Let’s talk about how to improve your communication, whether it’s in social media, email marketing, or just general community building when it comes to having conversations virtually and in person with clients.
So, I believe great communication is an important aspect of customer service. I think that going virtual, having services online, gives the pretense that customer service is no longer a focus. And this is where we as boutique business, we can do better. I believe that good communication comes down to three really important aspects, being inspirational, being aspirational, and being conversational. I’m going to break all three of those down.
Be Inspirational
Being inspirational is one of the things that I think boutique fitness businesses love to do really well. They love putting out the most challenging thing that someone could do with their business on social media and believe that it inspires people to be great.
I’ll be honest, I actually disagree. Most times, it ends up doing the opposite. It actually turns people away because it makes them realize that they are in not the shape they want to be in, that they’re not part of a community, which I believe they want to belong to. Oftentimes our inspiration kind of comes across as exclusivity instead of inclusivity. And I think that’s important because we’re living in a world where being inclusive is extremely important, but it’s also important for your bottom line. You need more and more people coming into your business, loving what you do and converting into a long term lifetime client. So inspiration, although an important part of the trifecta of communication, alone is not enough. So I’m not saying it’s not a great idea to throw out some really exciting inspiration and information out there into your social. What I am warning you about is that there is a difference between being inspirational and being aspirational.
Be relatable
And the major difference is being inspirational really should be something that people can relate to, that people can really lean in on and that they can take action on very easily. So you can imagine that really difficult pose in yoga or that super heavyweight of that you’re showcasing in your business is actually more aspirational than inspirational. Now inspirational is great, right? Again, it has to be something that people can relate to. Aspirational is that area that we’re constantly pushing out content as, and not realizing that this is something that people would desire to achieve, but have not yet achieved. It’s a really big difference. Clients who are looking at aspirational content, they don’t always convert. They’re not always the client that actually clicks the link in bio or comes in or that clicks on your intro offer and actually decides that it’s time to spend a few dollars on their exercise.
So I want you to think about that, specifically in boutique business, what is the best means of communication for your clients? And I actually don’t think it’s an either or, it’s an and. So if you’re going to be aspirational, you should also be inspirational, but you really want to think about what that means to your current community and how you can separate those two vantage points better. Finally, I believe being conversational is something that we’ve overlooked over the years. We say these buzzwords, engagement, follower growth, but what we’re really just saying is we’re looking for high level, big picture results instead of that granular two-way conversation that we really need. I think right now we’re more than ever, we need to know what our clients desire. We need to know where they’re stuck. We need to know why they’re not taking as many live classes as we thought they would.
Be conversational
We need to know how frequently they plan on coming back in once they’re able to. And that’s where conversational communication can really light up your social media, your email marketing, and any aspect of business communication. That’s where you really understand the needs of your business and of the clients that you serve and that’s where I think we are best fit. Whether you’re running a boutique fitness business or a wellness industry business or anything in between, I think having the ear of the customer is something we need to laser focus on to really get the results we desire for our business, for our long term and our short term growth. So you can see there are benefits to being inspirational, aspirational, and conversational, but the biggest benefit of all is having all three of those work to your professional communication. I think this is the number one way to get ahead with social media beyond the vanity metrics and actually get you some real paid clients.
So yeah, let’s communicate about your goals and needs, soon! (See what I did there?!)
xoxo KK
Communication works for those who work at it with good intentions and strategic action. – KK FIT TIP #1188