How To Get Valuable Feedback From Your Customers

You can learn many things you didn't know about your
business by getting valuable feedback from your customers.
Your customers may buy your main product just to get the
free gifts. Your visitors may think it's to hard to navigate
through your web site.


By knowing this type of important information you can
improve your web site, products/services, advertising, and
marketing. Below are nine techniques you can use to get
valuable feedback from your customers.

-Use surveys and questionnaires regularly to improve your
business. Publish them on your web site, e-zine, print
newsletter, direct mail material, include them with product
shipments or inside product packages. Post them on
appropriate online message boards, e-mail discussion lists
and newsgroups on the internet.

-Create an online community for your customers. Include a
chat room, message board, e-mail discussion list on your
site for customers to participate in. You can regularly
moderator these communities to see what your customers
are saying about your business.

-Give away your products to a group of your customers.
Ask them to use and review the product. Ask them to fill
out an evaluation form and send it back. Some customers
may fill them out, some may not, but the feedback you do
get will be valuable.

-Offer your web site visitors an online product or service
from your web site at no cost. It could be an ebook, search
engine submission, consulting via e-mail, web design, etc.
In return, ask them to fill out a short survey about your web
site, products or services you're selling, customer service,
or your web site.

-Create a customer focus group. Invite ten to twenty of
your most loyal customers to meet regularly. They will give
you ideas and input on how to improve your customer
service. You could pay them, take them out to dinner or
give them free products.

-Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Offer
them a free e-zine subscription. Ask customers if they
want to be updated by e-mail when you make changes to
your Web site. After every sale, follow-up with the
customer to see if they are satisfied with their purchase.

-Make it easy for your customers to contact you. Offer as
many contact methods as possible. Allow customers to
contact you by e-mail. Hyperlink your e-mail address so
customers won't have to type it. Offer toll free numbers
for phone and fax contacts. This will make it easy for your
customers to voice their opinions.

-You could regularly contact customers on birthdays or
holidays. Send thank you gifts to lifetime customers. E-mail
them online greeting cards on holidays or birthdays. Call
them personally to wish them a happy holiday. You could
them follow-up with a survey or ask them if they're happy
with your business.

-Invite your customers to company meetings, luncheons,
workshops or seminars. Create special events for your
customers like parties, barbecue's, dances etc. Make a
point for yourself and your employees to interact with them
at these event to get valuable feedback for your business.


You could use a couple or all of the techniques listed above
to get valuable customer feedback. These aren't the only
ways, be creative and come up with some of your own.

Increase Your Orders By Answering Questions

People will contact your customer service to ask
questions about your business or products. Did
you know you can increase your orders by training
your customer service to actually sell products?


You should include your signature file with all the
questions you answer by e-mail. Your signature
file should be no longer than 5 lines, 65 characters
per line. Include your contact information, business
name and an attention getting headline.


Tell people about the new products and services
that you offer after you're done answering their
question(s) by phone. If they have already bought
products from you in the past, offer them add-on
or backend products.


If you're using FAQ "Frequently Asked Questions",
include your banner ad on top of your FAQ site.
You could also include a subscription form for your
free e-zine on the site as well.


When you answer peoples questions by snail mail,
include an insert advertisement for the products or
services your business offers. Include your web
site address, e-mail address, logo, slogan and other
information on all marketing material you send.

Endorsement Marketing Secrets

Endorsement marketing is having famous or reputable people
recommend your product or service to others. They could be
celebrities, star athletes, musicians, etc. Choose people that
are related to your business and might actually use your
product or service.


Before asking anyone for an endorsement be sure your product
or service gives the results you say it does. They may ask you
to prove it before they will agree to give an endorsement.


Once you find the ideal person to endorse your product or
service simply contact them and ask. When proposing any
endorsement deal make it a win/win situation. Tell them you
would get the endorsement and they would get free publicity.
If they're selling a product or service, you could exchange
endorsements. If they ask for a fee, try to give them a
percentage of the profits instead.


Once you get an endorsement from someone, use it on all your
advertising and marketing material. Put their endorsement and
picture on your Web site. Use their testimonial in your ads.
Include it on your product packages.


An endorsement can increase your sales fast. It gives credibility
to your product or service. People will usually believe a person
that's not related to your business before they will believe you.

Online Discussion Board Advertising

Posting messages on online discussion boards is a great way to
get free advertising. When you post a message include your
signature file at the end. Your signature file should be no more
than 5 to 6 lines. Include an attention-getting sentence why
they should visit your web site or e-mail your auto responder.


Some online discussion boards allow you to leave text and
graphic links at the end of your messages. You will get a better
click-through rate with links than just a normal signature file.


Below are three types of messages you could post to online
discussion boards:

1. Informative Comments
Post information that would be informative to the people who
participate on the discussion board. It could be an article or a
study you've completed.


2. Ask Questions
Post a question on the discussion board you would like answered.
This will give you a chance to meet other experts and it could
lead to a profitable joint venture.


3. Answer Questions
Post the answer to another person's question on the discussion
board. When you answer questions you will get known as an
expert on the subject.


Before posting to any online discussion board read the FAQ or
rules first. They will tell you what kinds of posts are allowed.
Read the board for a few days before posting your message to
see what type of messages are being posted. Never post
messages on a board that are unrelated to the subject.

How To Get Free Advertising By Giving Away Online Content

Giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising.
For example, give other people permission to use your article
on their web site or in their e-zine. The resource box at the
end of your article acts as an ad. In return, you get free
advertising. It's a win/win situation for both you and the
people that need the extra content.


There are many forms of free content. It could be articles,
reports, news stories, e-books, e-zines, e-mags, virtual e-mail
courses, press releases, web books, etc.

You can take it a step further and make giving away content
an even more powerful way to get free advertising. For
example, give your free e-book to one person and allow them
the rights to also give it away. Do you see what I'm leading
up to? Let's say only 20 people download your e-book. Those
20 people may give away your e-book to 20 more people.
That's a total of 400 people that have seen your ad in the
e-book. And it just keeps multiplying!


If you keep producing free content over a long period of time
it starts building up. Now, take all your free content and
create an online directory. You can use your free content
directory as a web site traffic generator. You can ask people
to add the directory to their web site by linking to yours.


In conclusion, giving away content gives you three powerful
ways to get free advertising. You can submit free content,
allow other people to give away your free content, or have
people link to your web site to give away the free content.
My advice is to take it one step at a time and this system
will bring traffic to your web site over and over for years
to come.

Network Your Business Online

Networking is when two or more different businesses stay
in contact on a regular basis to build and improve each
others business. There are many ways to network your
business online. Participate in online business related
discussion boards , e-mail discussion groups, newsgroups
and chat rooms. You can communicate with other business
people via e-mail, video conferencing and by using instant
messaging programs. Join online business associations and
clubs.


You'll gain many benefits from networking online. You'll
learn business information that you didn't know before.
You can get advice on how to solve a current business
problem. It can lead to new business projects. Negotiate
joint ventures and cross promotion deals. Learn important
skills that you didn't have before. Get constructive criticism
that can improve your business. Brainstorm with others
to come up with new business and marketing ideas.


Before you go out and communicate with other business
professionals there are a few things you should know ahead
of time. Know what kind of business information you are
seeking. Figure out which professionals could give you this
information. Know what questions you want to ask them.

5 Quick Ways To Increase Your E-zine's Subscriber Base

1. Give Incentives
Give people an incentive to subscribe to your e-zine. Offer
them a freebie if they subscribe. It could be a free e-book,
free report, free advertising, etc. Make sure the freebie will
attract your target audience.


2. Joint Venture
Joint venture with a similar e-zine. Combine your subscriber
bases together and publish one e-zine. Edit and publish
each issue together. You both will be promoting the e-zine
which means more subscribers.


3. Allow Archiving
Allow your subscribers to archive back issues of your
e-zine on their web site. They may need content for their
web site. If people visit their web site and like your e-zine,
they will subscribe.


4. Form An E-zine Ring
Form an e-zine ring. Team up with 4 to 10 similar e-zines.
All the publishers would agree to list each others e-zine
name and subscribing information in every issue. You could
call this section "Other Free E-zines You Might Enjoy"


5. Ask Subscribers
Ask subscribers to forward your e-zine to close friends,
family, or associates. If they enjoy your e-zine, they will
subscribe. It's almost like your subscribers are endorsing
your e-zine.