Last month our team listened to ‘The Goal Digger Podcast: How to Create the Perfect Offer for Your Audience’. While there were many great points throughout the podcast, the one that stood out for us specifically was focusing on our clients. They are, after all, why and how our business runs. Without them, A Fabulous Fete, or any other business, does not exist.

As the person who must make big picture decisions and come up with ways for AFF to continue to grow, I am thinking more about products and services we can offer, how they work, what value they offer, and how to get them to market. It’s easy to focus on what YOU, as a business owner, want for your business. So, we came up with several ways that we are going to implement new strategies or new thought processes so that our customers are always the reason behind what we do in our business.

Ask our audience for their feedback more often

This can include reaching out to them via email, on social media, with a poll, or with a survey, for feedback on our services. This is probably some of the most valuable info that you can receive. It’s from someone who trusts you enough to either be a current client or a potential one. This person has invested his/her money or is thinking of investing in you. These people’s opinions are gold.

Figure out who our ideal clients are for each area of our business

At AFF we run several different “arms” of the company. We have our wedding clients, our Creative Library members, our shop customers, and our content creation clients. And they are all very different people with different needs. So when determining a new product, service, creating social/blog content, or even thinking how a page is designed on our website, we need to know who they are and make sure we are presenting them with what they need.

What is the end result and why is it unique

Anyone can design an invitation, sell stock photography, or put greeting cards in an online shop (well ok, not everyone). How is A Fabulous Fete different? What value are we giving our clients? What are they thinking or feeling when they hire us, receive a product, or see the end result of custom work we‘ve created for them? You want them to be excited and feel like YOU are the only one that could’ve possibly created that specific something for them. Have your POV and make sure that it’s unique and part of everything you do.

How are we solving problems and what problems are we seeing too often

Your customers are finding you because they need something. Are you solving a problem for them? How are you helping them? Let’s use our wedding stationery as an example. What we often see are couples who have a smaller budget than what our custom suites cost. How do we fix that for them? Offer budget friendly versions that still have our style. We can give these clients the AFF experience within their budget. I’m not saying you have to accommodate everyone, you can’t. But if there are tweaks you can make to offer something a little different that helps make someone your customer, why not?

Serve before you sell

The best way to build trust with new customers is to prove to them that you are trustworthy. Examples? You can offer free worksheets that relate to services you offer, share advice for your ideal client, or talk about and show how your product will change something for them. Build their trust by showing up with value before you try and sell to them. You will gain their trust through what you offer up at no cost and when they do need your product/service, you will likely be the first one they think of.

Always have a next step

Once your happy customer has completed his/her transaction, what is your plan for getting that customer to come back? For our wedding clients this means offering thank you cards, holiday cards, and baby shower invitations. All the stationery for the next stage in their life. Keep them on your mailing list and make sure that when there is something you can offer them in addition to the product they originally purchased from you, they know about it.

Do you want to make sure your customers and clients are your priorities as well?

Write down these questions and prompts, answer them based on your own clientele, then put a plan of action behind each one to implement this into your business now.

1. Do you have a product/service that you are on the fence about, or aren’t getting the kind of response you had hoped for? Pinpoint what that is and create a quick 1-2 slide story on instagram to get your audience’s feedback.

2. Write a story about your ideal client. Who are they, where do they live, how old are they, what are their hobbies, etc. Use this to help guide your marketing and growth efforts.

3. Decide what your product/service is doing for your customers and tell them every chance you get.

4. Write down 2-3 problems your customers/clients experience. How can you solve those for them through the use of your product/service?

5. What is one thing that you can send to your email list this month that helps them or gives them some sort of value?

6. Describe 1-2 ways that you can reach out to your clients/customers AFTER they have already purchased from or hired you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these ways to keep customers top of mind in your business! What do you do to make sure yours come first?

If you’d like to read more business related posts, click here.

PS - aren’t the images in this post cute? They’re from our Creative Library and available to our members through May 31st, 2019 OR in our Stock Shop starting July 2019. Stop by if you are in the market for some fun lifestyle imagery to mix up your insta feed, website imagery, blog posts, or any other digital space!