For businesses today, after-sales is becoming an ever more important aspect of the customer journey. By giving your customers a great experience after the sale has been completed you’ll show that your business isn’t just after their money! It will immediately set your business apart and leave a lasting impression.
After sales can generally be thought of as the part of the customer-business interaction that occurs after the sale has been completed. It can involve actions for both the customer and the business.
Good after sales service from the point of view of a business involves making sure the customer is satisfied with the product or service it provided. This can involve surveys, follow-up emails, a phone call, or any other form of communication.
For a business this is vital for building a reputation as a top-class organisation. But it’s also an important step for learning and improving. Negative feedback is equally, if not more, important than positive feedback to understand what your business can do to perform even better.
The after sales process also involves action from the customer. This can be referrals, reviews, and repeat sales.
This highlights the importance of after sales services for businesses. To get referrals, positive reviews and customers who come back time and time again you’ll want to look after them every step of the way!
For businesses that operate in a local area like Edinburgh, getting feedback from customers can be a really important step to growing your business. Positive reviews and referrals travel fast, and you can quickly find your services are in demand in Edinburgh and beyond!
You should be utilising content in your post-sales processes. This can be used to really enhance your customers’ experience and give them a lasting, positive impression of your business.
A “thank you” message, a helpful video on what to expect next, or maybe a tutorial can go a long way towards building a more positive image of your business. It can be a good idea to make this content personal and involve someone from the team they already know. By showing them a face they recognise they’ll immediately feel that connection with your business.
A follow up phone call or email is a pretty obvious, but hugely important, step in a good after sales process. Ask how they are finding the product/service and if there is anything they need help with.
Communication goes two ways, though. It’s vital to respond to any communication you might receive from your clients. Failure to do so can irreparably damage the relationship you built so carefully throughout the sales process. You need to prove that you genuinely care about your clients, so communication and customer service is a must!
A good business should have a way of dealing with complaints. Whether that’s a complaint about your product, customer service or any other aspect of your business, you need to be able to handle it in a professional manner.
A good process is key to this. Whether you have a system within your team or a a complaints section on your website, customers should be able to voice their grievances in a clear way. This also makes it easier for you to understand the needs of your customers and improvements you can make.
Look, nobody likes criticism (well most people, anyway). But the ability to listen to negative feedback is important to know how to improve your business in future. If you genuinely listen and empathise with a client, and take their comments on board, there’s a good chance they will be far less angry and critical than if you dismiss their concerns! Take ownership of mistakes you’ve made and you’ll find that the relationship you’ve built with the customer won’t be badly damaged and you won’t have lost them for good.
As well as negative feedback, positive feedback is useful too. Maybe you’ll find out you’ve been doing something well which you hadn’t considered, and this can help guide your future sales.
For many customers, they’ll always suspect you’re just trying to close the sale, no matter how many times you ask “how are the kids doing?” But by showing you care in post-sale you’ll put these suspicions to bed!
Here are some of the benefits of a great after sales service:
So once you’ve wowed your customers with your sales process, building trust and giving them a great experience, you will truly seal the deal and turn them into raving fans by giving them care and attention in the after-sale stage. This takes a bit more effort, but it can be a priceless investment!
When creating video content, don’t just use it for the same kind of content you normally make. Do something different! Video is a great tool for doing something a bit creative, something different that will make your business stand out. Whether sharing stories from your team or showing some of your work, there’s so much you can do instead of simply promoting your product or service.
There’s a constant stream of businesses using social media for one purpose: to sell as much as possible. What’s the problem with that? Don’t all businesses want to sell as much as possible?
Whilst this may be largely true, it’s about how businesses go about doing this. Video content gives you the opportunity to stand apart from the transactional, sales-type content that your competitors will be churning out. Instead of showing how great your product is, show how great your business is! Talk about your background, your team, the business’ journey, your values – these will all separate you from the usual stream of content. Video is amazing for capturing the attention, but once you’ve captured it you need to hold it. By making something a bit out of the ordinary you’re far more likely to keep people engaged.
Read our blogs on tips for social media marketing and best practices to nail your social media pages!
Video isn’t just for social media! This is a big mistake that businesses make when creating and distributing the videos they create. When you create a piece of content that takes as much time, effort and money as video does, you want to get the maximum return on your investment.
Think of your videos as digital assets that can be used and repurposed across various platforms and distribution channels. Create content that you can use on your social media by all means, but that shouldn’t be the sole purpose. Video is great for websites, blogs, newsletters, and any other way you can think of for interacting with clients. Use it to engage, educate and build relationships between your business and customer base.
As far as the customer journey is concerned, this is another area where video content if often under-utilised.
Businesses will create a flashy video to promote a product no problem. But this is too short sighted and only focuses on capturing the attention of potential customers - the very beginning of the customer journey. To really harness video and get the most out of this medium, it should be used across the customer journey. From initial engagement right through to after-sales, video content has a huge role to play.
Of course video is great for capturing attention, but it can do so much more than that. It can play a massive role in a customer’s decision to buy if they have had all their questions and concerns addressed with helpful, informative videos from your team. Then in after-sales video content can be used to maintain that relationship that your previous videos would have done so well at building! By affording extra care to this stage of the customer journey you’ll do wonders for your retention, referrals and reputation.
Read more about guiding the customer journey!
It’s all very well being told to make videos, but what should you be making them about?
There’s lots that video is good at, but most of all it’s great for building trust with clients. This is done through educational, honest, authentic content that adds value to their lives in one way or another.
This could be in the form of a meet the team videos, product tutorials, how to find us timelapses, customer testimonials, or showcases of your recent work. These will all build up that all important relationship with your clients and create a great impression of your business before you’ve even met!
Have a look at our article on video ideas to increase conversion rates for more helpful information.
Video offers so much value, but with the cost of making them you want to be sure you’re getting it right. Use this information to not only create great videos for your business, but also to implement them across your marketing channels. Send a “Just saying hello” video when someone signs up to your mailing list, create a time-lapse of a recent project, or have videos for your FAQ section on your website to give it that much more of a personal feel. You’ll see the benefits with great relationships with customers and increased conversion rates in no time!
Businesses today have to find the balance between inbound and outbound marketing. This blog compares the advantages and disadvantages of both inbound and outbound marketing, their strengths and weaknesses, and what type of business each is suited to.
Inbound marketing is about drawing people to your business through value-adding, interesting and informative content. These might be tutorials, educational blogs, or meet the team videos, for instance.
Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is about promotion. Adverts, brochures; anything that actively seeks to engage new customers. This puts the emphasis on the business to find customers, rather than allowing the business to be found by the right clients.
Inbound marketing is great for businesses who already have a foothold in their industry. By creating valuable content for clients, you’ll gain credibility as a trustworthy business. This goes for SEO as well, where your website will rank higher on results pages and increase traffic as a result.
You’ll also earn higher quality traffic through your website and socials, leading to better leads and a higher conversion rate. The targeted nature of inbound content means people who are actively searching for the exact things you have to offer will find you and use your services.
It’s also a far more efficient use of your money. With a learner, more condensed focus that draws in potential clients with a far higher chance of conversion, the return on investment will be significantly more than shooting into the dark and hoping for the best!
For new businesses who are more or less unknown in their space, it can be good to produce promotional content over inbound. Inbound marketing is great for growing businesses, but maybe it isn’t the best option for getting businesses off the ground in the first place. The return on investment might be great, but it’s a long-term investment. By creating value-adding content you will see a gradual increase in traffic, leads and sales. If you need sales immediately, inbound marketing probably isn’t for you.
To make the most of your inbound marketing strategies there are multiple things you need to be doing right.
Inbound marketing uses systems that are hard to track. For instance, how can you tell what leads you got from social media? Or your email campaigns? This isn’t to say that you don’t get leads from inbound marketing - you certainly do. It’s just more difficult to see where they have come from and to quantify the effectiveness of each piece of content.
Outbound marketing generates leads in the short-term - something that inbound doesn’t do so well. This makes it a preferable option for those businesses looking to make gains here and now.
Through outbound marketing a business may also find it easier to track their marketing assets. You can clearly see the number of clicks a Facebook ad gets, for instance, but you can’t necessarily tell who bought from you because they read a great blog. As a result you can see what’s been most effective and put more of your funds into that area.
Compared to inbound marketing, outbound marketing can seem transactional and less personal to consumers. As a result, it is challenging for businesses to build fruitful relationships with clients through outbound marketing alone. It will also be tricky to earn the trust of consumers; they will most likely think you are just wanting their money!
Since outbound marketing targets people who might not otherwise find your business, it’s likely that there will be wastage and inefficiency. This lowers the return on investment and means you will be spending money to reach people who might have no interest in what you are offering. Of course, with paid ads you are able to target more specific groups of people, but there is still no guarantee there will be interest.
For businesses who are looking to grow their reputation as a way of marketing themselves, outbound marketing will do little to help. As referenced earlier, the transactional nature of outbound marketing doesn’t build trust or show expertise; it is not value-adding in the same way inbound marketing is.
To say either inbound or outbound marketing is better than the other would not be true, of course. Both have their advantages and disadvantages; their strengths and weaknesses. That means there’s room for both strategies for all businesses’ marketing campaigns.
For short-term results - something that might be a priority for new businesses - outbound marketing is essential. This will get your business up and running and secure you sales immediately. However, for businesses who have a bit of a foothold and are looking to grow their reputation and increase their efficiency, inbound marketing is a must. The content you use for inbound marketing will be long-term assets and continue to benefit your business for long into the future.
Get in touch to plan your content strategy!
When a lot of businesses consider creating content, their first thought is often social media. Social media marketing is a huge part of marketing campaigns for businesses today, but it is by no means the only place where content should be created for.
Content should play a key role for businesses in guiding the customer journey. From initially capturing the attention to checking in with a customer in the after-sales process, there are always opportunities to enhance your interactions with content. But getting this right takes planning, direction and thought.
All of your content should have a “why” behind it. Why do you want to make it? What is its purpose? Are you just doing it because someone told you it was a good idea, or does it have real motivation behind it? A cohesive and well thought-out plan for your content can completely transform the way your business interacts with clients. Content isn’t an afterthought or something to focus on if you get around to it. It should be a priority to grow your brand, increase your sales and drive your business forward!
I said that content isn’t just for social media - but there is a place for social media content!
Social media offers a free platform for promoting your business, reaching new clients and building relationships. There is one thing that content for social media should do above all else, though: engage your audience!
On social media, businesses have to battle for the attention of clients not only with competitors, but with everything else that is being shared! So it’s important that social media content has an interesting visual style and is short and snappy. This captures attention and keeps it there!
But social media content shouldn’t be made purely for the sake of capturing attention. There is scope to add value, too. With educational, entertaining or useful content you will build up a trusting relationship between your clients and your business. So once you’ve captured the attention, your goal should be to keep it there with value-adding content.
Read up on our advice for social media content.
Your website plays a crucial role in your customer journey. Prospective clients may land on your website after searching for the products or services you provide, or perhaps after seeing a social media post. This means that by the time someone enters your website they’re already further along the customer journey than if they’re seeing your social media posts. You don’t need to focus so much on capturing attention, rather the aim should be to add value. If someone has entered your website this is your chance to impress and convince them that your products or services are what they have been looking for.
To make your website as appealing and effective as possible it should do these things:
- Explain what your business does.
- Connect visitors with your business and your people.
- Educate and engage.
If it does these things you will see conversion rates increase and sales as a result. Some good ideas for the type of content you should be using on your website include: tutorials, FAQs, testimonials and team bios.
Read more about how to increase conversion rates through your website.
Email campaigns are a great way to build a trusting and personal relationship between your business and customers. They offer a way to directly communicate with someone, so content for email marketing should be tailored to this use. This separates email marketing from social media marketing or paid ads.
In most cases, if someone is receiving an email they’ll know about your business. Again, this is different from social media marketing. You don’t need to focus so much on making your brand recognisable or memorable. Customers will be familiar with you already, so they’ll be further along in the customer journey. This means your focus should be different in accordance with this.
Here are some ideas for types of content that you could include:
As you can see, content can play an important and varied role in many aspects of your business. Throughout the customer journey, on multiple platforms, content can transform the way your business interacts with clients. Having a plan for how you want to use your content to enhance these interactions can give your business the edge over your competitors and generate trusting, long-term relationships between you and your customers.
Get in touch to see how we can improve your content strategy!
Video production is the process of planning, shooting and editing a video. As video plays a forever-growing role in marketing campaigns, video production is becoming an increasingly important thing for businesses in Edinburgh and the UK as a whole to be aware of.
As a result of video’s growing popularity, more business owners are wondering what video production is and what’s involved in taking something from an initial idea to a polished, brilliant piece of video content. The answer to the question is varied and depends massively on the type of equipment you’re using, what type of video you’re shooting and where this video will be used. A video meant to be used on your website might be very different to a funny clip you post on your TikTok channel, for instance.
With most videos, though, there are some general rules and guidelines that are followed in the production process. If you’re curious as to what these are then read on!
The first stage of video production is maybe not the most glamorous, but it’s vital for making sure everything that follows goes smoothly!
Pre-production involves gathering and finalising your ideas for the video (what will it be about? What are your goals? What do you want to get out of it?); the location; a script (if needed); required equipment (how many cameras? Additional lighting? Microphones? Teleprompter?); and who will be required to be present.
Top Tip: A good place to start with this can be thinking about your end goals. Once you know what you want from your video you can start to piece together everything else and it should flow easily from it.
Next, production!
This is where you get to the filming location and the magic happens. If you’ve done your pre-production stage well then you should know exactly what you’re doing at this stage and it will just be a case of following your plan.
It involves setting up your equipment, making sure your camera angles are correct, setting up microphones (you’d be surprised how easy it is to forget to turn these on!) and, finally, shooting!
Top Tip: As with anything, it’s possible that not everything will go completely to plan, so you’ve got to be ready to improvise! Maybe you’ll think of something you hadn’t considered before and want to shoot an impromptu, unscripted video. Sometimes these can end up better than the stuff you’d prepared for, so don’t think that just because you hadn’t planned for it, it won’t be great!
The third stage is where you really start to see the fruits of your labour. Your hard work in the pre-production and production stages will come to light in post-production.
This stage involves taking your footage and importing it to whatever editing software you use, then getting to work editing it! This doesn’t necessarily mean making it the smoothest, most clinical video ever - it can work well for businesses to keep some of their own character in it.
You’ll also want to get your branding across in your videos. So making sure you have assets like your logo, fonts and any specific music you’d like to use handy is important for making a video instantly recognisable as yours.
Top tip: When editing your video look out for funny bits to include in a blooper reel! These are amazing for using on social media and show a more natural and authentic side of your business that people love to see just as much as your professional side.
Lastly you’ll want to do all the finishing touches. This means tailoring the video to whatever platform you want to use it for and uploading it. For instance, if you want to use it on your YouTube channel you’ll want to have a great looking thumbnail to accompany it, or if you’re using it for Instagram you’ll probably want it to be in a 1:1 aspect ratio.
These last bits may seem a bit trivial, but they’re as important as anything else. You wouldn’t want to spend time perfecting your video in the post-production phase only to make it unusable - or sub-par - for the platforms you want it to be seen the most!
Top Tip: Remember in the pre-production phase where I said to begin by thinking about your goals? If you did that then your video should already be perfect for whichever platform, or platforms, you planned it to be on! Again, this is why planning is so important for making sure the rest of the process is smooth and takes up the least amount of time.
There you have it, the stages of video production. If you’re a business owner and thinking about implementing video into your marketing strategies then this explanation should come in handy. Follow our advice - we’re pros, after all - and you’ll soon have some great video content that add tonnes of value to your business and client base!
