Our flagship, business transformation program, The Paco Method uses this extensively. We recently launched The Paco Method to help business and organizations fill the seats in their restaurants and bars, create lineups at the food truck and keep their stores and offices full.  It’s a complete New Customer Acquisition and Loyalty system.   

It’s a managed system. It has multiple parts that are deployed by us and the clients in stages, to achieve the best return on investment and the most stable of cash flow revenue for the client.  You can read an earlier overview and background piece on The Paco Method here,  as well as more information Here.

If you just came here to get some quick ideas on how to obtain New Customers let me help as well.  Perhaps we can develop a future relationship, and that’s where all new customers start.  They become at least somewhat interested or aware of our businesses. New Customer Development Rule #1: Warm is far better than cold.

Here’s a Report with 32 plus customer marketing ideas you can download in pdf form. Plus more ideas in link form if you’re still looking for more after seeing the 32 plus presented.  All we ask is that you share the list or sign up with your email.

Download 32 New Customer Marketing Ideas For Restaurants, Bars, Food Trucks, Retail, Professionals and Many More Here.

The Paco Method system is a complete managed New Customer system with components that integrate well.  The added synergy of using the right ones at the right time is real.

but the #1 Method, my favorite go-to method if I had to pick one, that is just not talked about enough and used enough, is:

Taking A Highly Proactive Approach To Presenting Recent Authentic Reviews & Testimonials About Your Business & Facilitating Word Of Mouth.  Processes that work both in a digital social world and a face-to-face coffee chat world.

What do you do in your own life?

You’re a business owner…you buy expensive and everyday items
Do you read reviews, do you children or your partner read reviews before you go out.

So when it comes to their own business, most business owners shy away from creating systems to allow prospective new customers to hear what others have said.  Why?  Simply their Fear and their reluctance to demand the highest of standards in their business. Fear their products are not good enough, their staff is not well trained, fear of the unknown generally.  The biggest fear is of being criticized for something that is often their life’s passion.  Fear of the negative individual. It cuts to the core.

Bring me solutions when you bring me problems, my high-level superiors often told me.

We get positive reviews and word of mouth when we do a great job, we get scathing reviews and get even comments when we do a poor job.  That might comprise about 10-15% of our customers, perhaps even less.  It’s that group in the middle, that don’t leave reviews unless we implement systems for them to tell us about their experience.

As consumers, we look for well-written reviews that seem authentic, the more the better, and were recently written.  We are jaded. We know how the system can be manipulated.

I do have a hobby of writing reviews when I am in other people’s businesses, especially when I am in a tourist situation. You never totally take off your consultant’s hat of course.  The folks at Trip Advisor recently told me that a simple review I had written about the pros and cons of staying at a particular hotel, using my own system, that I teach business owners to incorporate now, had been read over 5700 times in one year and had received many helpful votes. I was amazed.  Word of mouth has been powerful since the days that folks that started sharing bread and water, coffee, tea, wine, you name it, looking into each other’s eyes.  Today, it moves at lightspeed and there is often no coffee needed.

Here’s a recent presentation from the ReviewsTrust folks that summarized the key facts well, I thought.

• 70% of people say they look at Reviews BEFORE making a purchase (powerreviews.com
• 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site (business) that has product ratings and reviews (searchenginejournal.com)
• Reviews Increase consumer trust by 12x  (econsultancy.com)

What A Fool Believes?  Remember the very popular The Doobie Brothers song?  We’re business fools. We’re so in love with our ideas, our vision, our passion, our hard work that we believe that we forsake external thinking.  Even when we get it all right and finely tuned internally in our business, if the future client and the repeat client does not see that and others are not hearing about it, we are ultimately doomed to failure.  Our customers, and what they think of their experience with us, can, in the end, make us successful or failures.

A Reviews System can make you a winner.  Reviews, Testimonials, Word of Mouth, Referrals, Local Search, Feedback, Focus Testing, Community Involvement and more.  All aspects of an externally focused business, essential aspects. Tweet This.

The building blocks of your highly effective Reviews method to acquire New Customers and turn them into Lifetime Customers are fairly basic.

-Be Findable In Local Search  (People read reviews, people search for business that will give them a good experience nearby)

-Be Ready To Attract All Walk By and Last Minute Type Shoppers Into Your Premises,

-Present Always Fresh Recent Reviews Online And At Your Place of Business,

-Be Prepared To Answer All Questions Before The Customer Experience Begins,

-Make The Customer Experience The Best Possible,

-Ensure Every Customer Is Requested To Leave An Honest Review Before They Leave Your Business,

-Ask At Least Twice While They Are With You.

-Seek Their Contact Information For Various Forms of Followup.

But let’s go back to the first one, Be Findable, and do that properly to start.

15 Directories You Need To Be Listed

Which One:  Google My Business or Facebook.   Well Both Of Course.

When You Have A Steady Stream Of Fresh Reviews Coming In

How To Show Off Your Customer Reviews and Testimonials

To start, we always advise “keeping it real”.  “Real recognize real” say the street kids playing ball on the playgrounds.  People will be impressed you bring a fair and balanced eye to your review.  The same reason we decide those kinds of news stories on the media are the most trustworthy.  The credibility comes from the way they are put together.

You probably already know how important reviews are in terms of marketing your products and services. They break down the barriers your potential customers may have when trying to decide whether or not to do business with you.

Reviews and testimonials can bring a lot of credibility to your business, which ultimately results in higher conversions and more revenue.

Whether you’re a dentist, handyman, attorney, chiropractor, electrician, or other local services company, it is important to build up a certain level of trust with your prospects – and reviews can help you do just that.

In other words, they bring an incredible level of profitability that businesses cannot afford to ignore.

Maybe you already have some glowing reviews and are wondering how to get more eyes on them. This is key.

Here are five places you can show them off for maximum exposure.

1. Your website

Displaying customer reviews on your actual website will really help draw in sales because these prospects are obviously already interested in your business.  So putting your customer reviews and testimonials where they can clearly see them will only work to your benefit. Ideally, you should have a testimonials page, but don’t be shy about posting a few of them on your home page and other pages as well.

2. Social Media

It’s hardly surprising that displaying your reviews on social media is going to give you ultimate exposure. With millions of visitors every day, these sites give you the opportunity to show off your ratings to a massive number of people. Take Facebook for example.

If you go to the ‘about’ section on your business page timeline, you’ll see it if you edit the address section, there’s an option to check a box which reads “show map, check-ins and star ratings on the page”.  

3. Place them inside of your e-books or reports

If you’re giving away free e-books or reports to get opt-ins for your email list, put your reviews and testimonials inside of them to boost results. You’re already giving them helpful information that they find valuable by providing the content. Including your reviews and testimonials will further add to the fact that your business is the right one to meet their needs.

4.  Add them to your printed marketing materials

Just like everything mentioned above, reviews and testimonials can also help any printed advertising perform better. Most of the time, you may be limited on space, but it only really takes one or two reviews to show prospects that you are reputable.

5. At your place of business

Showing off your reviews and testimonials inside of your place of business is powerful.  It’s a great way to show existing customers that they’ve made the right choice and can go a long way in customer retention and referrals.

Reviews and testimonials themselves are important. But it’s where you display them that brings the real value. Displaying them in the places mentioned above will definitely shine a positive light on your business, increase conversions, and help you generate more sales.

How Do Your Prospective And Current Customers See You

But let’s back this up and help you with the framework you will need to get the best possible authentic reviews on an ongoing basis. Your brand is the extension of the Internals we mentioned before translated to the External environment.  What your Customer or Client sees or feels from their experience with your business.

This is the Master’s course content for a long-term successful business.  For a successful small business, the owner, manager or leader is the brand and the message and all staff and all aspects of the external environment support it.  For a political figure, the famous Roger Ailes book title, You are the Message”, applies still today.  Leaders are a key part of any Brand created.  This is what

This is what we present at our 20-20 Leaders With Vision Retreats/Masterminds where we help business and organizations by developing leaders, the brand identity and the external communications within a feedback system.  We help you ensure that your Internals Identity matches your External communication, knowing that it is only through Customers and Clients who willingly choose to work with us, that we are successful.

Time for a quick plug for our Masterminds Retreat conference on January 4-11, 2018 in Ixtapa, Mexico. Turning New Customers Into Raving Fans and Zealots For Your Brand.  Let us know if you’d like more information.  Earlybird registration is now open.

Amazing Sunsets

The book, Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon, is an excellent overview of the key aspects of a successful brand.

Why do some brands succeed beyond all reasonable expectation, while other brands that are just as good or even better wind up failing within a few months? How is it that an Oprah becomes an icon, while dozens of other talk show hosts quickly fall into oblivion? Why does Nike inspire such loyalty, while other brands of shoes struggle for market share?

In the book Primal Branding, Patrick Hanlon explains his theory for “Creating zealots for your brand, your company and your future.” He explains how the powerful brands become that way by carefully (and sometimes accidentally) creating a community of believers by employing seven different marketing tactics. All seven of these components are found behind every super-successful brand, product, service, personality, social cause, religion or movement.

Imagine if your product inspired the same level of loyalty that Apple, Disney and Starbucks receive from their customers. Now imagine you can actually engineer that loyalty right into your brand – it makes your head spin a bit, doesn’t it?

According to Patrick, these are the 7 key ingredients that you or your product, service or brand must have to inspire zealous loyalty.

1. The Creation Story – This is the back story that sets the stage. Think of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their parents’ garage building the first personal computer, Jeff Bezos writing Amazon’s business plan in the backseat of his car, or pharmacist  Dr. John Pemberton concocting Coca-cola.

You need a back story for your product, service or business. This might be how you got the idea, your struggle to solve a problem, your inspiration, etc. Storytelling is as old as language itself and touches people on a very deep, primal level. Do you want to foster a real, unifying connection on a subconscious level with your prospect? Then you need a story.

1. The Creed – This is what you believe in, your core principle, your mission statement. A creed differentiates and motivates. According to Sidney Pollack, “It’s the spine that supports the entire enterprise.” See if you can recognize these creeds:

“It’s the real thing”

“Save the whales”

“All men are created equal”

“Just do it”

So what’s your creed? Invest some time to get this right. And if you have more than one product and the products are wildly different, know that you’ll want a different creed for each one. For example, you won’t have the same creed for an info product on traffic generation as an info product on building your abs.

1. The Icons – These are best defined as a quick concentration of meaning. This could be a logo like the Nike swoosh, the smell of Cinnabons in the mall, a country’s flag, a national anthem, Alice Cooper’s eye make-up, Kiss’s face make-up, the Budweiser Clydesdales, Disney’s castle as well as Disney’s 2 black mouse ears, McDonald’s arches, the 2 notes Law and Order plays just before the show appears, the opening music to any television show or the 5 signature notes of Intel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEDpqFHTSVM

Choose your icon carefully, and then use it in all of your marketing. Update it when needed, being careful not to lose it in the process. It should always be instantly recognizable and tightly tied to your brand.

1. The Rituals – This is how our customers interact with your product and service, and how you interact with them. This one is a little harder to define and illustrate. We have rituals for everything we do on a frequent basis, including brushing our teeth, doing laundry, driving our car and checking our email. The key here is to focus on improving the experience the customer has with your product or brand. How can you raise the experience to a higher level? How can you make it more enjoyable, or even something they look forward to? How can you take the stress out and put the fun in?

Here’s a great example: The ritual of flying. While most airlines are cutting every frill to the absolute bare bone, Virgin is moving in the opposite direction. They hand you a plastic shoulder sack full of goodies. There’s a television screen on the back of every seat. They serve Virgin Cola and let you listen to music and watch movies non-stop.

What can you do to make the ritual of discovering, buying and using your product more enjoyable – so enjoyable, in fact, that people will talk about you and your product?

1. The Pagans, or Nonbelievers – These are best defined as “those other guys.” Us against them. Apple vs P.C. and Internet Explorer vs Firefox vs Chrome. One political party vs their opposition. One sports team vs their rival. Nothing unites a group faster than having a common ‘enemy.’ 7up declared itself the “un-cola.” Taco Bell tells you to “think outside the bun.”

Defining your pagans is important in defining who you are. Do you teach methods of getting free traffic? Then paid traffic traffic methods are your pagans. Do you show people how to eat only clean, healthy foods? Then pseudo foods, pseudo food manufacturers and people who eat pseudo foods are your pagans.

1. The Sacred Words – words specific and exclusive to your own product, service or brand. Walt Disney has ‘Mickey Mouse,’ ‘Goofy’ and ‘Donald Duck.’ Starbucks has a ‘grande.’ Dr. Seuss invented an entire world of sacred words. Apple has “think different.” Texters have their own sacred language. Information product creators and authors create their own terms to define what they’re teaching. By creating your own sacred words, your fans and followers are on the inside of the secret circle with their own language. It’s a cohesive, insider’s-only knowledge that brings a group together.

Think of a young couple in love – they develop their own language that is indecipherable to anyone else, and in this way they become 2 against the world. You can replicate this with your own sacred words, so don’t be afraid to get creative – your customers will love you for it.

1. The Leader – this person is the catalyst, the risk taker, the visionary, the iconoclast who set out against all odds to achieve something. Think Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Oprah, Gandhi, Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela and others who have led movements, companies and causes.

The leader could be the founder or it could be someone who takes their place functionally or symbolically. This means if you don’t want to be the leader, you can choose someone else, like a spokesperson for your brand.

Does all of this sound like too much work just to sell a product? Perhaps it is if you’re thinking small. If your goal is to sell a few hundred copies of something and move on, then you don’t need these 7 steps. But if you want to create something that takes on a life of its own and grows exponentially, then adhering to every one of these 7 pieces of the Primal Code is essential.

We talk about making a video or an idea or a product go viral. How does that happen? Is it an accident, or is it because that product or idea meets every one of these  7 criteria? Spend some time looking at the famous people and especially popular brands, and see if they don’t use all 7 of these in their marketing.

Look at it this way – if you could create a brand that grows like a religion, wouldn’t you want to? Imagine the people you can help, the alliances you can forge, and the profits you can make.

There it is. The number 1 method to acquire New Customers.  Create a Reviews & Word Of Mouth system that you work at every day if you are a do it yourself owner or manager, or let professionals like us manage for you.  The Systematic Approach is key.

We very much live in an online world today. We ignore it’s power to hurt us at our peril. We don’t have to just play defence.  We ignore it’s power to help us create successful businesses and organizations at our peril.  We can crush the competition…with a good heart, with the right combination of our online and offline strategy and tactics.

Over the next 30 days, you’ll find the best ideas from The Paco Method outlined here and on our Facebook and Twitter Paco Method pages.  You are most welcome to follow along.

Each one on its own will be gold, for you, we hope, but I need to provide our disclaimer that the magic only really kicks in when all or the most appropriate ones are used for your business. The combination of the ones with the best possible results including the number of new customers earned, and the net cost of their acquisition, or your Return on Investment.

So while most of the methods are mostly already well known, it is how they are implemented that matters most and when.  Like a football playbook.  The plays are in place. The game is managed by the Co-ordinators and the Offensive and Defensive Quarterbacks.  Half time adjustments are critical as well.  The team with the best in-game strategy and execution usually wins, if the talent is equal. Never fear, we do have a few secret and trick plays too with Paco’s Football team too, and we make sure the talent we put on the field is going to be some of the best available and work well together as a unit.

For some of you who are reluctant to seek help, yet you feel the struggle every day, I just ask a few questions.  What’s the value of every New Customer?  What if that Customer became a repeat customer, even a lifetime customers.  What’s your ROI of not using The Paco Method, an ongoing managed system of creating new customers and our professional assistance, or any others professional assistance, for that matter?  Or if The Paco Method is only partly successful in the first year?  What’s the ROI of filling 50% of all current empty seats in your establishment 50% of the time?  If I told you that we had an irresistible offer to all clients in the next 30 days that took away any risk of this program not being successful and provided you with amazing benefits for being an early entrant into our program.

If I told you that we had an irresistible offer to all clients in the next 30 days that took away any risk of this program not being successful and provided you with amazing benefits for being an early entrant into our program.  Well we do.  We’d be glad to explain it to you.  Just send us an email to “bob at bobrempel.com”  or follow The Paco Method on Twitter and send us a message.

I strongly encourage to take some positive action today to create a strong and effective Reviews system in your business and organization.  Stop dappling with it.  Go all in.  It works, I promise.

If you found this article of benefit please share with your business and organizational colleagues. Thank you.  We’d love to see you in Ixtapa, Mexico at our Mastermind Retreat in early January.