What customers want to hear right now

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about the economy and how it is impacting their customers directly. Some say their customers are buying less and want more from the products and services they’ve got. Most people are saying that big purchases are being put on hold for the next few quarters and that spending budgets are smaller in general. But I keep hearing the same thing over and over again from vendors, customers, investors and partners…and that is that they want to hear more from their vendors and suppliers and partners. What do they want to hear?

• Advice, tips, and tools to help to get them through this economic downturn
• Best practices around social media strategies
• Innovative ways to do more with less

Customers want to hear more from people who can help them ride this economy successfully. They  want to hear from their top vendors and they want to hear what they have to say about helping them with their businesses. They want help from their trusted advisors. This means more frequent communication via emails, news alerts and certainly social media. 

Many businesses are trying to “figure out” social media and really make a dent in how it can work for their businesses. If you have customers that need help getting a social media strategy implemented or need to just get started, maybe it’s time for you to be that trusted advisor and help them get started.

Everyone is trying to “do more with less.” “Don’t push more products and services at me” I heard one company say. “Show me how I can dig in deeper with the products I have to be more successful today.” I think that sums up how people are feeling right now with their current investments. Customers need to evaluate what they have and see how those tools can continue to help them in this economy.

Customers really need our help right now in many ways. And, this is really great for marketers. If we can identify what tools and tips will help our customers do better out there, we can help them weather this storm and chances are if we weather it together, we’ll be in good shape when this economy turns around.

Market This! meets Amazon

So, I’m happy to report that my four plus year project of writing a book is now a packaged, printed and available item that can be ordered, purchased and can arrive via Amazon and Barnes and Noble! Amazing what a process this has been! It’s a nice feeling to know that people can actually read the book and give me comments and feedback as to how the concepts can impact their businesses.

I have to say, writing a book is quite a project. It starts with an idea in your head and ends up on pages and pages and pages…and in my case, the pages took a couple of years! Once you complete writing a book, you’ve got to edit it (and edit it again and again and again…), and once it’s completely edited it needs to be published and packaged. Once it’s packaged it needs to be posted online for sales and we are now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (in addition to a number of other book sites).

Thankfully, the book cover looks great thanks to Jay Ferracane and Paula Chang from Solution Set who came up with the initial comps for the cover. Jay’s final concept is the one that was chosen and so he is responsible for the great cover artwork. And…the content is clean as well…with many thanks to Carol at Hawkeye Proofreading who made sure all those last “i’s” were dotted correctly and “t’s” were crossed!

Book looks good, is available on Amazon, so now the real work begins! The book needs to be read and used by business owners and entrepreneurs. I look forward to the coming months and to many comments!