What is the most effective way to reach your customers?

[Ani_]

Hey Seller Community! 💓

This week we'd like to know...

What is the most effective way to reach your customers?

via GIPHY

Feel free to share any tips below! Looking forward to reading your replies ✨. 

[JUYBoutique20]

For me I use text and email marketing.  I think text marketing for me is more effective with quick updates, sales, etc.  Email marketing for me is great for introducing new merchandise.  I also use social media but unless I'm posting a video, I don't really get a lot of interaction.

[readoreshop]

Hi, that sounds like a great idea! What service provider to you use for sms marketing?

[TCSlaguna]

We have found Square Marketing to be a great way to reach our customers about upcoming events and promotions. Facebook and Instagram have been great for keeping an ongoing conversation with customers and maintaining engagement. In the end, you have to be where your customers are at, and everyone has their preference, so we have to be everywhere.

[Twisted-Flavor]

Whats your ROI when using email marketing through square?

[weredoughcookie]

Its really depends on your demographic. Different age groups like different methods of communicating. Sometimes its best to use a mix, For daily updates i rely on social media, for special deals and no more than once a week i send out emails. text marketing tends to only work on younger generations as the older ones tend to think we are magically spying on them (legit had someone call to remove us from the texting thing because square picked up their number from their card and they didn't like that).

So be aware of how your different demographics like to communicate.

[pawffeeshop]

I find at this time we are still reaching out customers best through our social media platforms, mostly Facebook & Instagram. I know in the back of my mind that this is not always going to be the case most likely. I have started using the email marketing on and off and am looking forward to trying that more. We're a relatively "smaller" town and our word of mouth is also great. I like seeing other people's ideas! 

[TheRealChipA]

All of them!  🤣

We use Square email marketing, though we have slacked off on that this year.  This question was a great reminder to me that not everyone is reachable via social media!

Otherwise, we have a very active FB page.  I’m starting to figure out how to use Instagram to post our weekly outdoor entertainment via videos.  And we stay on top of the review sites and handle what needs to be handled — Yelp, Google, etc.  At the beginning of each season, we do a media blitz.  A local PR firm helped us set all of that up last year and it has been a huge success!  We are at the point that the media outlets are coming to us first.

Besides all of that, we find our best marketing is the tried-and-true word of mouth.  Our customers are our best salespeople.  We are also very involved in neighborhood events, and we offer our space for neighborhood groups, apartment complexes, etc, to host get-togethers.

Lastly, my husband and I carry a stack of “Free Ice Cream” cards around with us.  Whenever we are somewhere it is appropriate we hand them out to people we meet.  Works like a charm!

[TheRealChipA]

I’m going to add one more thing to my reply that I should have said. The point of my answer was that my most effective way to reach each customer is the way they want to be reached.  That might be social media.  That might be email.  That might be word of mouth.  That might be neighborhood outreach.  We do ourselves a disservice by limiting our marketing if we don’t have to limit it.  Obviously, I will limit the amount of paid/expensive marketing, for the obvious reason.  But otherwise, I will meet the customer on the grounds they prefer I meet them on.  If I don’t do that, I won’t reach them at all.

We call that Guerrilla Marketing.

[QuokkaCoffee]

Absolutely love this answer! It's so easy to spread yourself thin across all the different platforms--my staff say Insta/TikTok or GTFO, meanwhile I love a solid email newsletter--and third-party aggregators but nothing beats solid word-of-mouth marketing.

We've gotten so far just by referrals these past eight months and I'm constantly reminding the team to always connect the dots: from a single customer we've the potential to meet their spouse, their kids, their pets, their colleagues. And we can offer something unique for each of those demographics!

Btw, how did you vet that local PR firm? And did you set aside a budget with a specific monetary return in mind?

Thanks in advance!

Kat

[TheRealChipA]

Vetting them was easy @QuokkaCoffee.  When they started business, they leased a small office space from us. We watched them grow and establish themselves. They are very involved in the community and have positioned themselves as a major player here. 

We gave them our goals for our rebranding process. They gave us a menu of options and we chose the ones we wanted. It was a mix of traditional marketing channels as well as social media. From that point we had a budget. We did set aside a budget but we did not assume an expected ROI. In our case we were redefining ourselves, and it was critical to get the word out quickly and widely. Having said that, it was money very well spent. Our rebranding push was last year and it was very successful.  This year, many of the media outlets that we used took the initiative to come back to us as they were preparing pieces for local “ice cream season.”  The gift that keeps on giving, as it were!

[DLRosenberg]

We love Square's suite of services- both email & text messaging. We use Square Loyalty to reward our frequent shoppers. We're on Instagram and rely on stories, reels & feed posts. We use TikTok quite frequently and think it is an amazing free resource.

[Twisted-Flavor]

with giving square $49 a month for loyalty plus fees they make their money off of per sale and transaction fees ROI on loyalty giving something away as a discount cost more than what it's worth unless you are like Macy's or Walmart that have a huge customer base to make money off of.

unless I am wrong on this... curious whats your ROI on using multiple paid services that you pay square for?

[PartyManiaMD]

I can tell you that at least in my case we still make money discounting using square loyalty. 

I do a 10% cash back towards future purchases.

My current loyalty customers spend on average $83.62 per visit, non loyalty customers is $43.69

I have a 2-3 x markup on my COGS.

Personally I feel Square loyalty is worth it, I also have Square for Retail and use their website and Square payroll. Added to the percentage they take for CC processing and it does add up however like most utilities or other costs of doing business IMO Square loyalty is worth it.

Your mileage may vary but I'm pushing $40-60k a month in sales and hopefully expanding that once I clear a few hiccups in the supply chain/availability.

[threepaths]

Thank you so much. Can I expect to pay a fee for using their website? I came in via shopHERE in Canada and there was never any mention of a fee. I’ll check out their loyalty program info in Canada!

Jen

[PartyManiaMD]

Only if you plan on using a custom domain and even then they are extremely reasonable starting at $12 a month.

https://squareup.com/us/en/online-store/plans

One thing I love about Square is how transparent they are with pricing, I know it's off topic but I had a CC processor try to sell me their POS, they couldn't even give me an average % cost of CC processing fees.

[threepaths]

I haven’t even started yet. I was planning on using étranger and debt. 

[lawnbrook]

Social media for us, but being more proactive with marketing is on my todo list.

We are a small winery/distillery and for us not to have an active 'club' or email list is bordering on criminal. I'd like to use the square marketing tools, but struggling a little with how to piece it all together.

[JTPets]

In person is always the "best" way to reach your customers, but for ongoing communication we use instagram the most and currently weebly marketing

[Doran]

For us, email marketing seems to bring in the best results.  

[MsToYourJoy]

I use Email Marketing through my Square/ Weebly Site. I'm so looking forward to the day when Square Marketing and the website marketing merge because I like features from both platforms. I also use Instagram & Facebook. 

Hands down Email marketing has always been the most effective form of marketing for me. My challenge currently is being consistent because consistent emails always result in more sales.