Play Fetch with Your Customers

I just love seeing a business that ‘gets it.’ In an environment where we have more marketing options than you can throw the proverbial stick at, and more consultants willing and eager to assist, there are still so many ordinary branding & marketing campaigns and worse still, monumental stuff-ups (I’m so over even talking about iSnack...)

So a few months ago when I came across a fabulous company called Urban Dog Training it was such a refreshing change.

Let me give you some background. Danielle Dickinson is an impassioned and utterly funny behavioural dog trainer. I first met her when I was desperately seeking help for my mini daschund Pippy, who I’ve allowed to believe is actually a human. Apparently, you’re not meant to treat dogs like your child, but believe me, I’m paying for it now.

Anyway, Danielle and her husband Paul have established this great business to assist urbanites like me who have either ruined their dogs or have bought a dog and don’t want to ruin it. Hopefully they get to the latter category first. They run about a dozen classes at any one time, plus do private consulting (bless you) for the hardened criminals. And by that, I mean the owners, not the animals.

Danielle and Paul ‘get’ how to turn their clients into evangelists. Even before their utilisation of social media, their website was one of the best I’ve seen in my life. Why?
1. Right from the start, they worked out who the site was for. NOT for them, but their customers. Wow... revolutionary.
2. From the first page, there’s no doubt as to what they do and how it can help you.
3. Beautiful clear, crisp graphics & mountains of information & click-throughs etc
4. And, get this.... a call to action.
Jump on the website yourself and have a play.

So, I started talking to Danielle and Paul about social media. They’re no strangers to Facebook. If you want to see a great Fan Page check out Stevie and Garry’s. For an explanation on the dog’s names, you’ll have to DM Paul (@Beezneez71) directly...

They have the fundamentals right in their online presence, making it really easy to segue into Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. But the biggest thing they have, which I cant teach, is PASSION. If you know you have a good product and you are totally passionate about what you do, it’s going to show through. Leading on from that, if you’re serious about your business, wouldn’t you want it to have a professional presence?  Dont you want your clients to know you think highly enough about them and also your product to produce a first-rate promotional presence?

My advice to businesses wanting to dive into the social media pool is to do a stock take of what it is they actually do. I never start a client’s strategy without first gauging their level of excitement for their product or service. It’s okay to be tired and overwhelmed, but do you actually like what you do or sell? If you don’t like what you do, and have all the inherent and underlying problems that go with it, then even social media isn’t going to help you.

So make like an Urban Dog, ask yourself why you’re doing things. Use that passion to your advantage, because it really does shine through making you hard to resist. And before you know it, you’ll have your clients eating out of your hand.