Ever feel like your competitors are closely watching, poised to seize your best customers when you’re not looking? Rest assured: They probably are. If you’re not upping your game, you’re making it easier for them to swoop in and poach your clientele. The good news? AI has your back.
How valuable are your existing customers? Look at the statistics. Research shows the likelihood of an existing customer buying from you again is close to 70%. However, when trying to land a new customer, the odds drop to below 20%. Now, think about where you’re spending most of your energy. It is trying to entice new clients, the majority of whom won’t buy? Or is it courting your existing customers, who already know and trust you, and statistically are much more likely to give you more business?
All Journey, No Destination
The customer journey is a familiar concept and refers to the many points at which a customer interfaces with your company, shaping their opinion of you throughout the sales and installation process and beyond. It’s the “beyond” part that too many companies overlook, thinking the journey ends when a project is complete. Instead, dealers should continue to engage with clients, both with personalized follow-ups and broadcast outreach that keeps you top-of-mind.
Post-sale touchpoints can include:
- Tips & tricks newsletters helping clients get the most out of their existing technology systems
- Blog posts or YouTube videos exploring emerging technologies
- Technology lifecycle guides helping clients understand what they should update and when
- Social media campaigns inspiring clients with new design and technology trends
- Email campaigns showing off your latest technology and services
These touchpoints are designed to target your existing clients, demonstrating that you remain on the cutting edge. However, producing all that content can take a lot of work: that’s where the new class of generative AI tools comes in.
Leveraging ChatGPT for Marketing Copy
ChatGPT can be an excellent marketing copywriter, but it’s up to you to give it the right information to produce useful results. Remember this guideline: The more detailed your input, the more specific your results.
If you ask ChatGPT to write a script for a YouTube video on achieving the best home theater experience, it will give you a very generic result. If you feed it best practices from your own knowledge center, you’ll get something more accurate and specific.
Also, if you give it some requirements for tone and length, you might get results you can use with practically no editing. I recommend using the following formula for prompts: “Role” + “Task” + “Format and Restrictions.”
For example: “Act as a technology influencer addressing a consumer audience of home cinema enthusiasts. Write a script for a five-minute YouTube video explaining the top 5 tips for a better home theater experience, using the best practices copied below. Keep the tone informative and professional, but include at least three jokes.”
You can also use this prompt formula to leverage ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner. Ask the chatbot to “Act as a marketing strategy consultant. Come up with ten customer outreach ideas that would help a technology dealer improve customer loyalty. Keep the total budget under $10K.” I guarantee you’ll get at least one idea you can use today.
Worth A Thousand Words
AI tools are becoming better artists as well. Image generators can help you rapidly produce graphics and other media assets for your website, email, and social campaigns – but be careful. Image generators craft fantasies, and you’re selling reality. Use them to turn heads, but when it’s commitment time, bring out the real gems: genuine photos that capture hearts and 3D models that seal the deal.
Say you offer human-centric lighting solutions designed to help people sleep better. Tools like DALL-E or Midjourney could help you create social media images that reinforce the connection between natural light and peaceful sleep.
Once you capture the audience’s attention, though, you’ll need to show them how your solutions actually work. Real photos and videos on your website – or better yet, a deeply engaging interactive 3D model – can help customers make the connection between the marketing promise and the actual solution.
Here’s the upshot: you don’t need copywriters or graphic designers on staff, but you do need a plan to deeply engage your existing customers and continue their journey beyond the sale. Carve out a few hours to experiment with current popular AI tools. Then, use them to define and execute a few new outreach tactics to help extend and deepen your customer relationships. With these tools at your fingertips, you can bring your existing customers right back to your front door.
About the Author
Dave Chace is president of Cogent360, a CI-focused design firm specializing in interactive media, based outside Philadelphia, PA. Dave founded the company in 2007 after many years as a training director & classroom instructor for a nationwide AV and custom integration specialty retailer, with a goal of revolutionizing how organizations educate their sales channels and consumers. Cogent360 is on the leading edge of immersive media and breaking new ground in the realm of virtual technologies and advanced instructional design. They work with many of the most prestigious companies in the industry including Lutron, Harman, URC, LG, and many others.
