PSPINC Official Company Blog

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 133 “Serving Your Customers”

Sep

15

As a business that sells to other businesses, it’s hard to sell and retain those customers sometimes. But what we’ve found very helpful is taking the focus of our company. Instead, we put the focus on our customers. It’s not about trying to get what we need from them; it’s about giving them what they need. When asking them how we can help them, it shows how much we care about them rather than just trying to push our products on them. While we do still want to make money, customers don’t like feeling like that’s the end goal.

If what you’re selling fits with what they want and need for their business, that’s great. But if it doesn’t, the relationship with them doesn’t have to end there. The customer’s best interests should still be at the forefront of how your sales team deals with customers, even if it means they won’t buy from you right now. In turn, they won’t only remember your business, but they also might recommend you to other people just based on their friendly interaction with you. This overall effort will, at the very least, give customers a great perspective on your business. They’ll see your business as one that genuinely cares about the well-being of their customers, even if it doesn’t result in a purchase.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #brandperspective #business #businesstips #customers #customerservice #customersupport #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #officetips #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #retention #sales #selling #service #smallbusiness

5 Post-Purchase Marketing Tactics to Increase Retention

Sep

13

For any business, growing through monetary means is the end goal. What that entails is generating sales and making a profit, year after year. But for sales and marketing teams, it’s not just about putting all their efforts into getting new customers and selling to them. It’s also about nurturing relationships with customers, even after they’ve already purchased the product. This is what’s called post-purchase marketing. While making the sale is great, continuing that relationship with the customer is how businesses can turn a one-time customer into a repeat customer. That correspondence makes customers feel like the company truly cares about them, and that they aren’t just a sales number.

The sale is just the beginning of the relationship between the customer and the company. The customer journey isn’t linear, it’s a loop. It doesn’t end once the customer purchases. If brands have an effective post-purchase plan in place, it can send customers back around towards the acquisition stage or straight to the purchase stage again. Post-purchase marketing, when done well, encourages repeat purchases and can even create brand advocates. Here are five post-purchase marketing tactics you can employ to increase retention:

1. Customer Support

Just because a customer purchased from you, it doesn’t mean they’re satisfied with the product. To better support your customer after a sale, keep communication lines open. The customer support team can create valuable content for customers like user-friendly guides on how to best navigate your product, or they can do it over the phone. Because the last thing you want is a disgruntled customer. Especially one that will rant on social media about their unpleasant experience.

2. Email Marketing

person using a laptop open to gmail next to an open notebook with a color swatch, pencil bag, and an open marker

Despite the popularity of other digital platforms like social media, email continues to be one of the most effective marketing tactics. Everyone has an email, and most people check it regularly. This is even more true for those working in business. To make it easier, automate email marketing campaigns. Whenever a customer takes a specific action, be it signing up for something or purchasing a product, it should trigger an email response. Just make sure the content is personalized enough so customers don’t feel like they’re just receiving a generic templated email.

3. Customer Feedback

black and white typewriter on table with a piece of paper sticking out that says review

One of the biggest benefits your business can get from post-purchase marketing is positive reviews. Asking customers for reviews gives you more insight into your products, services, and the overall customer experience. After all, knowing that there’s a problem is the first step in figuring out how to fix it. For those glowing reviews, your business can reuse those testimonials in future marketing efforts, which will help bring in more customers.

4. Refund Policy/Returns Process

While it seems counterintuitive, making your refund and returns policy clear helps both your customers and your business. When customers purchase something, there’s a level of anxiety attached to it. They want the money they spent to be well worth it in the end. Similarly, returning products can be a stressful process, so giving customers a quick but informative guide is helpful. Making both your refund and returns policy not only eases their anxiety but also lessens the chance they’ll get buyer’s remorse.

5. Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC)

selective focus photography of person using iPhone x

Lastly, businesses can use social media to connect with their customers. In a follow-up email post-sale, you can encourage people to engage with you on relevant social channels. You can create a unique hashtag to promote your business and encourage other users to share content with the hashtag, thus creating user-generated content (UGC). Or you can even run a competition on social media to increase engagement. UGC not only engages customers but also creates authentic content that you can repurpose in future marketing campaigns.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#businesstips #customerfeedback #customerjourney #customersupport #digitalmarketing #email #emailmarketing #marketing #marketingonline #postpurchasemarketing #refunds #returns #reviews #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #usergeneratedcontent

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 132 "Perseverance"

Sep

8

Every business, big or small, fluctuates. There are years where we’ve excelled, but there are other years where we could’ve done better. But we’re still standing. And it’s largely because we didn’t quit. Thousands of businesses fail every year because their company founders gave up too easily. Fighting through the hard times isn’t easy. And the worldwide pandemic has been challenging for everyone, not just business owners. But the key to making it in business is perseverance.

Think of it like an athlete. Regardless of what sport it is, when you see someone fall, you also watch them get back up. I’ve seen athletes with serious injuries still push away paramedics because they wanted to finish the game. Even if it meant they lost the game, they persisted regardless. It’s easy to let your self-belief waver. Failure is part of the journey. But if you truly want to be an entrepreneur and believe in what you’re doing, you need to shake off the self-doubt. Otherwise, you’ll just be another one of those thousands of inspiring entrepreneurs that quit too soon.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businessowner #businesstips #entrepreneur #entrepreneurs #marketing #marketingtips #perserverance #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness

What is Experiential Marketing?

Sep

6

Experiential marketing is, in essence, marketing your product, service, or brand through an experience. In today’s digital age, many consumers hate ads. They disrupt their overall experience and keep them from the content they wanted to see. There’s a reason why ad blockers have gained so much popularity in recent years. Experiential marketing counteracts that by promoting your brand in a non-intrusive way. The perfect example is Coca-Cola’s Happiness Machine campaign from 2010. The overarching idea behind it was that happiness is contagious. And they proved their point when people shared their various items with people from the otherwise ordinary Coca-Cola vending machine.

Framing your brand’s marketing strategy with an experience is a completely different approach from traditional advertising. Many marketing tactics aim to get the most amount of viewership. But experiential marketing focuses more on customer engagement. To do that, brands need to focus on evoking an emotional response from people and using technology to make that experience memorable. The best way to do that is by telling a captivating story while incorporating relevant brand elements. And around that story, the visual details need to reflect the brand’s overall vision and deliver a stimulating customer experience.

Benefits of Experiential Marketing

two coca cola vending machines placed next to each other

For businesses, experiential marketing differentiates them from their competitors. And for truly great experiences, customers will not only remember your brand, they’ll perceive your brand in a positive light. And customers feel special about experiencing something unique that many people haven’t experienced before. If they enjoy the event, they’ll recommend your brand to others, essentially creating brand advocates. And even with all the different marketing avenues out there today, word-of-mouth is still one of the most effective marketing tactics. Additionally, the customer engagement that experiential marketing provides leads to increased return on investment (ROI), customers, and sales.

With so many distractions out there today, experiential marketing breaks the traditional marketing mold of disrupting customers’ experience. Instead, it elicits an emotional response through engaging visual storytelling. And while traditional methods strive for increased reach and awareness, experiential marketing aims to grow engagement and maintain interest memorably. In the end, customers are happier throughout the entire customer journey, and it results in higher retention rates. For small businesses looking for more long-term marketing success, experiential marketing is worth a try.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #brand #brandadvocates #branding #brandperception #business #businesstips #cocacola #customerengagement #digitalmarketing #engagement #experience #experientialmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 131 “Inexperience Does Not Equal Incompetence”

Sep

1

There’s nothing you can’t learn. So, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help when you don’t understand something. Yet, it happens all the time in business. Not knowing something doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. But many make that assumption when it just isn’t true. All it means is that you’re inexperienced in this area. Just because you don’t currently know how to do something, it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

You can figure it out on the way. And there will always be someone else who can teach you. Even if it’s from an online article or YouTube tutorial. So-called experts are just people with more experience than you. And even then, just because they’re experts, it doesn’t make them infallible. They can make mistakes too, and they don’t always have the answers. So, don’t be afraid of not knowing something. And remember to always keep learning.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businessadvice #businessowner #businesstips #company #entrepreneur #marketing #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 130 “Business Growth Takes Time“

Aug

25

As a small business, the goal is always to grow. And helping small businesses grow online is our specialty. But that growth very rarely happens overnight. Even when things go viral, it usually only lasts a few weeks before people’s interests lessen and that momentum ends. Sustained growth, however, is something that happens gradually over time. But to achieve that steady increase, it helps to break up your big goals into smaller ones.

There’s a reason why sales goals are generally reviewed quarterly. Breaking them down into shorter-term goals makes them easier to manage and attain. It’s still important to keep the bigger picture in mind, but you still need something actionable to help reach those goals. Smaller, short-term goals achieve that. They create a guideline with clear steps, making it easier to measure success and determine where to go next. It makes the overall process easier for everyone, managers, and employees alike. Most importantly, it helps businesses in the long run not only grow, but maintain that growth.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #goal #goals #growth #marketing #marketingtips #officetips #pacificsoftwarepublishing #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #smallbusiness

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 129 “Good Marketing Takes Time”

Aug

18

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing can be a hard task sometimes because it regularly takes time for results to occur. In fact, it takes longer than it would in a traditional business-to-customer (B2C) marketing campaign. But the key to any marketing effort is being patient. Marketing, in essence, is all about experimenting and figuring out what works for your business. While there are many industry-proven tactics and strategies, what works for one company won’t necessarily work for another.

For business owners, that can be a frustrating process. It’s tempting to give up altogether because it’s hard waiting to see if your efforts will be worth it in the end. But it’s essential. To truly find success, marketers need to find the right balance between all marketing facets like your audience, channel, timing, promotional offer, and more. In trying times, look at what’s working and what isn’t. It’ll help you figure out where to pivot your strategy and how to proceed. So, no matter how difficult it can be, just remember to be patient. You’ll figure it out, eventually.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #b2c #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #maretingtips #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #technology

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

Aug

16

Sales and marketing are commonly used interchangeably in business, but they don’t mean the same thing. Sales and marketing work in tandem to increase revenue. When both strike a perfect balance, businesses benefit in the long run. So, it’s an understatement to say that those in sales and marketing can learn from each other.

Although they are different, it’s not surprising that many people think they’re the same. Mostly because they have the same end goal, and that is to generate revenue. What makes them different is how they go about it and what parts of the customer journey they affect.

Marketing Professionals and Salespeople

In short, marketing is how potential customers become aware of the company and what it’s selling. Those efforts, when done effectively, encourages customers to engage with the company to purchase or at least show interest in the product. Sales, however, pushes them across the finish line. Neither can work without the other.

Marketing efforts target much larger groups of people who may be or become interested in what the company’s trying to sell. Therefore, marketing professionals focus on long-term strategies, and they aim to meet customers’ demands. Those efforts are all done through indirect methods like advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, etc. Then, it creates a trigger that will lead customers toward sales.

Salespeople, however, are more often working directly with customers after they’ve already made contact with the company. Sales aims at understanding and meeting customers’ demands and desires. While their goals are generally more short-term, arming the company with more information about what customers are looking for only helps with future sales efforts.

Sales and Marketing Working Together

To remember the difference between marketing, think of them as the internet and email. They both use the same technologies, but one can’t exist without the other. Bringing awareness to products and driving interest through marketing efforts lead potential customers closer to the purchase stage. Sales comes in at the end to meet customers’ needs. Therefore, facilitating both to work well together will allow businesses to reach prospects no matter where they are in the customer journey.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #branding #business #businesstips #customersupport #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingprofessionals #marketingtips #sales #salespeople #smallbusiness #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 128 “Delegating as a Small Business Owner”

Aug

11

As a small business owner, it’s hard not to want to be involved in everything. After all, it’s your company. So, it’s not surprising to learn that many entrepreneurs try to do it all on their own in the beginning. But no one can be good at everything. Running a startup involves many tasks that one person alone cannot tackle on their own. So, being able to delegate is an important skill business owners need to learn.

The easiest way to do this is by focusing on what you’re best at. Then, you can hire experienced and talented people to do the rest. If you don’t know where to start, write down everything that needs to get done for your business on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Then, sort through which tasks you can pass off to someone else. If you try to do it all yourself all the time, it won’t be long before you feel burnt out. For someone investing so much of their time, money, and hard work into a company, it’s hard to give up control. But it’s a necessary skill for businesses to thrive.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businessowner #businesstips #delegating #entrepreneur #marketing #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #startup #tasks

How Voice Assistants Are Changing Marketing

Aug

9

Are you one of the many people who use a voice assistant like Siri, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant? Insider Intelligence predicts that 123.5 million adults will use a voice assistant at least once a month in the U.S. this year. While this technology isn’t particularly new anymore, it is still rife with opportunities from a marketing perspective that many are unaware of as well as not taking advantage of.

For example, people largely use voice assistants to get quick answers to their questions. Voice assistants, as a result, emphasize what’s called featured snippets. If you type a question into a search engine, you’ll get an immediate answer. And that’s because, at the top, there will be some bolded text that should answer your question. But that text is pulled from a specific website. That whole section is the featured snippet. And for voice assistants, that’s where they pull their answers from. And website owners, in turn, will get a bump in website traffic.

How It Affects Marketing

From a marketing standpoint, this only enforces the need for great search engine optimization (SEO) for your site. If your site is well optimized, it’s more likely it’ll pop up as the first search result, making it the most relevant to Google’s algorithm. If you’ve optimized your site well enough, it’ll show at the top when users search certain queries and you’ll receive better results. And luckily, we here at PSPINC have a lot of experience helping customers with their website SEO.

But voice assistants have more marketing potential for business as well. For example, did you know you can order a pizza from Domino’s using Amazon’s Alexa? Well, you can. And with it being an Amazon product, you can also order products off of Amazon with just your voice. The biggest benefit that voice assistants offer is convenience. And it's a convenience that’s just unmatched when compared to other platforms.

So, while voice assistants have gained popularity over the years, it still isn’t used as a marketing tool on a wide scale just yet. But those who are, reap the benefits they provide. And advertisers predict this will change in the next few years. While it doesn’t exist yet, voice assistants could integrate sponsored ads by having advertisers pay to be mentioned first when users ask a question like, “what Italian restaurants are near me?”. With Spotify already personalizing its ads based on what users listen to, it’s not too big of a stretch.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #amazon #amazonalexa #blog #business #businesstips #cortana #digitalmarketing #google #googlehome #marketing #searchengineoptimization #seo #siri #smallbusiness #tech #technology #voice #voiceassistants #web #website #websites #webtools

PSPINC Official Company Blog

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PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 133 “Serving Your Customers”

5 Post-Purchase Marketing Tactics to Increase Retention

1. Customer Support

2. Email Marketing

3. Customer Feedback

4. Refund Policy/Returns Process

5. Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC)

PSPINC What’s New Newsletter Vol. 132 "Perseverance"

What is Experiential Marketing?

Benefits of Experiential Marketing

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 131 “Inexperience Does Not Equal Incompetence”

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 130 “Business Growth Takes Time“

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 129 “Good Marketing Takes Time”

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing

Marketing Professionals and Salespeople

Sales and Marketing Working Together

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 128 “Delegating as a Small Business Owner”

How Voice Assistants Are Changing Marketing

How It Affects Marketing

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