Last year I kicked off the new year with a brief series to help you be more successful when deciding how to spend your advertising and marketing budget.

This week I am sharing that information again with some updates.

Today we will go over the last 3 items on this list from a couple days ago:

 

You need to know who you are from 4 different perspectives:

  1. Your insider knowledge of who you are

  2. Your current customers perspective of who you are

  3. Your competitors perception of who you are.

  4. Your best potential customers perception of who you are.

Yesterday I gave you a big assignment and it is impossible to have completed it in the past 24 hours because it takes a few days to just do the bare minimum.  Read it here.

However some of you want to know how to do the other three (#’s 2, 3, and 4 on the list above) so I’ll give you some help today.   Save this in your bookmarks or favorites for future reference so you can do these exercises after you complete the first one.

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What is your current customers perspective of who you are?  You should already be doing this kind of research by asking your customers about their experience with you.  I know a muffler shop that would give you a discount on your next visit if you left them a review.  There are tons of ways to do this including an online survey with a service such as SurveyMonkey and others, but guess what?  Your current customers are already telling others about you online, if you know where to look.

Besides the social media conversations and rants that occur on Facebook and the like, there are also plenty of review sites where your customers are talking about you.  The problem you face is how to get this important information in a timely manner.  I’ll tell you how in a moment.

What are your competitors perception of you? Have you ever hired an employee who used to work for your competitor? Ask them. It’s that simple.  You can also do some “secret shopping” and send an intern to your competitor and have them ask what they think of you, but that is somewhat complicated and probably not necessary.

The question I often asked when I ask the business owners about this, is why is this important?  Depends on the business environment you are in.  Sprint, AT & T and Verizon are in a heated battle and all claim to be the best, so they’ll talk smack about each other to keep their customer base.

What are your best potential customers perceptions of who you are? In order for someone to consider doing business with you, they want to feel good about giving you their money. We now have the ability to research nearly anything and anyone that we are considering doing business with by going online. The same information that your current customers are sharing online is being read by your potential customers.

This is why your online reputation is critical.  The difficulty is knowing what is being said and having the ability to respond in a timely manner.

I have a solution. I work for Federated Media in Indiana.  Specifically for WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne.  But I also have the ability to help you with one of the services from Federated Digital Solutions, our online division.

We offer a Social Engagement and Reputation Management Solution that can help you with all of your online reviews and social media activity including monitoring what others are saying about you.  You do not need to be in Fort Wayne, or Indiana, just somewhere in the United States for us to be able to take care of this for you.  Every client gets a custom quote for this service, because we only want you to purchase what makes sense for your business.  Want more information?  Drop me a note to: Scott@WOWO.com and we can begin the conversation about how to stay on top of all of this while you continue to run your business.