By: Brent Harms

To many the world has become “noisy”.  We are constantly bombarded with messages from a variety of sources.  It began with simple advertising on the radio, in the paper, and on billboards.  Then we started to see it on TV.  The first sign of personal communication came in our mail boxes, then phone calls.  Now we don’t know how to escape the “noise”.  On our computer it started with email, in fact email is out of control, mostly spam.  Now, we are beginning to see the communications through our cell and smart phones.  "We've gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day back in the 1970s to as many as 5,000 a day today." Jay Walker-Smith, Yankelovich Consumer Research

The question is simple, how can you effectively communicate to your customers in a way that they want, notice, care about, and ultimately respond to?

Here are some ideas:
• First, find an effective way to ask your customers for permission to communicate with them and get their preference for type of communication.  Mail, email, text?
• Know your customers so that you can create communications that are interesting and meaningful to them.  If possible, make communications personal based on purchase behavior and/or survey results.
• Keep it fresh.  No customer wants to see the same or similar thing time and time again.  Soon they will ignore your communication and it will be hard to regain their interest.  If it isn’t fresh, don’t communicate.
• Mix it up with offers and interesting information that is useful.  Another effective approach is adding a gaming element to your communications such as “answer these fun trivia questions and earn a chance to win a free trip.”
• Don’t over communicate!  The sure way to disconnect with your customer is to over communicate.  In most cases, once a week is probably the most you will want to do unless you are a frequent part of your customer’s daily routine.
• Always be sensitive to your brand.  Is what you are doing enhancing or hurting your brand?  Your brand equity is one of your core values as a company.
• Finally, listen to your customers.  If possible, track everything.  Make it easy for them to respond.  How are they responding to your communications?  Is this changing over time?  Do they want it to end?  In all cases, respond and act on these requests.

If you can follow these important guidelines you will be relevant to your customers and they in turn will be your advocates. You will see strong growth in loyalty to your business resulting in more traffic and sales.