In the digital age, it’s become easier than ever for consumers to stay up to date with their favorite brands and businesses. In addition to enjoying the products and services for which these brands are known, many consumers now wish to stay current with the inner workings of the businesses they support. So, if you rarely – if ever – provide your patrons with updates, it’s high time to rectify this. As you’ll find, there’s no shortage of low-stress ways for small businesses to keep customers in the know.
Regularly Update Your Social Media Accounts
Social media outlets can be invaluable tools for keeping your customer base in the know. Of course, in order to use social media to your fullest advantage, you’ll need to post updates on a consistent basis, thereby giving people a reason to follow you and providing followers with incentive to check back. So, in addition to creating accounts for your business on the web’s leading social platforms, make a point of updating each of your accounts on a daily basis. Furthermore, keep in mind that the ideal number of daily updates varies by platform. For example, while you can probably get by with a single daily update on Facebook and Instagram, you should post between one and five daily updates on Twitter. However, since the same posts can be used across multiple platforms, you won’t necessarily need to craft platform-specific updates.
Through trial and error, you’ll be able to determine the most opportune times of day to update each of your accounts. You can also increase the number of eyeballs on each post by actively encouraging your followers to share them. As you’re likely to discover, a share from a large account can increase your engagement numbers exponentially.
If you lack the time or inclination to monitor and update your business’s various social media accounts, consider recruiting a dedicated social media manager. Per the title, this person’s job will entail creating engaging posts for all of your accounts, interacting with followers and overseeing every other aspect of your social media marketing efforts.
Send Out an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter can be a fantastic vehicle for bringing loyal patrons up to speed on the latest developments within your business. So, if you regularly have trouble condensing information on social media, you’re likely to prefer the newsletter route. For best results, your newsletter will need to be well-written, well-edited and easy for people outside of your business to understand.
If neither you nor anyone on your staff have much experience with writing or editing, enlisting the aid of freelance writers and editors is strongly recommended. Although you’ll still have final say and retain full creative control over the project, seasoned writers and editors will be able to give life to any stories or feature articles you come up with. Additionally, depending on how successful this venture turns out to be, you may even want to consider bringing certain content creators on full-time.
Use Automated Text Messaging
Automated text messaging is another amazing tool for keeping your customers informed. Since automated text messaging tends to have a more personal, intimate feel than email and social media, patrons are liable to feel as if you’re speaking directly to them through your texts. So, if your business has never utilized automated text messaging in the past, don’t hesitate to start exploring your options. Fortunately, you should have no problem finding automated text messaging examples online.
Maintain a Blog on Your Website
You can inform your audience while bolstering visitor traffic by maintaining a regularly updated blog on your business’s website. Not only will updating your blog on a consistent basis provide customers with incentive to keep coming back, it may also help your site obtain a more favorable search ranking. Since search engines take update frequency (among other things) into account when generating results, regular updates can be a boon to your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
In the age of copious information, it’s only natural that consumers would want to stay up to date with their favorite brands and businesses. As much as they enjoy the products and services for which these businesses are known, they also relish staying abreast of important announcements and upcoming changes. So, if your business isn’t making active efforts to keep customers in the know, you’d do well to change that. With the pointers discussed above at your disposal, you should have no trouble ensuring that your customer base stays well-informed.
