A lead refers to someone who has expressed interest in your business, and with GDPR now in full swing, this has become an important topic. Here’s how.

Creating a brand that sells

Building a successful sales pipeline is not only based on identifying your target customers, it’s about understanding how these customers want to be targeted and treated. A balance between technology and human interaction is crucial to ensure good customer care throughout the selling process. While AI can overcome delays, automation services can be costly for SMEs. Such investments don’t always pay off as consumer confidence in tech-based customer support is low. Only 15% of consumers believe that companies should invest in them. Instead, businesses should look to a middle ground of time efficient technical support and the emotional connections human interaction produces, says Joe Heapy, co-founder of the survey, Engine.

Value your customers

If you don’t manage an effective relationship with your customers, you will not achieve the sales you want. SMEs are not exempt from brand competition because of their smaller size. Just like their billion dollar counterparts, SMEs need to prove their worth to customers in order to increase sales and brand loyalty. While SMEs may have smaller budgets, they can work on cultivating a strong and organic brand identity on a limited budget. The combination of brand originality and valuing customer needs and preferences will make your business stand out in the saturated marketplace.

Being customer facing also means you have to be aware of maintaining a solid brand reputation for anyone who engages with your brand, be it customer or stakeholder. First familiarize yourself with what PR entails in terms of communications and ensuring brand reputation, then you can avoid any PR mistakes, such as failing to communicate to audiences when the business is facing a problem.

Understand the ‘digital’ in marketing

While many SMEs have the intention to become top disruptors, a survey has revealed that 11% of marketers cannot analyze their own data effectively. To beat competitive businesses need to understand social strategy and implement engaging brand narratives that resonate with digitally savvy audiences.

Product launches and responses to customer demand must be swift. Responses to product stock and availability must be as instantaneous as it is for consumers to buy them. Managing your own ‘PR’ is connected to marketing approaches, where using media platforms to promote your brand and share the coverage will aid brand reputation.

Brand values ​​are emotive

As an SME owner, defining your brand values ​​and company mission should happen when you start the company. By answering questions such as why you decided to start the business, you create these founding values. But it’s up to you to communicate these values ​​down to your managers and then your staff.

90% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously. This means that devising brand values ​​and an engaging product narrative must create an emotional and sensory reaction in customers. An original brand concept can hold its own in the consumer market and can lead to business with big retailers.

This section provides businesses with the latest statistics on customer confidence in sales techniques. Readers will also find tips from businesses who enjoy positive and enduring customer engagement. Reminding SMEs that campaign efficacy rests with brand individuality and appeal, this section provides practical advice on how to help SMEs carve out an engaging product narrative and ensure customer loyalty. Also included in this section is advice about forging engaging brand narratives that resonate with customers and how to make the most of the marketing and PR approaches in the digital sales age.