What is the Difference between clients and customers?
The words clients and customers are used interchangeably many times. I like to make this distinction. Clients are either on retainer and/or have a long-term relationship with our company, 1stStraw Marketing.
Clients come to us season-after-season, year after year as a trusted advisor who offers professional marketing services. Their objective is to get a quality program to reflect their own brand image. Delivery timing is essential to meet their event calendar. Price is a consideration but not their highest priority.
Customers are transactional. They want a specific product or service quoted. They don’t use our services regularly. Some of these prospects may bid out projects to us and other resources. Many times, customers are price-driven and make their decision based solely on how they can spend the least to get the most.
We aim to provide great service to clients and customers. The level of interaction with a client is much more involved than a customer. We strive to help transform the transactional customer into a client, a loyal client. Every step of the process can be addressed with an effective marketing campaign.
THE MARKETING FUNNEL
Awaress – Interest – Desire – Action
- Awareness – Is your marketing program able to get the prospect’s attention, also known as brand awareness? The program should be compelling enough to catch the eye of the target prospect.
- Interest – Does the marketing message address the prospect’s problems or help reach their goals, also known as their key marketing objective?
Desire/Consideration/Evaluation – Is your marketing compelling enough to convince the prospect to make a buying decision? Is your product or service attractive enough to persuade the prospect to buy from you?
Action/Decision/Purchase – Is your sales procedure ready to take over once the lead makes contact? Whether the order or buyer comes from your website, email, app, or phone, have the process in place to handle the order efficiently. Delivery on time and quality as promised.
Loyalty/Advocacy – Do your products and services live up to the promise, solve the problem, or meet the objective? Being able to repeat the performance on each project although the types of products and services and delivery requirements continually change. These are loyal clients who may become fans and brand influencers. Being able to have clients advocate for the brand is the platinum status for a brand.
The whole process of attracting a customer and having loyal clients starts with Obscurity (never heard of it) and moves along a continuum to Blind Loyalty (will accept no alternative). The greatest return on marketing investment is reached by making progress from customer attraction to client retention to a brand advocate.
If you need to identify your company’s and brand’s objective, set a goal, and implement an effective marketing program, contact Lynn3@1st-Straw.com. For more information visit https://1st-straw.com