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Cultivating connections: 10 ways to get

closer to customers

Reaching out to customers in a crowded marketplace is no mean feat. Yet, challenging as it seems,

there could be a secret formula for this inexact science. At Microsoft’s recent Connecting with

Customers small business mini-summit, attendees and guest speakers shared their top tips and tricks

for sales and marketing.

1. Speak-easy

More than half the summit’s participants use a social media publishing tool like Buffer. These are

great for scheduling content to go out regularly across your different social media pages. One

participant warned though, don’t rely on them too much.

Interaction is reactive, so post some updates in real-time and only post questions if you are available

to reply.

2. Stop, look, listen

It’s easy to use social media to talk about yourself, but in successful relationships, whether

professional or personal, one person never does all the talking.

Listening is just as important as speaking, so consider using a social listening tool to help you hear

what your customers are saying.

3. Manage customer relationships

The customer is king, so it’s important to know as much about them as possible for sales success.

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To monitor all that information in one place, customer relationship management (CRM) systems like

Microsoft Dynamics CRM are great and they help you to deliver the personal service your customers

expect.

4. Share content

For GoDaddy’s Nadya Morozova, sharing relevant, useful content is a win-win. ‘It’s fantastic for our

customers and helps us to understand them better,’ she says.

By providing relevant, free content you attract the right people. You can then monitor what content’s

proving most popular and use that information to refine your offerings and services to best suit your

ideal customers.

5. Be an expert

Customers want to see you're an expert, so they know they can trust you. The summit’s participants

shared a few ways you can show your expertise:

Speak at an event

Write an eBook

Write advertorials

Blog

Guest post as an expert on another blog

6. Connect with journalists

PR helps small businesses reach their customers in a context-orientated way, but it isn’t problem-free.

Ex-journalist and summit speaker Matthew Stibbe, now CEO of Articulate Marketing, advised, ‘the

trick is to find a few influential journalists or bloggers, reach out to them directly and build a

relationship. Don’t just chase the story.’

7. Be authentic

Every business has a story, so share it, says Nadya Morozova.

People want to buy from other people, not businesses, so instead of trying to be perfect, be human. It

will make it easier for people to relate to you and they’ll probably like you more.

8. Offer social proof

Happy customers are influential ones, so you want as many as possible.

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The key to this is to help them, rather than just try to make a sale. Make yourself indispensable to

them and value them. They’ll value you in return, which translates into recommendations and

ultimately more business.

9. Nail it

Nadya Morozova’s mantra for customer engagement is ‘start small, get good, go bigger’. So take

whatever works best for you, master it, and start working on the next thing. Nadya recommends

starting with:

Asking questions

Joining conversations

Sharing

Supporting friends

Giveaways

10. Own your stars

Own your feedback and reviews.

Feedback is also often public, so it’s a marketing opportunity in itself. When things go wrong, just

admit it and do your best to fix it. It’s more human than pretending you’re perfect and customers will

respect you for that. And when you get good reviews, get them up on your website.

Whatever you do, always remember: Make your customers happy and they’ll make you happy in

return.

Join us next time

If you run a small business and you’re looking for inspiration and fresh thinking, join us at a future

event. The next one is all about mobile and flexible working – ‘how to work anywhere’ and it’s on

March 19, 2015. Register today.