Hello. My name is Tyler, and this is the first post in my new, ongoing series: Back to Basics.

Our regular readers will be familiar with most of the information covered in this series. However, we have many first-time visitors who are just getting their feet wet. Although they are new, they are eager to learn. If you are a regular reader, you can help out the newbies by leaving a helpful comment.

(Image Credit: Robbie Ewing)

Because this is the SEO Hosting blog, the question we most frequently receive from first-time visitors is “what is SEO?”

Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of two parts: on-page and off-page.

On-page: The first purpose of on-page SEO is to ensure that search engines can access a website’s content. Because search engines use robots to crawl the pages of a website, websites need to be free of technical issues that could interfere with the robots’ ability to crawl.

The second purpose of on-page SEO is to optimize website pages to rank well in search engines. While this purpose of on-page SEO has aspects that are still relevant, the overall impact of this purpose has decreased as search engines have evolved.

Off-page: The primary purpose of off-page SEO is obtaining links to a website from other websites. Authority and relevance determine the value of a link.

SEO practices are commonly labeled with a hat color. The intent of labeling is to show whether a practice is ethical (white hat) or unethical (black hat). However, while some practices obviously fall into one category or the other, the majority of SEO practices fall somewhere in the middle.

Until recently, SEO was commonly viewed by the public as a dark art or magic. A lack of public education, as well as misinformation or negative experiences with fake SEO gurus who were only skilled at making a quick buck through deception, caused this perception.

However, over the past year, two factors have lead to a more public acceptance of SEO. The first is the mainstream media’s realization that the Internet is not simply going to disappear. As a result, the mainstream media has begun embracing SEO to attract more visitors to their websites.

The second factor is the media attention given to Demand Media. Demand Media is categorized as a mass content producer that relies heavily on SEO to attract visitors. While Demand Media is commonly vilified by the media, the attention they have received has shown the public that SEO is now viewed as a legitimate practice at the corporate level.

If you are a first-time visitor and have a question about SEO, please leave your question in a comment. You can also email your question to me at tyler@copymoz.com.

Recently, Adam Sherk did some research and came up with a list of the most overused buzzwords and marketing speak in press releases. For anyone who writes press releases or companies that use them, this list is an eye-opener and a definite must read. It’s a good reminder that marketing speak has no place in press releases, and it’s a handy checklist for making sure it hasn’t sneaked in without you realizing it.

But why doesn’t marketing speak have a place in your press releases? After all, isn’t the end goal of press release distribution to create a buzz and, you know, market your company?

Sure, you want to get your name out there, but that doesn’t mean you should treat press releases like advertisements. They’re not. They’re news, not ads. And last time I checked, marketing speak and buzzwords have no place in legitimate news.

And if you’re actually aiming to get your press releases picked up by worthwhile media outlets, you’d better steer clear of any and all marketing speak. Remember, reporters are interested in finding good stories and interesting news. They’re not interested in marketing your company. And with the typical reporter receiving as many as hundreds of press releases each week, you can be sure that if yours is filled with buzzwords, it will find its way into the trash can.

How can you make sure your press release is free of any marketing speak?

• Avoid superlatives—Press releases aren’t the place for exaggerations. So, stay away from words like “leader”, “best”, “top”, “greatest”, and other words that are “the most” of something. Believe it or not, not every company can be the “leader” or the “best.” So, play it straight.
• Check out the buzzword list—Earlier in this post, I linked out to a list of the most overused buzzwords in press releases. Take the time to read over that list. Hell, print it out and use it as a checklist every time you send out a press release.
• Use keywords instead—Press releases can be very helpful for SEO press releases. So, instead of stuffing them full of buzzwords, try using important keywords in the press releases headline, subhead, and body. Just make sure you don’t fall into any of the common SEO press release pitfalls.
• Focus on the facts—News is about fact, not opinion. So, if you can’t back something up, don’t include it in your press release. Just the facts, please.

Are you guilty of slipping marketing lingo into your press releases?

Whenever I interview a new client to help plan their copy, one of the questions I ask is this:

What are some common of your customers’ concerns and questions they have when talking to you? Objections, points of confusion, etc. How do you address these?

Why is this important? It’s simple. There are many roadblocks between your target audience and making the sale. If you don’t address these roadblocks and offer solutions in your marketing messages, guess what happens? They don’t buy from you.

It’s that simple. So, how can you destroy these roadblocks and make the sale? Let’s take these one at a time.

Common Objections

Objections are those things that make customers resist the purchase. Every company gets objections from customers when trying to sell their product or services. The key to overcoming these objections is to understand why the prospect objects, what you can do to negate their objection, and how you can turn that objection into the customer’s advantage.

Some common objections include:

• Price—This boils down to the customer having a problem justifying spending their money on your product. There are many things you can do to overcome pricing objections. Show customers why your product is a great value at its price point (no matter how expensive it might be), offer money-back guarantees, or show how the product is a worthwhile investment.
• Lack of understanding—Sometimes, customers just don’t understand what you’re selling. So, their kneejerk reaction is to say “no.” What can you do? Clarify your message. Make it as simple and to the point as possible. Write it so even your mom understands it.
• Lack of trust—Customers may not trust you. You can gain their trust by using testimonials, offering money-back guarantees, being easy to contact, sharing your expertise, and more.
• Questions—In some cases, the customer just needs to know more before they’ll give you the sale. Your copy needs to address the common questions your customers have. Pay attention to the questions you get asked most often, and find ways to answer them in your copy.

How do you overcome your customers’ objections?

I don’t know about you, but one of the things I do to become a better blogger and get inspiration is look for tips from other bloggers I trust and respect. Recently, I got in touch with 30 of my blogging friends and had each of them submit a unique blogging tip. The result is what I believe to be an excellent resource that bloggers of all stripes can really benefit from.

Check out these 30 tips from 30 bloggers, and add your best tip by leaving a comment!

1. Michael Abehsera, Eeden Labs:

Focus On Value Not Money. I think the biggest mistake amateur bloggers make is that they launch a blog in order to make money from the blog. Blogging’s main purpose is to show your creativity and new perspective on your industry or what you’re trying to promote. The goal should only be 2 things 1. building value to your readers by writing great content and 2. Seeing your blog as a new form of communication to help you communicate with your customers better. The More remarkable, creative, and Value you provide to your users the more traffic you will get which in turn could bring in new customers to your core business.

2. Ann Smarty, My Blog Guest:

The only way I use to promote any of my blogs is guest posting: both accepting guest contributions and writing as a guest author for others. A guest post published at an established blog and linking to my site gives me visibility and exposure to highly targeted audience: people who like my article are most likely to visit my site and get engaged (comment, subscribe, etc). Besides, this gives me a full control over the anchor text: as I can link from within my bio most often with the keyword text of my choice). Accepting guest posts allows me to keep my blog active and varied in terms of content, topics, styles, etc. Yes, I am picky when it comes to the quality of the guest post but I pay back by promoting the guest post as much as I can (and thus offer my guest author more exposure).

3. Gerald Weber, SEM Group:

Guest post, Guest post and then Guest post some more. This is the best way to expose yourself to a new audience (not in the naked sense but in the networking sense) and it also has the side benefits of helping you build keyword anchor text “one way” in bound links. However you shouldn’t guest post just for the sake of building links. The #1 reason you should guest post is to position yourself as an expert in your niche. If you are newer to the blogging/guest posting game a great way to find awesome guest blogging opportunities is  MyBlogGuest.com which is a community of guest bloggers. If you are still not convinced check out 7 Reasons Why Every Blogger Should Be Guest Posting.

4. AJ Wilcox, Orange Soda local internet marketing:

Be consistent. Decide how often you want to post. If it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, scheduling them predictably will help flourish your readership. If your readers know they can come back at a certain time (or even follow you over RSS, which is much better), they will start looking forward to your content.  When people look forward to it, they become loyal, and loyal readership is exactly what your blog needs more of.

5. Cindy Krum, Rank-Mobile:

Use bullets to make your post easier to understand when someone is in a hurry. Listing things in sequence in a paragraph makes the copy look bulky and hard to read. Bulleted lists make posts look more appealing because they are easier to skim and still understand what is going on. It also makes them look more like a “reference” which will garner more links.

6. Eamon Arnett, Orange Soda blog:

Be transparent. Trade secrets and expertise are too easy to come by. Customers don’t like the “locked behind closed doors”, or “we have something to hide” approach. When you are open and transparent, your customers can tell. The openness scores you brownie points and that loyalty is what drives traffic. Share your expertise and the things that cause your company to flourish, and your readership will reward you for it.

7. Melanie Nathan,  SEO Canada :

Don’t Forget Who You’re Writing For. Whatever your subject matter may be, you’re inevitably going to attract a certain type of reader. Make sure you’re aware of who you’re writing for and consciously tailor your content towards that crowd. This establishes you as an expert on your topic and also helps you develop a regular following.

8. Adam Toren, Young Entrepreneur:

Bite-sized nuggets. Break your content into nice, digestible pieces. As a general rule of thumb, paragraphs written for the web shouldn’t be longer than four of five sentences. Ever heard of the popular web abbreviation “TLDR”? This stands for “too long, didn’t read.” Readers scan web pages, rather than reading them carefully, such as they would a book or newspaper. Make your content look short and readable and you will stand a better chance of keeping your reader’s attention.

9. Wintress Odom, The Writers for Hire:

Set goals for your blog. Don’t just blog because everyone else is.  Blog because you want to do something in particular:  establish an ongoing conversation with your clients, become recognized as an industry expert, or increase your search engine rankings.  Then focus your efforts.

10. Jeremy Schooley:

Respond To & Be Grateful For Comments. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s easy to forgot how lazy humans can be. If someone takes the time to leave a comment on your site, you can come off as a jerk if you don’t respond. And yes, being too busy to respond will still make you seem like a jerk, at least in the eyes of others who don’t know what your schedule is like.

Important: The effort that went into making the comment should be repaid with similar effort. If a bunch of comments are of the “Great post” variety, then one simple blanket “Thanks for the great feedback everyone” should be enough.  Likewise, if someone writes a comment that takes up a few lines of text, you should probably respond with a little more thought and personalization.

11. Nick Perone, Naked Law:

If you can’t see people rushing to tell their friends about your next blog post, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. With over 100 million blogs on the internet, why should someone read yours?

12. Chris Brantner, HELP! Copy and Design copywriting agency:

Don’t be a jerk. Sometimes bloggers come off as know-it-all’s. While that condescending tone might make you feel superior, remember the old adage–pride comes before a fall. There’s a fine line between being sarcastic and being a jerk. Cross the line and you risk alienating your readers.

13. Brian Waraksa, Raxa Design:

Keep it clean. Don’t clutter up your blog design with every widget or third party advertisement you can. Less is most definitely more where design is concerned.

14. Mickie Kennedy, ereleases PR Fuel:

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” – Elmore Leonard. In high school and college I always secretly loved long essays. I have a gift for complicated, self-indulgent prose. When blogging, I have to constantly edit myself with an eye towards brevity and concision. Remember this is a blog that will be read by busy professionals who often just skim. Make the subject and opening paragraph succinct and engaging. Trim the fat.

15. Lori Bourne, Montessori materials:

Blogs Need Usability Love Too: Take a fresh look at your blog design and layout. Make sure navigating is easy and doesn’t get in the way of finding content. Watch someone else navigate your blog and see if they can find what they’re looking for. Do your categories make sense? Rethink them every once in awhile, and update them if necessary. Give people the option to subscribe by RSS or email.

16. Kaila Strong, Vertical Measures:

The heading is everything. Come up with catchy, interesting, and insightful titles for your posts. Try to get a keyword or two into the title as well, and search engines will love you for it.

17. Thomson Chemmanoor, Digital Labz SEO company:

Keep an overall SEO Strategy in mind while blogging, using keywords in the blog post’s title and URLs. Careful title and URL selection can help greatly in the optimization process. Don’t be hesitant to link out and you will be linked back eventually. Also, use of plugins in your blog will save you time and help with optimizing your blog. Some of the SEO plugins I would recommend are All in One SEO Pack, Contextual Related Posts and SEO Smart Links.

18. Alex Cristache, Blogsessive:

The biggest mistake a professional blogger could make is to completely ignore his personal brand or, in the case of running a multi-author blog, building a brand around it. It’s hard to keep a constant voice throughout your posts or to maintain an editorial line for all the authors, but as an editor-in-chief it’s your job to.

It’s easy to get lost in the mirage of putting out more and more content, harder to make it “yours”. It’s that one step further that you need to take in order to insure the loyalty of your readers. Otherwise each blog post will leave your visitors with the sensation of informational one night stands.

19. Jason Doucett, PageSpike SEO:

Find the balance! Write SEO friendly articles that are written for people and not just the search engines.  There’s nothing worse than a well written article with oddly place words or links distracting you from the message.

20. Kristin Mastre, Feasting Fort Collins:

Write with a compelling voice that grabs attention!

21. Michael Schwartz, Phoenix Suns Blog:

My advice is to figure out what you’re passionate about and try to break into that niche. If you blog about what you love, it will never feel like work and you can become an important voice in that niche.

22. Kevin Udy:

My best tip would probably be, be generous with links and engage other sites in your niche – blogging is about connections.

23. David Smith, Conversion Rate Optimization:

Focus on Networking. If you want to be successful then you’ve got to develop relations with other bloggers. Its mandatory. You can’t do everything on your own. You need the help of others in every aspect of blogging – getting new ideas to develop content, building links, promoting new products, building your email list etc etc. So, never ever overlook the importance of networking with other bloggers in yours (and different) niches. Go, Network now!

24. Patsy, Web Design Kuwait:

Work as a Team. The competition in the blogosphere is more than ever and increasing every moment. Thousands of new blogs are getting created every day and the noise in blogosphere is at its peak. What does that mean? Now, you’ve got to work more to make your blog successful. Since, promoting a blog is itself a full time job the ideal solution will be to work as a team. Instead of creating separate unsuccessful blogs, work on a single blog and make it popular. There is a complete team behind almost, all popular blogs – Techcrunch, Mashable , Copyblogger—where every person has a specific task. So try to build your own team as it will increase your chances to be a successful blogger.

25. Derek Edmond, KOMarketing Associates:

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results. It takes time, creativity, and energy to grow your readership and build a community.

26. Ryan Boots, TopSpot Internet Marketing:

Dispense simple advice. Is there a problem that surfaces frequently in your industry or area of expertise that tends to be a quick and easy fix?  Such material also tends to be a quick and easy blog post.  By extension, posts of this nature can be useful search bait, especially for those looking for solutions to problems, who are low-hanging fruit when it comes to finding customers.

27. Kelsey Childress, The Social Robot:

Write content that makes people pay attention. Use headers, infographics, and present concepts that are explained in a fresh, concise way. Don’t insult your reader’s intelligence, but make your content engaging to read.

28. Bradford Shimp, All Business Answers:

Write for passion, not for money. You need to be able to live and breath your topic, and grow with it over time. If you start focusing on making money, you could lose focus on the thing that will make your blog stand out, which is your passion for the topic. Writing a blog is like a marriage, a long term relationship that gets better over time as long as you keep at it.

29. Matthew Toren, Blogtrepreneur:

Use a professional yet casual tone. There is a careful balance that needs to be struck. Write informally, but don’t litter your blog posts with careless grammar mistakes, messy formatting or text speak. Not only does this look ugly, readers will wonder why they should trust you to tell them anything. Want to be an authority on a topic? Keep your readers coming back? Write in a professional tone that gives them a good impression.

30. Leah Dossey, Blueleaf Creative:

Add a personal note at the end of each of your posts. It can be anything personal about you, the author.  Perhaps that day your cat was left out in the rain, or someone sent you flowers or you are pissed at your kids.  Sharing one or two lines about yourself at the end of each post makes you the “human expert” and not just some expert they can’t relate to.  People like information, but the want to LIKE and TRUST the person they are getting it from.  A personal note gives them a reason to do that.

Have a great blogging tip? Add it by leaving a comment!

Recently, we discussed the importance of proving your claims by using facts. To recap, customers don’t buy into empty claims. By backing up your claims with actual facts, you can earn their trust and eventually their sale.

But is it really as easy as just peppering in a bunch of statistics into your copy? No. Facts are certainly important, but how you use the facts is even more important. In other words, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.

How should you present your facts to get the best possible results?

• Start with facts your customers already know—You can’t expect a shopper who knows nothing about you to instantly believe you. That’s why you need to start with facts your customers already know and statements that ring true. Your goal is to have them nodding to themselves saying, “Yes, I know that’s true. That means the other facts are true too.” Start with familiarity, then bring them into the truly remarkable facts you have.
• Present your facts in a dramatic way—Let’s be honest, statistics can be a bit boring on their own. But when you present them in an exciting way, they resonate better with the customer. Duracell doesn’t just say their batteries are the most trusted. They show you how pilots trust them to power their goggles, paramedics trust them to power their medical equipment, etc. This adds drama to the facts.
• Let the customer know what’s in it for him—Customers are selfish. All they care about is how they’ll benefit from buying your products or services. With that in mind, the facts you present need to be delivered from a customer’s point of view. Technical specifications are meaningless if the customer can’t make the connection of how they help make his life better.
• Performance evidence is more effective—You can talk all you want about how your product is built better or designed to perform better, but that’s just talk. Performance evidence is where it’s really at. Performance evidence details how the product has worked in actual use.
• Use testimonials that further solidify your claims—Testimonials are a good way to get performance evidence. Your customers will share how the product actually performed for them. This lets the customer better understand how the product will work for them, and it builds trust through third-party endorsements.

Do you use facts to backup your claims?

I’ve often talked about how today’s customer is more wary than ever before. When shopping around online, customers have their BS detectors turned all the way up. Every claim you make will be met with skepticism and seen as a lie until you prove otherwise. And for good reason. After all, consider all the crazy claims you get in your email inbox every single day:

“Lose 50 pounds without working out!”

“Make millions working just 4 hours a week!”

“Increase the size of your…”

Well, you get the idea.

The point is that if you have a claim, you have to prove it. You can’t just say your products or services will yield a certain benefit without presenting proof. By presenting facts, your claims are legitimized, and once your claims are legitimized, you earn the trust of your customers and eventually their sales.

There’s an old quote by Dr. Charles M. Edwards, an NYU professor at the School of Retailing, where he said, “The more facts you tell, the more you sell.” It’s simple, but truthful.

Of course, this leads to the question: How can you prove your claims? There are many ways to back your words up with facts.

• Case studies—Case studies are an in-depth investigation that show how your products or services yielded a specific result for a client. For example, if you sell a product that’s supposed to streamline contact management, a good case study would be to follow a client who purchased the product to show comparisons of how much time the product saves on contact management, how much it has improved customer loyalty, etc.
• Independent studies—Even better than your own studies are studies performed by independent researchers showing how effective your products are. You see this a lot with cleaning products. Labs will study Clorox and show that it cleans a certain percentage of germs or outperforms other cleaning products by a specific amount.
• Studying the competition—Take a look at the claims made by your competition. Are there any of them that you can prove you do better? For example, if the competition sells a printer that prints 100 pages a minute, can you prove that your printers print 200 pages a minute? By beating the competition at their own claims, you render them completely powerless.
• Testimonials—Even with all the facts in the world behind you, some people still don’t trust the word of a company because they know you’re trying to make a sale. However, customers do tend to trust other customers. So, include testimonials in your marketing materials that backup your claims.
• Video demonstrations—Seeing is believing. That’s why infomercials are so effective. When you see the ShamWow guy cleaning up a liter of coke in just seconds, you believe the product really does work. When you saw Billy Mays pulling an 18-wheeler with a chain patched with Mighty Putty, you suddenly bought into his claims. Incorporate video whenever possible.

What are some other things you do to prove your claims? Share your tips by leaving a comment.

As a freelance copywriter, a lot of the projects I work on involve SEO copywriting. Sometimes, I work with the client directly, and other times, an SEO company contracts the work out to me, giving me guidelines on what they want for their client. In the latter situation, I have a little less leeway to do what I want since it’s the SEO company’s client.

Usually, it’s not an issue, but some SEO companies are still stuck in the past, using silly metrics like keyword density and word counts to judge the worth of website copy. And here is where I have a problem. I’ll save the topic of keyword density for a future post, but today I want to talk about the problems I have with using a word count in SEO copywriting.

1. There is no real evidence that word counts directly influence rankings. Thankfully, most SEO companies have gotten beyond the idea that copy needs to be between 400 and 800 words to rank well in the search engines. But there are still some out there that cling to this theory. Whether you believe in it or not, the simple truth is there is no real evidence that supports needing a specific word count to rank well. The top-ranked pages in Google for various search terms vary greatly in word count. I’ve seen pages rank well with 50 words or less and pages rank well with thousands of words. The truth is your rankings are largely determined by offsite factors, like link building. Word count does NOT directly influence rankings.
2. Quantity and quality are not directly related. When it comes to copywriting, quantity and quality are completely separate from one another. Just because a page is long doesn’t mean it’s good or bad. And just because a page is short also doesn’t mean it’s good or bad. What makes copy good or bad is how effective each word is and how well it converts.
3. Writing to a specific word count is restrictive and leads to forced copy. When you force a copywriter to come up with a set number of words, you’re just asking for trouble. The copywriter will either have to add fluff to meet the word count or cut back severely to meet it. Either way, it leads to unnatural copy, and forces the copywriter’s attention onto a trivial matter.

What do you think about word counts for web copy? Good idea or terrible idea?

I’ve often mentioned that shoppers are a selfish bunch. The only thing they’re concerned with is how your products or services will help them. Every marketing message you create needs to answer their biggest question, “What’s in it for me?”

This, of course, boils down to the benefits of your offerings. How can you tie your product to the benefits your audience cares most about? Here’s a list of common benefits your customers desire.

• Improved health—Does your product help people live a longer life? Lose weight? Increase their strength? Get sick less often? Have more energy? Just feel better?
• More money—Money talks, BS walks. It’s all about the money. Money resonates with nearly everyone. If your product helps people get more money, play that angle up.
• More time—Who can’t use a little more time? With more time, people can travel, have fun, spend time with the family, or even work more and make more money if that’s what they want to do.
• Convenience—Does your product make something that’s normally a hassle much easier? Is it “so easy a caveman can do it”? Ease and convenience are always desirable benefits.
• Social advancement—Social status is important, and it ties to more products than you think. It’s usually the reason people by certain cars, tech gadgets (iPhone anybody?), clothes, you name it. Everybody wants to keep up with the Joneses.
• Business advancement—Success. Career advancement. More recognition. More money. People are always looking for ways to further their careers, so if your product can help with that, let readers know.
• Improved self-confidence—Why do people lose weight? Why do they get their hair cut? Go to the tanning salon? It all comes down to self-confidence. People want to feel good about themselves. Help them do so.
• Being on the cutting edge—In this tech-driven world, a lot of people want to be the first in different things. These people are the innovators and early adopters, and using words like “new” and “first” can really capture their attention.

What are some other types of benefits products can deliver?

To run a successful website, it’s not enough to rank well and get quality traffic. Those are nice starting points, but unless the people visiting your website convert, it’s really all for nothing. I’ve talked quite a bit about getting more conversions in the past, but today I want to focus specifically on the call to action.

Without a call to action, you have an “actionless” website that doesn’t motivate visitors to do anything with the information you’ve given them.

Here are some simple ways to craft a more effective call to action.

• Place a time limit on your offer—Say what you want about infomercials, but they’ve always understood the power of time-sensitive offers. And they just work. Same thing goes for home shopping networks. They say, “You have to call in the next 10 minutes if you want to get 50% off your order.” And guess what? People take action.
• Offer something free—Giveaways are kind of like a gateway drug. They entice people to take action and push them closer to your main goal: getting them to make a purchase. You can offer a free eBook, whitepaper, consultation, product demo, etc.
• Emphasize the limited supply—If only a specific number of products are available, make sure to point this out in your call to action. It makes readers realize they have to take action now if they want the product because it may not be available later.
• Show that price has been reduced—Another infomercial trick that always works is they show the old price of the item, then slash through it and display the new, lower price. Visitors love feeling like they’re getting a great deal, so when you’ve reduced the price of an item, emphasize that point to make taking action more desirable.
• Use a strong guarantee—Online customers are hesitant by nature. They’re wary of doing business with companies they don’t know, and if you want to convince the skeptical customer, you have to remove any roadblocks that keep them from taking action. Stressing your guarantee helps them see they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

What are some other specific techniques you use to get immediate action from your visitors? Leave a comment with your best tip.

If your business is like most others, you lose at least a few customers every year. It’s just part of doing business. Customers move on for a range of reasons and never come back. While some loss of customers is acceptable and even unavoidable, you have to be careful and make sure the customers you’re losing can’t be saved.

To minimize the number of customers you lose, there are many tactics you can put to use.

• Ask customers why they’re leaving—Chances are, more than a few customers have stopped doing business with you for a similar reason. By finding out what it is that’s driving customers to leave you, you can try to resolve these problems, and more importantly, you can prevent them from happening again in the future. The key is to always listen to your customers. Most times, they’ll give you the insight into why they’re leaving. If not, you can try emailing links to online surveys to learn more from them.
• Keep in constant contact with your current customers—Don’t take your current customers for granted. You can’t just assume they’ll remember you and keep doing business with you. You have to continue nurturing your relationship by keeping regular contact with them and offering them the highest level of service.
• Be willing to apologize and resolve customer complaints—Disputes happen. No matter how excellent your customer service is and how flawless your products may be, there will always be customers who are seemingly impossible to please. If you want to save the customer, you can’t make excuses. You need to apologize for any possible mistakes your company has made and do what it takes to resolve the situation.
• If you have permission, continue marketing to lost customers—If a lost customer is still on your email or mailing list, send special messages aimed at getting their business back. You can offer special discounts for coming back. Make sure your messages speak directly to their situation. Netflix is very good about this. When you unsubscribe, they’ll follow up saying “we’ve missed you” and offer a coupon for coming back.
• Reward loyal customers—I’ll say it again, don’t take your current customers for granted. If you do, they will leave you. You need to make it impossible for them to find a reason to leave you. Show them how much you appreciate their business by rewarding loyal customers with extra perks like discounts, free service, etc.

What are some of the steps you take to minimize the number of customers you lose? Share your best strategies by leaving a comment.