Archive | October, 2017

When you get that dreaded email that says, “I don’t like this, please refund my money…” what do you do?

Most marketers make the refund and forget about it.

But what you might not realize is that a refund request can be the perfect opportunity to create a customer for life, if you handle it correctly.

Remember, your objective is to save the customer, not necessarily to save the sale. If you can do both, then that’s terrific.

And your goal is to fix the problem, not the blame. That is, don’t blame your customer or yourself. These things happen for a myriad of reasons. And you want people to speak positively about your products, not ‘win’ arguments.

Here’s what you need to be able to say, regardless of who is ‘at fault:’

• You’re sorry it wasn’t a good fit
• You want to do what you can to help, because that’s what you’re there for – to help the customer

There are two variations of communications to send out to customers seeking a refund, based on whether or not they are eligible for a refund according to your refund policy.

Throughout the process, keep in mind that your customer is likely in ‘fight or flight’ mode.

Think back to when you wanted a refund and you’ll understand the feeling: You’re ready to fight to get that refund if you have to.

But nothing defuses that fight or flight response faster than…

“I’m sorry. How can I help?”

Now then, let’s say you’ve received a refund request, and you’ve determined your customer is eligible for a refund based on your policy and the timeframe of when they ordered.

Here are the key points to keep in mind to keep your customer:

You’re going to acknowledge that they are eligible for a refund. Until you say this, your customer isn’t going to hear anything else you say. So lead with this, and they’ll relax enough to read the rest of your email or listen to you if you’re on the phone.

You’re going to reinforce their desired result. Your customer bought your product for a reason – likely a problem they need solved. They still have the problem, and they still need a solution.

You’re going to offer an alternative solution. You’re now teaming up with the customer to find an effective solution to their problem. You’ve gone from being adversaries to working side by side as partners to fix their problem.

Lastly, you’re going to set a timer for an automatic refund. This emphasizes that you are sincere about that refund, and that you are more interested in helping them find a solution than holding on to their money.

Here’s an email template you can use. Be sure to thoroughly modify it to fit your situation:

Hi [First Name], I’m really sorry to hear that [product name] wasn’t a fit for you.

Don’t worry, you are well within our refund period [or you have x days left in our refund period] and I’ll be happy to process that for you.

But first, I want you to know that I care about my customers and I want to be certain you’re not only happy, but that I help you reach your [business / personal] goals.

So no matter what, I’m going to take care of you.

[First name], I’m guessing you purchased [product name] because you wanted to [solve ‘x’ problem or get ‘y’ result].

And since you are requesting a refund, you probably still need a solution to that problem, right?

So with your permission I’d like to suggest something a little different.

As I said, it’s my job to help you reach YOUR goals, and I think we can both agree that a refund isn’t going to do that (no worries, if you don’t like what I’m about to suggest, I’ll still refund your money ASAP, just please hear me out first.)

Instead of a refund, I’d like to offer you one of our other courses that I think will help you [insert goal here].

Here is a list of products that might be a better fit for you.

List products with descriptions – if prices are larger than what the customer paid, list the prices, too.

Remember [first name], I promised to take care of you and I mean it. So please reply with any questions you might have, or take a day to think it over. Either way, I am here for you.

If I don’t hear back from you by [date, time] I will issue you a full refund instead.

And if you want to talk, please call me and I can activate one of the above courses for you right now, or issue you a refund, your choice.

You can reach me at [phone number].

Talk to you soon.

Best regards,

[Your name]

Now let’s say you’ve received a refund request, but you’ve determined your customer is not eligible for a refund based on your policy and the timeframe of when they ordered.

Here’s the email you might send:

Hi [First Name], I’m truly sorry to hear that [product name] wasn’t a fit for you.

Unfortunately, you are beyond our [XX day] refund period which means I can’t issue you a refund today.

BUT I still want to help you and I think I may have a solution.

I’m guessing that you purchased [product name] because you needed to [achieve ‘x’ goal or solve ‘y’ problem].

Is that a fair assumption? … and you likely still need a solution to that problem, correct?

Since I am unable to issue you a refund, I’d like to “exchange” [product name] for one of our other courses that might be a better solution for you.

Here are a list of options for you to choose from: [Enter product names, descriptions and prices]

Please let me know which of these trainings you’d like to have and I’ll get you access as quickly as possible.

If you’re not sure which one you would like, please feel free to reply with any questions or take a day or so to think it over.

Either way, I’m here if you need me.

And if you would like to talk, you can give me a call and I can activate your new course right now.

You can reach me at [phone number].

Talk to you soon.

Best regards,

[Your name]

Again, be sure to modify these completely to suit your needs.

You’ll find that by taking this extra step, disgruntled customers become happy customers – and sometimes even become your strongest advocates.

Imagine all the prospects you attract to your business as being a large mound of gravel.

But hidden in that gravel are diamonds.

Your job is to sift through the gravel to find the diamonds, and to do this as cheaply and effectively as possible.

You want to spend the majority of your marketing time and money on the diamonds – not the gravel.

Look at it that way and you’ll wake up every morning with the excitement of a prospector – filled with hope and possibility.

You could be just one email, or one ad, or one click away from your fortune! Keep sifting!!

Imagine growing your e-commerce site from nothing to $50,000 in monthly revenue just three months after launching. Impossible?

Actually, I’ve seen case studies that prove it can and does happen.

“But it takes a big marketing budget, right?”

Nope. If you know what you’re doing and you’re willing to put in the work, every single sale can come from free online marketing tactics.

In fact, when you learn these methods, not only can you grow your revenue quickly – you might also be able to raise significant VC funding and gain some primo customers or clients very quickly.

Here are 33 free marketing tactics to consider. Will you use them all? Not likely, unless you have some good virtual assistants to help you out (hint hint!)

1. Submit a free press release for distribution using a service such as PRlog.

2 Create a lead magnet and use it to capture and market to leads. Promote your free lead magnet on forums and guest posts.

3. Create a white paper or “how to” guide showing how to achieve a certain goal (using your product, of course)

4. Haunt Quora and respond to questions in your niche. Look for questions that are getting a lot of play, or have a lot of people waiting for an answer.

5. Share your startup on Betalist, the daily list of newest startups.

6. Sign up for a social monitoring service like Mention.com. Respond to anyone that mentions your brand or one of your competitors. Answer relevant questions about your niche.

7. Cross promote with other companies or movers in your niche. Offer to trade mentions and tweets with social media accounts that have a similar number of followers.

8. Join Meetup, find appropriate groups and message the coordinators, asking for speaking gigs at their meetings or events.

9. Film yourself when you speak before a group, and post those videos on YouTube and your blog.

10. Create a Crunchbase page.

11. Share your website on Erlibird.com.

12. Write a post for each one of your competitors, comparing it to your product. This should attract search engine traffic looking for reviews of your competition (Sneaky, right?)

13. Launch your own topic at Scoop.it and place your website into your topic page.

14. Search for blogs using your most relevant keywords. Leave posts on those blogs linking back to your site.

15. Have infographics created that are highly relevant to your business, and then share them on free distribution sites such as Pinterest and Visual.ly.

16. Ask your existing users to help you by promoting your company or giving referrals.

17. Get your business featured on blogs and websites by showing specifically how it can help their readers. Offer the site owner an affiliate commission for each person who joins your list from the post and/or for each person who buys your product. This works especially well outside of the IM niche.

18. Guest post. A lot. Read up on how to guest post and become an expert at it. Entire businesses have been built from scratch to six or seven figures through guest posting alone.

19. Find newsletters that focus on startups – such as StartUp Digest – and get featured there.

20. Use a tool such as Majestic to discover who links to your competitors. Then reach out to those websites and ask for links.

21. Submit presentations to Slideshare.

22. Run a free giveaway or deal on social media to get your target audience to follow you.

23. Submit your site to Product Hunt.

24. Teach a class on Skill Share about your niche.

25. Find out what questions people in your niche are asking, then answer those questions in blogposts (great for SEO).

26. Create a deal on AppSumo.

27. Reach out to Twitter followers of your competition.

28. If you’re a B2B, reach out directly to possible customers on LinkedIn.

29. Grow your site traffic by making it super easy for your readers to share your content with a tool such as Twilighter.

30. Reach out to influencers in your niche on social media.

31. Give away your product free to influencers in exchange for reviews.

32. Become a source on your niche for ‘Help a Reporter Out’.

33. Write roundup posts – pick the 30 or so experts you would most like to mention you, your product or company. Ask each one to answer a super relevant question, then post all those answers in an article with a link back to each expert’s site. Let them know the article is live, and some of them will link to it from their sites or from social media.

Just a few of these, done properly, should see your new business growing fast and strong. Do them all and you will be an unstoppable powerhouse.