Tag: customer loyalty

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Digital Branding

Should Your Business Start a Branded Podcast?

You’ve probably listened to some of the popular business-sponsored podcasts out there. Filled with valuable tips and insights, you might even give their company a try when in need of their products or services. But is creating a podcast worth the time and effort? Will it pay off in additional revenue for your company?

 

Edison Research released The Infinite Dial report, indicating around 78% of Americans are familiar with podcasting. The number represents a 10 million person increase in a short twelve-month window. Approximately 57% say they’ve listened to a podcast recently.

Benefits of a Branded Podcast

You’ll discover many benefits to starting a branded podcast and tying it into your business. You’ve likely heard a similar model on local radio stations on your AM dial. A garden center starts a show on Saturday mornings and answers questions about the best plants for the area. A real estate agent answers questions about buying and selling real estate.

 

Some of the benefits of a branded podcast include:

 

  • Greater name recognition
  • Free advertising
  • Establishing yourself as an authority in your industry
  • Reaching new listeners you otherwise wouldn’t have reached
  • Engaging your current audience

 

Ready to dip your toes into the water of a broad listening audience? Here are some things to keep in mind as you create your branded podcast for your business.

1. Choose a Topic

First, you must select a topic related to your industry. You don’t want the focus to be too narrow or too broad. For example, if you run a plumbing company, you don’t want to choose a narrow subject like PVC pipe, but you also don’t want to choose water. Instead, you might go with an issue such as solving home plumbing problems.

 

See what other podcasts cover similar issues and find a unique angle for your show. What do you want to be known for? Whatever your specializations and areas of expertise, you can likely turn your knowledge into a show.

2. Invest in Equipment

Unless you want your show to sound like you recorded it in your mother’s basement, you need a few pieces of equipment. Find a small space where the sound doesn’t reverberate, such as an enclosed office or small utility room. Add coverings on the floors and walls to reduce the echo.

 

Acoustic panels can limit reverberation, and noise absorption materials improve overall sound quality and reduce background noise. You can take almost any space and boost the sound quality by 50% or more with the right mix of materials.

 

You’ll also need a high-quality microphone. There are numerous ones on the market. Choose the one you feel comfortable with, read reviews carefully and make the investment in something you can use long-term for your podcast.

3. Collect Great Stories

The last thing you want is a boring podcast. If you solely rely on callers, you may have a show where no one phones in. If you just share facts, people will quickly grow disinterested. Instead, think about stories that illustrate your main points for each show.

 

The plumbing company might share a particularly complex problem one of its customers faced. They’d explain the age of the home, the issue they dealt with and how they solved it. After sharing the story, the audience is ready to hear tips to solve their problems.

4. Research Your Audience

Your ideal audience is the same people who buy your product or services. Do some market research on them to see what their greatest needs might be. Once you fully understand their pain points, you can address them in your podcasts.

 

After you’ve gained a few listeners, you can survey them to find out what topics they want you to cover. Send out a survey and allow room for customized feedback. You’ll learn a lot by tapping into your audience.

5. Market Your Show

According to Podcast Insights, there are around two million podcasts. The number varies from year to year, but you have a ton of competition. People can choose to spend their time listening to any show they desire. Why should they listen to yours?

 

You must market your podcast. Announce it on social media, list it on podcast repositories, make sure it’s in enough formats to attract a wide audience. On your show, ask people to tell others about you. Building your audience won’t happen overnight, but you’ll start gaining momentum if you offer consistent quality.

6. Don’t Spam Your Listeners

When you think of a branded podcast, you might think you should mention your show as often as possible. Unfortunately, too much self-promotion is a real turn-off to listeners and may have the opposite effect of them feeling spammed.

 

Instead, keep your mentions of your business light. You can announce who you are and your company when you introduce yourself. It’s okay to share personal experiences throughout the show but word it generically.

 

For example, you might say, “We once had a customer who needed pipes run for a new build, but no one could get into the house due to a huge snake we were all scared of.” Such wording indicates you have experience and you own a business but isn’t as spammy as saying, “ABC Plumbing once had a customer…”

 

It is also appropriate to mention your company at the end of your podcast and let listeners know you’re there for all their needs in your industry. People don’t mind you doing some light advertising.

Invest in Your Podcast

Podcasting isn’t a fast way to build leads, but it is a steady method that adds to your authority in the field. Anything you invest in your efforts today pays off in the future. You may want to consult with experts on podcasting, hire someone to do editing and market more than you initially intended. A little effort on the front-end pays off in a bigger audience on the back-end.

 

 

 

Eleanor Hecks is editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the creative director at a digital marketing agency before becoming a full-time freelance designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and pup, Bear.

 

 

Digital Branding

Wikigains Shows 10 Ways To Use Vouchers To Encourage Repeat Business and Build a Brand

Today customers have more options online than they had ten years ago. According to WikiGains, customers’ buying pattern has changed from purchasing at their preferred physical store to visiting different online stores, comparing prices, searching for deals and discounts before adding a product to a virtual shopping cart. As a result, every online merchant, at some time or the other will be faced with the decision of offering deals, coupons, and discounts.

While offering good deals frequently can encourage repeat business and drive customer loyalty, using them haphazardly can harm your brand image. Here are 10 effective ways you can use to drive customer loyalty, conversions and acquisitions.

1. Weekly or monthly discounts

These are traditional ways to offer discounts and they are often used at the end of a week or month to meet specific business goals.

2. Cart abandonment email

A study showed that nearly 70% of online customers abandon their carts for some reason or the other. Sending a tactically-crafted abandoned cart email can encourage people to come back and complete their checkout. There are many sites like Shopify and Klaviyo that offer easy to customize abandoned cart emails.

3. Special holiday or season deals

While Cyber Monday, Black Friday, and other holiday seasons are big occasions to offer attractive discounts, you can use other opportunities throughout the year like the onset of winter, summer or autumn to share appropriate discounts and offers.

4. Prelaunch coupons

Your business may be in the prelaunch stage or you have just launched a new product. The pre-launch offers enable you to create a sense of inquisitiveness among customers regarding the product. They help in driving more traffic and turning new customers into loyal ones.

5. Minimum value to get discount

In coupons sites like Wikigains, you can find deals that require customers to spend a minimum value to get a discount. This is a good tactic to encourage customers to spend more.

6. Special discount for sharing on social media

When you start a new online store, the biggest challenge is to reach out to more people and attract customers. So, offering an incentive on every Like on Facebook or sharing on other social media platforms can be a good way to raise the visibility of your brand.

7. Refer-a-friend

The referral programs work even today because people tend to rely on a brand if it is referred by a friend or relative. Wikigains says you can use this to your advantage and encourage more referrals by offering a good discount to both – the person referring and the one being referred.

8. Welcome discount for new customers.

This is a ‘feel good offer’ that gives first-time customers a positive experience with your brand. They are likely to remember you, refer friends, and even come back again to convert into a paying customer.   

9. Create an email or subscription offer

Building an email list is extremely important for the success of online retailers. When you offer a coupon or discount in exchange for a visitor’s email address, it increases your chances of conversion. This is a win-win situation where the visitor receives a good discount and you get their email address. This can be used to create customer loyalty, build a solid relationship, or send promotional materials to them in the future.

10. Special incentives to influential people

Offering discounts to famous bloggers or celebrities that have a huge fan following can be an effective way to promote your brand. So, if a blogger writes positively about your products or a celebrity talks about your excellent service, your brand value increases tremendously.    

Wikigains.com is a voucher site that has been operating in the UK since 2012. Alex Papaconstantinou, the founder of Wikigains, and his team, have accumulated a wealth of experience in the industry as they have seen it through several ups and downs in the last few years.