{"id":2843,"date":"2011-04-03T14:16:13","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T14:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2011-04-03T14:28:54","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T14:28:54","slug":"make-your-customers-feel-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/make-your-customers-feel-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Your Customers Feel at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"welcome\" src=\"http:\/\/researchimpact.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/welcome-mat.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"304\" \/>In the physical world, when our trusted and valued friends come to visit our house, we often welcome them by saying, \u201cCome in\u2026make yourselves at home!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In the virtual world, do you do the same thing?\u00a0 When customers and prospects visit your online site, do they feel at home there?<\/p>\n<p>Think about retailers that offer snacks, coffee, samples, valuable information,\u00a0and sometimes even entertainment in their shops.\u00a0 They create a welcoming atmosphere for their customers because they know it will encourage them to stay around the shop, browsing the products and learning more about the brand\u2026and greatly increasing the chances of a sale.<\/p>\n<p>Your online site needs to do the same thing.\u00a0 What do you do to make your current and prospective customers feel comfortable?\u00a0\u00a0 What are you doing to add value to their day?\u00a0 What experience are you giving them? In other words,\u00a0<strong>how are you <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.zuberance.com\/blog\/step-aside-aspiration%E2%80%A6-inspiration-is-the-way-to-go\/\">inspiring them<\/a><\/strong><strong> <\/strong><strong>to stick around now<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><em><strong>and<\/strong><\/em><strong> <\/strong><strong>return later\u2026<\/strong><em><strong>with their friends<\/strong><\/em><strong>?<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you are selling clothes, maybe give your customers and prospects the latest fashion news.<\/li>\n<li>If you are selling food, how about information on nutrition specialists or a free 1-minute video clip by a nutrition specialist?<\/li>\n<li>Maybe get creative about sample give-aways by trying\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.zuberance.com\/blog\/advocacy-drives-%e2%80%9csocial-sampling%e2%80%9d\/\">social sampling<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Invite them to\u00a0<em>do<\/em> something:\u00a0 respond to a poll, watch a video, play a game<\/li>\n<li>Give them the \u201csocial\u201d of \u201csocial media\u201d with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.zuberance.com\/events\/the-key-to-energizing-advocates-make-it-easy\/\">easy ways to connect to your brand<\/a> through various social networks and to share those connections with their friends.<\/li>\n<li>And most importantly, make sure they can\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.zuberance.com\/blog\/customer-service-%E2%80%9Cis%E2%80%9D-the-new-marketing\/\">reach a human being with their questions<\/a>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Why bother?\u00a0 Because when your prospective and current customers feel at home at your site, they will feel at home with your brand in a way that builds\u00a0<em>trust<\/em> \u2013\u00a0 a cornerstone for building relationships.\u00a0 And the success of social media marketing really is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tedrubin.com\/build-relationships-not-billboards\/\">all about relationships<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>They say home is where your heart is \u2014 make your site that place for your customers!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ted Rubin<\/p>\n<p><em>Originally posted at <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.zuberance.com\/blog\/make-your-customers-feel-at-home\/\">ZuberRants<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the physical world, when our trusted and valued friends come to visit our house, we often welcome them by saying, \u201cCome in\u2026make yourselves at home!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In the virtual world, do you do the same thing?\u00a0 When customers and prospects visit your online site, do they feel at home there? Think about retailers that offer &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/make-your-customers-feel-at-home\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,7],"tags":[928,276,854,32,30,1029,897,1165,3],"class_list":["post-2843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-tedrubin","tag-brand-advocate","tag-brand-loyalty","tag-customer-experience","tag-marketing","tag-social-media","tag-social-media-marketing","tag-social-media-strategy","tag-social-sampling","tag-ted-rubin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2845,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions\/2845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}