The four steps to marketing your computer business online
In the first of a series of tutorials, we talk about defining your marketing strategy.
At Pulsebase we speak to computer stores, systems integrators and repair shops on a daily basis about how they can use our service to market to their customers. However Pulsebase is only one small part of the solution, and many companies are missing out on opportunities simply because they haven't thought through all of the ways that they can use digital marketing to promote their business. It doesn't have to be hard, and it doesn't have to take much time, but it can make a huge difference.
The world is now social, and digital media is empowering not just consumers but is also allowing small businesses to reach local audiences in ways that they never have before - and far more effectively than their larger corporate competitors ever could. But the topic can be overwhelming and confusing, and it firstly needs to be looked at from a strategic point of view.
Marketing your IT business can be split into four stages, and in this post we'll go through each in turn. In later posts we'll dig into each of the various sections in more detail, and show you exactly how to carry them out.
Part One - Be Easy To Find
This is the most obvious part of your marketing strategy - and probably the one that most computer stores do the best. When customers are looking for businesses that match yours, you've got to be there.
For a local computer business, the most important part of this is local search and local directories. If you haven't yet submitted your business to Google Places then you must - and we'll talk later about how to optimise your listing. Your listing on Google Places will define what appears when people carry out a local search on Google, such as "computer repair wichita":
You also need to be in the other local directories that work in your area. To find out what these are, try searching on Google for local terms like "computer repair dallas" or "pc shop edinburgh", and see what comes up below the local results. You want to make sure that you're in the sites that appear for your region. These might be small local directories, or big national ones like Yell.com, which dominate the UK results.
If a directory appears regularly in search results relevant to your area, then it is probably worth paying for a listing.
After you've considered local search and directories, you need to find other ways that you can appear on the terms that your customers are using. This can include paid search - such as Google Adwords - or optimising your positions in the natural listings (SEO). We'll go into both in more detail in later blog posts.
Part Two - Convert Your Customer
If a customer walks into your store or calls you up, then you probably know what to do to get them to buy. You need to gain their trust, you need to show them your product, and you need to persuade them how easy it is to buy. But do you do that when customers find you online?
When a customer lands on your website, they've got a few questions that they need answers to in the first five seconds:
What do you provide? Are you the kind of site they were looking for? Do you sell computers, or are you some other sort of service? A nice clear headline or strap line is vital to tell them immediately what it is that you do.
Are you trustworthy? The consumer will make an instant decision based on the layout of your page. Is the site neat and professional, or is it jumbled and messy? If it is too professional and not friendly, does that mean you're a B2B company, or that you'll be too expensive? Customers will make an immediate subconscious decision about you, based on all of these factors. Be professional, but be social and personal too. You're probably not Dell, and for many customers that's what makes you appealing.
If you're a physical store then where are you, and are you open? Your location and opening times should be one of the first things you show. Can the customer call you, and if they do, will you be available? A prominent phone number with opening times is vital. If you're an online merchant, then will you deliver quickly and is it easy to buy? Reassuring messages will really help your conversion rate.
Take a look at your home page now. Glance at it, without scrolling or navigating. Does your home page do all of these things? If not, then a few simple tweaks could make every visitor so much more valuable.
Part Three - Maximise Value
It's great to get a sale, but every sale is also an opportunity. What you do at the point of sale can be vital to increasing revenue both in the short and long term. For example, do you:
Upsell, bundle and attach? When a customer buys a computer, there are so many other things that they might need or want. They're probably not thinking at that point about antivirus, Office, online backup, a laptop bag, a printer, but many of them will in future, so why not remind them about them now? You don't have to go in for the hard sell - in fact that might put them off in future - but gentle questions like "do you have antivirus?" or "how do you back up?" can prompt your customer into thinking about these topics, and can make each sale so much more valuable. Bundling the common items in special package deals can work even more effectively - especially if the customer sees that they're getting better value by buying them all together.
Collect contact details? Do you collect the customers address and email address? It's not suitable for every business, but if you can, then do so. It will enable you to run email and marketing campaigns later.
Advertise your Twitter and Facebook accounts? As we'll discuss later, Twitter and Facebook are a great way to interact with your customers after they've left your store. You should advertise them in your shop and persuade your customers to follow you while they wait. You should also prompt them to check in on Foursquare, so that their friends see where they are.
Provide leaflets or cards with every purchase? A simple brochure, leaflet or business card provided with every purchase can remind your customer later about your other products and services, and also help drive them to your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Install Pulsebase? Installing Pulsebase on every PC you build or repair can be a great way to market to your customers after they've left the store.
All of these five actions are very simple, and will help you get the most out of the final part of the marketing strategy...
Part Four - Bring Your Customers Back
Once a customer has walked out with a new PC, or a PC that you've repaired, what do you do to bring them back? They'll probably forget about your company within a week or two - even if the service was exceptional. But it doesn't take much to remind them that you're around.
Be more than just a computer shop. You're a real subject expert - you know so much about computers, far more than your customers do, so why not help educate them? Run tutorials in your store, and show off new products in your shop. For example demo Windows 8 or the latest Android tablet, or offer tutorials in how to upload photos from their camera to their Facebook account. Advertise these tutorials and product demos to your mailing list, using Pulsebase and to your Twitter and Facebook account. Bringing customers back into store will inevitably result in sales.
Extend your activities online. Feel ok in front of a camera? Why not create review videos or tutorial videos when you get a new product, and upload it to YouTube? Not so confident, but good at writing? Create a blog where you talk about the latest gadgets and technologies, and keep customers up to date with the latest news. Again, all of these can be promoted to your mailing list, using Pulsebase, and to your social media accounts. And as you'll see in a later tutorial, all of these activities can help your natural search traffic too, so they help bring new customers to you as well.
Communicate with customers when they need you. You know that after one year the antivirus software you've installed for your customer is going to expire. You know that their computer would benefit from a clean up and repair after six months too. And you know that when a customer walks out of your store, they probably need to start thinking about backup or Office software not long afterwards. With email and Pulsebase, you can send out communications to your customers at set periods after the sale, so that they're prompted to come back to you when they need to take action. Pulsebase will even let you prompt customers when their hard drive space is low, so that you can offer a clean up service right at that second.
All of these activities will help you turn each individual customer - who would probably never come back otherwise - into a repeat customer. They increase the value of every sale and also the return on any marketing you buy, so that you can also afford to buy more marketing. It's a virtuous circle, and one that you can implement easily, cheaply and without too much effort.
In future tutorials we'll show you exactly how to implement every part of this marketing strategy, so please do follow us here on Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter.
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