We all want to grow our online followings and increase our customer bases, but how can we do that without sacrificing customer service? When you’re a budding entrepreneur with a smaller online community, it’s far easier to connect and engage. You can personally email everyone who subscribes to your list and respond to every comment and DM. But as your list grows, that personal touch can feel far more burdensome, and often times, we sacrifice service in favor of scaling.
Your audience can tell the difference.
They will notice when the personal touches fade away and you may see them shift from loyal fan to fair-weather follower. They won’t open every newsletter, comment on your social media posts, or participate in your audience polls. If you don’t give them your attention, they may not give you theirs.
So how can we continue to form real, meaningful connections as we grow our followings? How can we scale our audience without sacrificing service?
By implementing automation tools that make it easier to personally connect with your audience members.
There are so many tools out there for automating your marketing and customer service, but most of those tools create more distance between you and your audience members. These are the three that have helped me better connect with and serve my audience while I continue to grow and scale:
ActiveCampaign*
There are dozens of quality email service providers out there, but I’ve found ActiveCampaign to be the easiest and most effective for tailoring emails and tracking my subscribers’ preferences. When someone opts in to my list, through a freebie or an online quiz, I’m able to track exactly where they came from and create a follow up sequence tailored for them. I can also track which emails they open, which they click on, and which they forward to a friend. You can learn a lot about your newsletter subscribers just by paying attention to their behavior, and then tweaking the content to appeal to their interests.
Bonjoro*
One of my pet peeves when it comes to the online business world is how impersonal everything is. If I sign up for an e-course or software, I’m often greeted by a welcome video that is pre-recorded and generic, which for me, doesn’t build any connection or brand loyalty. That’s why I was so thrilled to discover Bonjoro*, an app that allows users to record and send a personalized video, in real time. Whenever someone registers for an e-course or purchases the Personal Brand Workbook, I receive a notification from Bonjoro. I take a look at the person’s website and social media handles, learn a bit about who they are and what they do, and record a personalized message just for them. I do it right from my phone, it takes less than a minute, and it creates real engagement with the person at the other end.
Think about it. What if the next time you purchased an e-course, signed up for a coaching program, or even just signed up for someone’s mailing list, you received a personalized video from that person welcoming you to the community? I suspect you would feel that you weren’t just another email address on a mailing list. You would feel connected and valued.
Interact*
Online quizzes are one of the quickest ways to learn about and engage with your audience, and Interact* makes it incredibly easy to create, deliver, and track those quizzes. Unlike surveys– which often feel more like the surveyor is asking a favor than providing a benefit to the recipient–quizzes are fun, engaging, and self-actualizing for your audience members. By taking an online quiz, they learn something about themselves and you learn how you can better serve them. It’s a win-win.
These three tools not only help you scale your audience, they help you to better serve them too.
Do you have a favorite tool that’s helping you better serve your audience? Feel free to share them in the comments!
*Denotes affiliate links. I receive a small commission when you purchase products through these links and I only link to products or services that I’ve used and can honestly recommend. Reputation is everything, and I have no desire to risk mine for a few bucks.
Leave a Reply