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Nutritionalmarketing.com Weekly Newsletter Update
- Marketing Ideas, Information and Tips Nutritional Retailers Want
and Need!!
Volume 3, Issue
#22 - May 30, 2002
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In this issue:
Have faith! Why???
6 steps to rock-solid trust!
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Have faith! Why???
Every day, the media
- print, radio, television and the Internet - create and present stories
that grab the attention of their readers, listeners and viewers. In
their own way, the media are doing precisely what you do. They fight
to get noticed by their target markets. They do this to boost their
ratings, circulation or Web site hits so they can charge more for advertising.
It’s a very simple
system that works quite well!
It works particularly
well when the media run stories with shock value. The people the media
are trying to reach are attracted to the very things that shock them.
Human nature, I guess. It’s sad to say, but people do slow down to
look at a car accident!
And as I have said
many times, bad outsells good! People like to know about rip-offs and
scandals. They want to know who is doing the wrong thing and they want
to know about it in detail.
So why would your
customers and prospects have faith in the nutritional retailing profession
when all they hear about in the press is snake oil, products that didn’t
perform as expected and nutritional scams? Now I know some of you are
thinking that this has nothing to do with my retail store! But customers
and prospects are sometimes a little lazy. They tend to lump all the
bad news together. They broad-brush the news and begin to believe most
of what they hear. At that point, for your customers and prospects,
perception becomes reality. Some of them take this process to its ultimate
conclusion. Bombarded by bad news on a daily basis, they lose trust
in our country’s institutions. Nutrition is one of those institutions.
Today in Arizona the lead news story was about a "natural supplement"
company that took millions from people hoping the product would work!
It didn’t so now the state attorney general is all over the TV about
how bad this is!
I’m a fan of the
media. But I don’t like it when there’s little or no coverage about
nutritional retailers who give of themselves to truly help their customers.
Businesses that are committed to helping people have happier healthier
lives are buried on page 4 on a slow news day.
Negative sells.
That’s a fact. This means you and the entire industry have an uphill
battle to earn and keep your customers’ faith!
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You'll be glad you did!
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6 steps to rock-solid
trust!
If news reports
and the public chatter they generate are negative, how will you ever
overcome the tidal wave engulfing you?
It’s simple. You
build rock-solid trust!
Here are 6 simple
steps you can follow!
- Communication
- The more you communicate with your customers the better. People
trust people who work with them on a regular basis. If your customers
and prospects don’t hear from you on a consistent and repetitive basis,
they begin to wonder what happened. Your inconsistent communication
allows other information to seep in from sources such as the media.
They may even begin listening to family and friends!
- Share information
- When the media create a storm of information about a subject, you
need to share information with customers and prospects so they are
aware of your take on the situation. What are your thoughts on the
latest natural wonder supplement and how that situation could affect
your customers? How will this new product affect them? You need
to have an opinion and then share it on a regular basis.
- Admit mistakes
- When you take a stance, you have the opportunity to be wrong! If
you make a mistake, stand up and say you were wrong! People will
accept your mistakes as long as you learn from them. People don’t
want perfection. They want an honest, hard-working partner.
- Honest and direct
marketing - I was in a major large-box retailer the other day and
someone asked an employee where he could find an item that was advertised
the newspaper. The employee explained that if the customer could
read the ad’s ultra-small type in light gray, he would see that it
said "special order only." People don’t like to be misled. Now I
do think you should stand out and shock people from time to time,
but do it with humor and honesty!
- Be "the" resource
- When someone needs help, they want a single source they can go to
and "know" that they will get the real answer! When you communicate
with your customers, tell them they can turn to YOU if they think
something is too good to be true or if they don’t know who to trust!
You are the one resource they can rely on at any time to get honest
information.
- Be easy to work
with - If you’re easy to work with, people trust you more. If you
return calls in a timely manner or answer e-mails quickly, you’re
building your customers’ and prospects’ trust! You’re building faith.
This process is
not easy! You’re fighting an uphill battle because the media have the
first chance at striking fear into your customers on a regular basis!
It takes years for you to build that rock-solid trust and one story
on "20/20" can shake it to its core!
As always, have
fun with marketing!
Marty
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Quote
"Good communication
is as stimulating as a cup of black coffee, and just as hard to sleep
after."
Ann Morrow Lindberg
Your communication
with your customers and prospects needs to be more stimulating than
the sensationalism of the media! It’s not an easy task, but you can
do it.
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Please note that
all of the marketing ideas that are mentioned in our enewsletter or
on our web site are designed to help you grow your business. As you
know one size does not fit all and some of the ideas may work better
for specific applications.
