesses ceased to exist in the recent years for one simple reason: they failed to serve their customers’ needs. The good news is, these are extreme examples, but I also know that many of today’s DTC brands struggle to provide more value for their customers and as a result, watch them leave one by one in favour of competitors who offer better customer experience.How can you change that? If you feel like you’re forever a step behind your competitors, and can’t seem to really understand what drives your customers, this episode is for you.Howard is a speaker, author and digital marketing consultant who helps the world's largest brands navigate digital transformation — to re-invent their customer journeys to earn the love of today's "Digital Customers." In the 20 years of his professional career, Howard has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies, including General Motors, General Electric, NBC, Universal, Avis or Airbus. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://www.from.digital/. Key Highlights12:28 - 18:05 - How to find out what customers really want - Focus on the needs, not the solution. If you’re trying to figure out how you can better serve your customers, don’t just settle when they tell you they need a particular product - dig deeper and find out WHY . Where are their current points of pain? Where is their current level of inconvenience? We talked before about the importance of convenience. What? What is it that's taking their time, their energy?Bear in mind though, this isn’t about asking the customer about what’s next. Each customer journey elicits both, positive and negative emotions. For you to be able to add more value to that journey, you need to start removing touchpoints that create friction - and build on those that make customers feel good about shopping with your brand.19:42 - 23:18 - Recreating That In-Store Shopping Experience Online - The one thing we don’t see enough in DTC today is the same level of personalisation and customer service we get in brick-and-mortar shops. Even though online shopping is a lot more convenient, consumers still prefer to shop on the high street simply because they can chat with the shop assistant to find exactly what they’re looking for. Going forward, brands who cannot provide the same level of personalisation might struggle - and even share the fate of Blockbusters.23:18 - 31:35 - Resistance to Change Is Your Bigger Obstacle - If you could pick any company that went out of business due to failure to transform and ask what they would do differently if they could rewind the clock, you will find somebody in their organisation screaming and yelling at a senior level that the transformation is necessary. Just because what you’ve been doing got you so far, even if it allowed you to considerably grow your business, might also sink it if you’re refusing to adjust to the challenges for further growth.How can you create a culture where change is embraced, and not feared? The most fundamental reason that people resist change is that they just don't think it'd be good for them individually - even if it is good for the company; it could be as simple as employees fear that the latest technology will replace them. Howard provides 12 different strategies in his book, but it starts with showing people within your company how the change will benefit them all.31:47 - Who Would Howard Like to Take For Lunch in the D2C Marketing World? Mark Zuckerberg and Howard would love to know how Mark copes with stress.If you’d like to hear more from Howard, you can connect with him on LinkedIn, Twitter or head over to https://www.from.digital/.

Previous Episode

Components of a Great SEO Strategy

“...It's like having a conversation when you walk into any store, and you're going to buy something, people are asking you questions to figure out what it is you're looking to achieve. So, when we write content, we'll do it in a conversational tone, and we'll think from the standpoint of what are our customers’ biggest needs.”In episode 91 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had an enlightening conversation with Brett Lane, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultant. In this conversation, we talk about Google algorithms, how they've changed over the years, the direction they're heading in, and how to better optimize your website for search. We also talked about how you can use SEO to ensure the diversification of traffic to your website.The Google search engine and algorithm is a tricky thing, and out of millions of businesses all over the world, only a few make it to the first page. This could be due to various reasons, such as D2C businesses not creating content engaging enough for customers, creating spammy or unnatural links, or simply not having the resources and know-how to optimize their pages.Brett is an SEO Consultant who has worked with various companies in the industry for 19 years. He has an MBA in Management and Internet Marketing from the University of Phoenix as well as a Digital Marketing Disruptive Strategy Programme Certification from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He shares insights into search engine optimization for businesses. You can follow or talk to Brett on LinkedIn.

Next Episode

Find out how this DTC brand grew to 6 figures using content marketing

In episode 93 of the Customers Who Click podcast, I had a fantastic chat with Asad Hamir about how DTC brands can use content marketing to grow.I’ve noticed that DTC brands have this tendency to hide their blog somewhere in the footer of their website and never speak of it again. Why though? Content marketing is an amazing way to engage your customers and provide more value. If you’re producing proper, high quality content, you’ll keep your audience engaged which is great for generating business and word of mouth, and it won’t be long before you also start to see the SEO benefits as well.Asad is the Co-Founder of Nolii, a lifestyle-led tech accessories ecommerce brand. He has been involved in the telecoms and tech industry for 12 years but surprisingly, he comes from a medical background. Specifically, optometry. You can connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn or head over to https://nolii.com/ Key highlights:03:42 - 13:58 - The Biggest Contributor to Nolii’s Growth - Growing a brand is hard as it is, and especially growing during the pandemic. And especially getting that first 1000 customers in. One of the first things Asad did with their team was attend a few fashion events in London to capture some leads. Then they started writing useful posts and promoting them through email and in just 10 weeks of doing it, they increased their open rate from 30% to 40%. It’s too early to say whether or not it had a major impact on Nolii’s SEO strategy but they’re starting to see an increase in their organic traffic as well.14:01 - 22:39 - Biggest Challenge Nolii is Facing Right Now - Asad went down the route of building a bespoke website, specifically headless ecommerce which provides richer customer experience and is generally more flexibility with the design. However, with bespoke design comes maintenance (and associated costs) that isn’t as simple as managing a Shopify platform - it’s now the case of raising a ticket with developers if they want anything changed.22:40 - 31:09 - How Opening up Physical Stores Boosted Nolii’s Online Conversion Rates - While more and more consumers opt in for online shopping, retail still plays a massive role. Except Nolii approached their physical stores as not a place where sales are pushed on customers but rather an opportunity to provide more value by being genuinely helpful, providing useful information and a great in-store experience with free samples etc. After a while, they actually noticed that many people would leave the store without initially buying anything, and then come back to purchase online.It also comes down to credibility. It’s easy to stick a label on a website that says “As seen on Forbes” or Telegraph etc, but do customers actually pay attention to these things? Even customer reviews aren’t necessarily as impactful as they once were, so making your brand available to customers in-person is a great way to go above and beyond for your customers.32:44 - 36:55 - Another Way to Build Credibility - Appear on Dragon’s Den - For one of his other brands, Ocushield, Asad appeared on Dragon’s Den which did wonders for brand awareness. After they got the investment, they saw an immediate uplift in sales that even though has dropped slightly, it’s still 40-50% higher than before appearing on the show. This however, comes with its own challenges because before you decide to do something that could easily double your revenue, you need to ask yourself: is your business ready for it? Have you got the resources to manage all that traffic, fulfill orders and serve your customers in general.37:27 - 43:24 - At Which Point Do You Quit Outsourcing to an Agency and Hire In-House? - There comes a point as you scale when you have to decide whether outsourcing digital marketing to an agency becomes less effective and you’re better off hiring an in-house team. One way to overcome this is hiring freelancers vs. agencies and building that team of freelancers. Another challenge for Asad as a business owner comes back to marketing agencies and how to determine whether they really are as good as they claim.43:42 - Who Would Asad Like to Take For Lunch in the D2C Marketing World? Asad is a huge fan of a wine cafe that opened up during lockdown locally. They’ve created a fantastic brand experience through social media and managed to open a restaurant and even wine subscription box - all in the space of 12-18 months. 45:16 - Asad’s Must-Have Ecommerce Tools: