• Innovative Strategies That Create More Profits

Tag: Marketing

Storytelling In Businesses Is An Effective Sales Tool

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

Why don’t more entrepreneurs use stories to explain their businesses?

The reason maybe they don’t understand the important benefits of storytelling in business

or how compelling stories are. But, defining and crafting a story takes time. Another misconception

is that stories are what the marketing department does.

True. But every employee should be able to tell the company’s story.

But your story needs to start long before there is a marketing department.

If it doesn’t, you could be trying to wordsmith your sales communications later for short-term

tactical gains because you don’t have a competitive advantage. Why?

Most companies have competitors, and everyone may be selling a similar product

at the same price with the same service.

Here is what Ben Horowitz, at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, says:

“The mistake people make is thinking the story is just about marketing, No.

The story is the strategy. If you make your story better, you make your strategy better.”

The story is the engine that drives successful companies. And with today’s technology,

you can tell your story, many times for free, to individuals anywhere in the world.

That makes stories more important than ever.

 

Benefits Of A Storytelling Strategy

 

Stories will help you build and grow your company and your brand.

According to Kevin Smith, the world’s most valuable, innovative, and fastest-growing companies

know the story behind the brand regardless of age, industry, or size. (Airbnb, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, etc.) delivers success.

 

Or Simon Sinek, author of “Start With Why,” put it another way,

“Remember, people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

 

The following are some of the benefits you will get from a well-crafted story.

 

Stories help you develop and sell your idea. 

Stories simplify big ideas in a way that sticks in one’s mind.

Data can persuade people, but data doesn’t inspire them to act.

Stories help you attract and keep talent and then improve efficiency by keeping everyone on the same page.

Stories help you transfer your beliefs to your audience.

Stories help you keep all employees on the same page and focused on the same mission.

Stories give your company a short- and long-term advantage over competitors.

Facts are essential, but sories connect and motivate people.

People remember stories but not many facts.

 

Stories help you build a brand.

 

Stories  will build a foundation of trust, but a customer’s personal experience will cement

that trust into something that lasts,

Buyers often look to the story to justify the purchase.

Stories can raise the value and, therefore, the price you can charge.

You need a better story if you can’t get a higher price for your brand.

 

Stories help you market your brand to potential customers.

When done right, stories can significantly boost lead generation by many times normal.

Stories grow your sales pipeline — stories make it easier for your ideal customer to recognize your value.

Stories shorten your sales cycle and increase the sale ratio

Stories build your sales pipeline — stories make it easier for your ideal customer to understand your value

Stories Improve the quality of your sales forecast because they attract better-qualified prospects

 

If you are looking to take your startup to the next level, stories are a great way to accomplish that.

Jim Zitek 

 Innovative strategies that create more profits

15 Benefits Of Storytelling In Businesses

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 Why don’t more entrepreneurs use stories to explain their business? The reason maybe they don’t understand the important benefits of storytelling in business or how compelling stories are. But, defining, and crafting a story takes time, Another misconception is that stories are what the marketing department does. True.

But your story needs to start long before there is a marketing department. If it doesn’t, you could be trying to wordsmith your sales communications later for short-term tactical gains because you don’t have a competitive advantage. Why? Most companies have competitors, and everyone is selling the same product at the same price with the same service.

Here is what Ben Horowitz, venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz says: “The mistake people make is thinking the story is just about marketing, No. The story is the strategy. If you make your story better, you make your strategy better.”

The story is the engine that drives successful companies. And with today’s technology, you can tell your story, many times for free, to individuals anywhere in the world. That makes stories more important than ever.

Benefits Of A Storytelling Strategy

Stories will help you build and grow your company and your brand. According to Kevin Smith, the world’s most valuable, innovative, and fastest-growing companies, regardless of age, industry, or size – know the story behind the brand. (Airbnb, Apple, Facebook, Tesla, etc.) delivers success.

Or Simon Sinek, author of “Start With Why” put it another way, “Remember, people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, And what you do simply proves what you believe.” Simon Sinek, author.

The following are some of the benefits you will get from a well-crafted story.

Stories help you develop and sell your idea.  

  •  Stories simplify big ideas in a way that sticks in one’s mind.

  • Data can persuade people, but data doesn’t inspire them to act.

  • Stories help you attract and keep talent and then improve efficiency by keeping everyone on the same page.

  • Stories help you transfer your beliefs to your audience.

  • Stories help you keep all employees on the same page and focused on the same mission.

  • Stories give your company a short- and long-term advantage over competitors.

  • Facts are essential, but sories connect and motivate people.

  • People remember stories but not many facts.

Stories help you build a brand.

  • Stories  will build a foundation of trust, but a customers’ personal experience will cement that trust into something that lasts,

  • Buyers often look to the story to justify the purchase.

  • Stories can raise the value and, therefore, the price you can charge. If you can’t get a higher price for your brand, you need a better story.

Stories help you market your brand to potential customers.

  • Stories, when done right, can significantly boost lead generation by many times normal.

  • Stories grow your sales pipeline — stories make it easier for your ideal customer to recognize your value

  • Stories shorten your sales cycle and increase sale ratio

  • stories build your sales pipeline — stories make it easier for your ideal customer to understand your value

  • Stories Improve the quality of your sales forecast because they attract better-qualified prospects

If you are looking to take your startup to the next level, stories are a great way to accomplish that.

Also, see our blog,” Five Quick, Effective Ways To Tell Your Business Story.”

Jim Zitek/ Harbor Capital Group 

We empower entrepreneurs with information, insights, and the conviction they need to find, develop, and embed their stories throughout the development process to build successful companies.

How do you restart a stalled early-stage company

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 Often startups are launched before the founder(s) have determined the viability of their business idea, and eventually, for many reasons, the startup runs into trouble. Other times, there are Initial revenues, but they are irregular, don’t last, or they don’t grow as expected. How can you fix this?

In either case, you need to start diagnosing the problem by using the same analysis you would use to determine the viability of your business idea initially. If you haven’t launched yet, you need to assess the feasibility of your business idea before you launch. However, if you have begun, this same analysis would be the fastest way to diagnose the problem and see where you might be able to change, modify, or pivot to restart the pathway to success. 

First Look At The Market  

1 What is the market size or demand? If you don’t know, you can get some idea from Google Keyword Learning Tool (number of people searching for a keyword) https://ads.google.com/home/resources/using-google-ads-keyword-planner/

Also, Buzzsumo ( https://buzzsumo.com/ (number of people each day talking about your product).

2 Who are your competitors?  

The more you know, the fewer surprises. This analysis also gives you an enormous amount of information about products, pricing, various business models, etc 

3 Is this market trending, and in which direction?  

Which direction is market headed. Google Trends, https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US can help you learn if a trend is growing or not.

4 Who are your target customers?

Who is a buyer, influencer, disrupter, etc.? You can use websites like Quantcast https://www.quantcast.com/ and Alexa https://www.alexa.com to find out more about demographic information of the potential market.

You can also learn about people in your target audience from Twitter. Who follows your interest, demographics, age, sex, etc.? Hashtag your keywords.  

5 What does it cost to acquire customers?   

Acquisition costs are critical.  How will you acquire customers, and what will it cost to get them? One way is to find out how to use Landing Pages. 

Using social media, AdWords, etc., test for people searching for your product and your messaging, and drive them to a landing page. Make sure you have a strong Call For Action based on your value proposition aimed at getting the information you want, email information, or potential sales. From these click-through rates, you can begin to estimate conversion rates and costs. Plus, you can continue to correspond with them for more information.

 

6 Challenge your assumptions

You likely will get some information with which you will disagree. You don’t want to accept everything at face value (in discussions with prospects also), but you have to challenge your strong held biases, You are looking for something different. Something that will lead you to a better way to position or operate your company.   

It may take many trials and evaluations to get all the information you need, so keep at it until you are confident you have insights that will lead you forward.

Has your market assessment changed?   

This blog is the first of three blogs on this subject I plan to write in the future. The next one will deal with product viability.

You might also like 15 Benefits Of Storytelling In Businesses

Jim Zitek, Harblor Capital Group Inc

We empower entrepreneurs with information, insights, and the conviction they need to find, develop, and embed their stories throughout the development process to build successful companies.

How To Use Your Website to Build  An Enormous eMail List

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 Encourage visitors who go to your website to signup for your email list and make it easy for them to sign up. In today’s market, you have to build trust before you can convert prospects into customers. One way to do that is with popup displays on one or more pages on your website. It’s easy to do. You can do it yourself and it’s very inexpensive, 

You can use popup displays in many ways, to capture names and email addresses. A/B testing of messages, product or service value propositions, and more. The email signups can even go automatically into your mail program (for example Constant Contact or MailChimp).  

There is also a lot of analytical information you can get from the program. I use OptinMonster and  following are some basic things to think about when designing your program,

 1 Create a clear, very visible call to action (e.g., email address)

2 Personalize your popups (friendly tone and referral source if you know it, or special segment if the source was targeted).  

3. Offer an irresistible incentive (special white paper, informative blog, special price, etc.)  

4 Use a design that stands out (but it should also blend into your site because it is your offer, not some company’s advertisement. 

 There are many different kinds of popup designs and many different ways to use them depending on your needs and marketing strategy.  Ask yourself how you could use these popup ads, and if interested, put a plan together to use them effectively. It does take some time to prepare and develop the materials you offer (blogs, newsletters, white papers, etc.).

You might also want to look at our blog post on how to write effective headlines at https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com/how-to-write-headlines/

If you have questions, you can always go to Contact and email me.

How To Write Headlines

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

What makes a headline go viral?

Following are some suggestions from Optinmonster.com

People want to share, want to increase the quality of their relationships with others, and want to increase their self-esteem and standing with their peers.

There is a magic 3-word phrase “will make you ____” This states that the topic will have an impact on you and often an emotional one.

There are five basic types of headlines that go viral

 

1 List posts — 50 Smart Ways To Segment Your Market

2 How to posts — How to optimize your site for the holidays

3 Resource posts — the ultimate guide to a simple option vs a double option — which is better?

4, Question post — How long should it take to earn revenues?

5. Heart-to–heart posts — An open letter to writers struggling with their first book

 

Now, if you add an infectious agent to those headlines your chances of going viral are much greater because they trigger emotion.  For example awe, anger, anxiety, fear, joy, lust, surprise, shock.

Examples

“40 belief-shaking remarks from a ruthless nonconformist”

Type: list post

Infectious agents: awe, anger, surprise, shock, anxiety

Belief-shaking — challenges you by stating its content will shake your beliefs

Ruthless — image of someone who doesn’t care

Nonconformist — someone unafraid and nonconventional

 

“How to hit 1,000,000 visitors in a year by blogging”

Type: How to

Infectious agents: awe, surprise, shock

“1,000,000” who wouldn’t want that. Even if you are skeptical, you will want to check

“In a year” desirable deadline

“Blogging” pinpoints its target audience and their biggest desire

Net: promise the desired result and a timescale for achieving it,

 

“Where to find free images”

Type: Resource post

Infectious agents: Awe, joy

Net: look for common questions or problems that people have, and write a headline that directly answers their question or solves a problem.

 

“On dying, mothers, and fighting for your ideas”

Type: Heart-to-heart

Infectious agents: awe, anger, surprise, shock, fear

“Dying” — strong emotive word, it congers up images in people’s minds

“Mothers” — emotive whatever your relationship with mother 

“Fighting” — emotive, congers up images in people’s minds of struggle, aggression

Net: fighting for your idea suggests motivation and inspiration 

 

“Are you good enough?”

Type: Question

Infectious agents: anger, anxiety, fear, surprise, shock

Net: are you good enough to challenges people. It asks a question everyone asks themselves, Ask a big question that drums up deep, human desires.

 

How to start writing viral headlines

1 Get to really know your audience

2 Know where your audience hangs out (media,etc.)

3 Discover your audiences’ infectious agents (follow them on social media, what are they sharing, any patterns in words and phrases? (topics, headlines, links)

4 Lay in those infectious agents.

Are Search Engines Missing Your Website?

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 Some people have been saying that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is dead or at least no longer relevant to the current World Wide Web landscape. Believe it or not, the idea of the ineffectiveness of SEO has been going on all across the web for many years now, and it still creates quite an intense debate among website builders and business owners alike.

Major search engines such as Google and Bing are continually updating their search algorithms, so to say that SEO has changed quite a bit over the years is an obvious understatement. Despite the doubts, many websites or businesses continue to practice various methods of optimizations to increase online visibility and thrive. On the other hand, some who have tried implementing well-known tricks and techniques to acquire top spots in search engine results gain no benefit at all. Now, this begs the question about the specific practices those naysayers did.

 SEO is not math; while it does involve a lot of calculations, the practices do not follow the same formula all the time. When search engines change their algorithms, websites must also implement different optimization methods to stay relevant. Failure to keep up with the changes will render your website invisible.

SEO is not dead. It just evolves and gets better.

When it comes to digital marketing, especially increasing website traffic, you cannot afford to rely merely on links and keywords. While they are still essential parts of today’s SEO practices, there are just many more methods (and therefore works) required to obtain results within reasonable measure. Instead of just focusing on keywords and link-building efforts, today’s version of SEO demands constant attempts on your part of providing real values for visitors, such as user-friendly interface, relevancy to search queries, and useful, informative contents. A strong online presence is also the result of seamless integration with social media (and sometimes) advertising strategies. Having only one or two of those elements will not yield the results you need.

Every algorithm update aims to make the Internet better, more useful, and more effective for those searchers. When people say that SEO is no longer relevant, useful, or even dead, they most likely refer to specific optimization techniques that are now considered obsolete. SEO failed them because they used outdated methods.

Dead SEO Techniques

Older websites probably used the following methods to gain popularity. Still, you cannot merely follow their footsteps because some of those methods are now ineffective (or even bad) for website development. A few examples of dead SEO techniques:

All-out link building

Link building is an important part of SEO, both in the past and present. The most significant difference is that the old method did not care about the sources of the links. You could build or create as many links as you can, and almost certainly, your website would start to rank much higher. In many cases, people made dozens of sites and linked the contents heavily.

In today’s SEO, link quantity is no longer a reliable indicator of a good website. Other authoritative domains will link to an accurate, informative website. If your contents are fresh, well-written, and useful, it is not impossible to get linked by more popular sites.

Aiming for a high number of keywords

Targeting specific keywords remains an effective method to increase page rank, although, in the old days, there was an entirely different approach to that. It used to be that having more content target the same keyword was enough to gain more online exposure, but then search engines knew that it was a bad idea to rank websites based on the number of content they have. Some search engines do not rank an entire website, only individual pages. The new approach is to write a longer post and target multiple keywords instead.

Keywords Overuse

When you have tons of keywords within a single post used to be a great idea, all you needed to do was cramp as many keywords as possible in a relatively short post to reach sufficient keyword density. Search engines now despise the practice.

Appropriately implemented, SEO can do wonders for your website. Some of the most effective methods right now are as follows.

Page readability: not only does the interface need to be user-friendly and easy to navigate, but the contents have to be human-readable. People demand informative content relevant to their search queries, delivered on a website that is pleasing to the eyes in an instant. User experience and value of materials play crucial roles in today’s SEO landscape.

Topic and keywords: a combination of text- and keywords-focused content is preferable. You can use Google Trends to look for recent popular search queries and related keywords. Focus on trending search with low-competition keywords if possible.

 Let’s not forget about the marketing efforts. You must be willing to (slowly) promote your websites to gain popularity. Part of modern SEO is to integrate sites or your profile with social media, online communities, and relevant Internet forums. Be active and promote your ideas throughout the web; now and then, you can create a thread or give answers to others’ questions and link them to one of your pages.

What you need to know about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

We are now live in a world where people Google before they shop, visit Yelp before hiring services and use social media to get informed about the latest discounts from local retailers. Some even rely on YouTube or Instagram to get a glimpse of the products they consider buying.

Regardless of the business niche, you need a website to establish a presence in the virtual world and therefore stay ahead of the increasingly competitive market. Whether you are a retailer, contractor, consultant, or offering services of any sort, having no website is just as bad as giving away customers to your competitors. It doesn’t even matter if you run a small startup or a bigger sized company.

But having-a-website-alone is enough to attract visitors and customers; bear in mind that your competitors also have websites of their own. Your website must be optimized in terms of security, layout, performance, keywords, links (both inbound and outbound), and of course contents. You need to implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which refers to the practice of increasing traffic to your website. There is a large variety of SEO software you can use to generate a website analysis report you can use to plan and execute your optimization strategy.

Why SEO?

By now, every business owner knows that a website is like an online representative of the company, ready to welcome customers any day anytime. It is the place where customers and partners can learn more about the company as well as its products in a convenient manner. People can even place an order via the Internet on the website from the comfort of home.

One thing to remember is that having a website does not guarantee you will gain more customers. Just because your company has a website, it does not necessarily mean you will generate more sales in an instant. You can only make money if customers are at your storefront, or visit your website to buy what you’re selling. The following are some of the things you can do to improve your chances of attracting visitors and converting them into loyal customers.

SEO Basics

Creating a website is the first step to establish an online presence, and thankfully it is quite easy. You don’t have to be a computer or software engineer to get the job done. There are free domains, free hosting services, and free templates you can use to see if the website can run as intended; if not, you can always try again without spending a dime. While free options are available, the premium ones are almost always miles better for business purposes. A website is a powerful marketing tool, and that is why you want to have it built and optimized by professionals. In addition to using a useful (and relevant) domain and reputable hosting service, you also need thorough and complete website optimization practices, including but not limited to the following.

On-page SEO: there is nothing complicated about this step. All you need to do is to make sure that you use the right title for every page, the right keywords relevant to the title, human-readable contents, useful Meta descriptions, quick loading time, and the likes. On-page SEO is about making the website function as it should.

Off-page SEO: the more challenging part is the off-page optimization. It involves more sophisticated techniques to acquire quality backlinks (links directed to your website/content) from the more authoritative sites, social media integration, guest blogging, and brand popularity, among others. The purpose of off-page optimization is to build a better reputation and make the website more authoritative.

Internal linking: make it a priority to link a post to another on your website. The goal is to tell search engines that all your contents are relevant to each other. It also promotes the idea that visitors will remain engaged with the website because it provides detailed information about a particular topic. Visitors will stay longer on the site, improving your chances of converting them into customers.

Key-phrase instead of keywords: while keywords are most likely inevitable, you may also want to target key-phrases. You use more words to target a specific idea and insert the same phrase several times in a longer post. Longtail key-phrases (consisting of at least three words) are traditionally seldom-used, which means you don’t have to compete with more websites. Search engines prefer key-phrases to keywords because key-phrases give more specific information.

Reinforced website security: search engines are more eager to index secure websites with “https” as opposed to “Http” in their addresses. HTTPS features an SSL certificate to indicate an encrypted connection to the site. Your information is secured as well as the visitors’. If your website is also an online shop, secure online transaction processing is a must.

Fast loading speed: minimize the use of large-sized multimedia files such as videos and images on every page, or at least compress them to the smallest size possible without adversely affect view quality. Another excellent method is to use a dedicated server rather than a “shared” one. Switching to a “lighter” theme and enabling browser caching also help. Mobile-friendly: search engines have now moved to prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their indexing processes. Every day, more people are using smartphones to access the web, so it makes no sense to skip this step. Being mobile-friendly means your website will work the same way across devices of multiple platforms.

Last but not least, you need good SEO software to perform detailed analytics of website performance. Based on the analysis, the software may offer suggestions on how to fix errors and increase online visibility.

 

Positioning: An Important Way To Differentiate Your Brand

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

SaaS companies are no longer unique, and most have many SaaS competitors with similar services.

This makes it difficult to break out and get attention.

Getting attention is similar to the problem marketers had in the ‘70s and ‘80s

when getting through the media noise was almost impossible.

That’s why its time  to take a look at your competitive position in the minds of buyers,

 

Marketing ROIs were getting expensive. Then, JackTrout wrote a book about “Positioning.”

The idea of positioning is to find and take a unique position in the customer’s mind. 

 

For example, many car rental companies were fighting each other at that time. 

Hertz was the acknowledged leader.

Avis realized that service was an essential outcome people wanted and a position no one owned.

So, they positioned themselves in the minds of consumers as being  #2,

because “We Try Harder” propelled them into number 2 and above the crowd.

 

Many SaaS companies are facing that same competitive environment today.

Therefore it’s time to take a look at your competitive position in the minds of buyers,

In an article by Yasmine de Aranda from Martet8, she stated you must ask the critical question, “

Why should a prospect choose you over the competitors”?

You need a compelling reason for them to buy from you.

Remember, they don’t care about your awesome company until they care about what you can do for them.

The right position will increase responses and conversions, a shorter buying cycle, higher retention, and scalability.

Some information you will need to create your positioning:

  • Who are your potential customers?
  • What outcomes are they trying to achieve?
  • Why are your competitors unable to achieve these outcomes?
  • How will your solution make your customer’s life better?

 

Don’t just write down the answers. Ask your customers for the answers.

We help turn ideas and startups into businesses by working with you as a consultant or

by guiding you through the development process with our online ClickVisor subscription-based platform.

Positioning: An Important Way to Differentiate Your Brand

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

SaaS companies are no longer unique and most of these companies have lots of SaaS competitors with similar services, This makes it difficult to break out and get attention.

Getting attention is similar to the problem in the ‘70s and ‘80s when getting through the media noise almost impossible. Marketing ROIs were getting expensive. Then, JackTrout wrote a book about “Positioning.” The idea of positioning is to find and take a unique position in the customer’s mind. For example, there were many car rental companies at that time, all fighting each other.   Hertz was the acknowledged leader. Avis realized that service was an essential outcome people wanted, so they positioned themselves as being #2, so “We Try Harder,” which propelled them into number 2 and above the crowd.

Many SaaS companies are facing that same competitive environment today. Therefore it’s time to take a look at your competitive position. 

In an article by Yasmine de Aranda, from Martet8, she stated you have to ask the key question, “Why should a prospect choose you over the competitors”? You need a compelling reason for them to buy from you. Remember, they don’t care about your awesome company until they care about what you can do for them.

The following are some questions you need to create your positioning statement.

1 What data collection and monitoring procedures have you designed to help you get and analyze customer information? Don’t rely on your instincts to generalizations. You will need this data to help you test, adjust and validate your assumptions as you create your positioning statement.

2 Get a detailed understanding of your customers and the outcomes they want. What different outcomes do they want? Have they tried alternative solutions? What concerns do they have? With this kind of data, you can begin to profile the customers you want.

3 Look at your competitors through your customer’s eyes. Look at both competitors and indirect competitors. Look at their positioning and strategy. What outcomes, if any, are they touting?

4 Measure your positioning strategy by sales results. For example, the number of leads per month, the number of qualified leads per month, the time to close, churn rate changes, the average cost to acquire customers and average lifetime value.

 Don’t just write down the answers. Ask your customers for the answers. The right position will get you increased responses and conversions, a shorter buying cycle, higher retention, and scalability. 

 

How Empathy Improves Marketing Results 

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

We have the technology to reach massive audiences. But, this technology also gets in the way of connecting with those audiences. Potential customers know when the purpose is to help the salesperson rather than help them solve a problem or meet their needs. Empathy is critical to all sales. People make decisions using emotions, not just logic. 

From an article by Brian Carrol in Sales & Marketing, he explains that sending email after email through an automated system, most get deleted. To get the recipient to read them, you have to address their emotional side (needs, wants, desires). 

How do you get empathy? First, you have to shift your mindset to focus on the customers. Then, you can focus on various tactics to enlist empathy and develop a relationship with the customer.

To shift your mindset, don’t let your biases get in the way. 

Put customers at the center of your focus. Don’t treat them like sale leads, treat them like humans who have a problem, need, or opportunity. 

Analytics and machine learning are insightful and make us smarter, but customers are getting smarter also. They can tell the difference. And remember relationships don’t scale.

Also, you have to keep reminding yourself that you are not the target audience. Keep your biases in check, Have you done enough research on your clients to know what they think, what their mindset and preferences are?

Then, you can implement an empathy-based approach to your marketing. 

You have the answers, so listen carefully to the questions (why did they reply? what did they respond to?) and be sure to help them get a solution to their problem. The key is to listen.

Don’t use all your time telling them what you do, tell them what they want to hear, give them answers. This information also allows you to begin building a relationship with the customer.

In the book “The Passion Conversation,” the authors talk about how marketing problems are people problems and how marketing materials are communications tools can lead to word of mouth advertising, But, this approach takes more time than an automated response. 

But, relationships don’t scale, and if the information is not relevant, they will unsubscribe.