Make Your Customers Feel at Home

In the physical world, when our trusted and valued friends come to visit our house, we often welcome them by saying, “Come in…make yourselves at home!”   In the virtual world, do you do the same thing?  When customers and prospects visit your online site, do they feel at home there?

Think about retailers that offer snacks, coffee, samples, valuable information, and sometimes even entertainment in their shops.  They create a welcoming atmosphere for their customers because they know it will encourage them to stay around the shop, browsing the products and learning more about the brand…and greatly increasing the chances of a sale.

Your online site needs to do the same thing.  What do you do to make your current and prospective customers feel comfortable?   What are you doing to add value to their day?  What experience are you giving them? In other words, how are you inspiring them to stick around now and return later…with their friends?

• If you are selling clothes, maybe give your customers and prospects the latest fashion news.
• If you are selling food, how about information on nutrition specialists or a free 1-minute video clip by a nutrition specialist?
• Maybe get creative about sample give-aways by trying social sampling.
• Invite them to do something:  respond to a poll, watch a video, play a game
• Give them the “social” of “social media” with easy ways to connect to your brand through various social networks and to share those connections with their friends.
• And most importantly, make sure they can reach a human being with their questions!

Why bother?  Because when your prospective and current customers feel at home at your site, they will feel at home with your brand in a way that builds trust –  a cornerstone for building relationships.  And the success of social media marketing really is all about relationships.

They say home is where your heart is — make your site that place for your customers!

-Ted Rubin, Social Media Strategiest

Ted Rubin Ted has a deep online background beginning in 1997 with Seth Godin, as CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, & recently as Chief Social Marketing Officer, Open Sky