Important: Brand Secrets and Strategies has been rebranded to Retail Solved. Please swap all BrandSecretsandStrategies.com URL’s with RetailSolved.com. This is now the Bulletproof Your Brand podcast. Thank you for listening!

There is a better way to boost shopper engagement and grow sales. It begins with building a connected community. Let your customers know that you appreciate and value them.

Most brands spend more time trying to repeatedly re-acquire the same customer as opposed to nurturing their existing shoppers - why promotions are so expensive and ineffective. It’s a lot more effective to convert your existing customers into loyal evangelists. It’s also how you add rocket fuel to your growth while you future proof your brand.

Everyone is overwhelmed by the pandemic. There is so much noise and confusion. We all want to return to our lives. This creates a unique opportunity for you to differentiate your brand from others and stand out from the crowd. You now have the ability to let shoppers know how much you appreciate them. Let them know that you value their input about your brand. Invite them to belong to your connected community.

Would you like to know a surefire way to explode sales while converting occasional customers into loyal evangelists? If you do, then you're in the right place. Let's start the show.

Let's roll up our sleeves and get started. Welcome. Today I want to talk about how to grow sales with authentic gratitude.

This simple strategy can give you a huge competitive edge against any competition, any channel, and any economy. Imagine customers lining up to buy your product, or better yet, choosing your product over the competitive product all the time. That's what we're shooting for.

How do we convert occasional shoppers into loyal evangelists? This is the secret to do that. And while there are no guarantees in life, there's one surefire strategy that's going to help you achieve your goals and your objectives.

Before we get into that, let's define the problem. Let's talk about what's going on today. There's so much chaos or so much noise that we're all feeling overwhelmed.

And for good reason. There are a lot of things to be concerned about. A lot of unknowns.

Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after. But what we do know is that we need each other. And the only way that your brand can survive is if customers buy it.

Let's roll up our sleeves and get started. Welcome. Today I want to talk about how to grow sales with authentic gratitude.

This simple strategy can give you a huge competitive edge against any competition, any channel, and any economy. Imagine customers lining up to buy your product, or better yet, choosing your product over the competitive product all the time. That's what we're shooting for.

How do we convert occasional shoppers into loyal evangelists? This is the secret to do that. And while there are no guarantees in life, there's one surefire strategy that's going to help you achieve your goals and your objectives.

Before we get into that, let's define the problem. Let's talk about what's going on today. There's so much chaos or so much noise that we're all feeling overwhelmed.

And for good reason. There are a lot of things to be concerned about. A lot of unknowns.

Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after. But what we do know is that we need each other. And the only way that your brand can survive is if customers buy it.

And the only way that you can get customers to buy it is if you get it discovered. If you make it easy for them to find and buy your product wherever they shop. Now believe it or not, that's the easy part.

The hard part is how do you get them to buy your product the second time and the third time and so on. How do you get them to buy your product and then recommend your product or share your product with someone else? That's the focus of this story.

You've heard me talk a lot about how the big brands spend most of their time talking at us. It's almost as if they shout out the win, telling us how great they are and how wonderful they are and why we need to choose their product over anything else. They believe that if they discount their product, that we're going to buy it no matter what.

Well, your customers are different than that. Your customers want quality that they know, like and trust. Your customers want the very best ingredients.

They want to know that they're supporting a cause or a mission that aligns with them, that's important to them. You know the importance of a personal recommendation from a friend about a product or a restaurant or something else. Their recommendation gives you instant trust in the brand and they remove all the risk, so it's easy for you to make a decision to try that product or to try that store.

Well, what if you could have that kind of relationship with your customers? Think about how future-proof your brand would be. Imagine them telling you exactly what they want you to make, and then when you make it, knowing that they're going to buy it.

And better yet, knowing that they're going to be telling all their friends about the amazing new product that's coming out soon. This is how you future-proof your brand, by understanding exactly what your customers want and delivering exceptional value. It's exactly why you started your brand in the first place.

If you break selling down into its most simple components, it's really just helping someone find a solution to whatever their problem is. But before you can do any of that, you've got to develop a relationship with the customer. You've got to get them to trust you, to believe you, to realize that you have their best interest at heart.

So how do you do that? It's a lot easier than you think. And the best part is, there's a real opportunity for you to differentiate the way that you communicate with your customer more today than ever.

If you haven't figured out yet, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that I'm optimistic about everything. I am hard-wired to find the silver lining in any situation. And this is no different.

So here it is. You ready? With everyone being so distracted, and so focused or obsessed on what's going on in their world, they're trying desperately from keeping the walls from closing in, or the sky from falling.

And so focused on just trying to stay alive. They forgot the most important thing in the brand, the customer. Without a customer, no one's going to buy your product, right?

Well, your customer needs to know that you see them, that you hear them. Your customer needs to know that you value them more so now than ever. It all begins with authentic gratitude.

So how do you do that? Well, I'll give you a hint. If you download the free guide at the end of this podcast episode, you're going to get a sneak peek.

More importantly, you're going to learn how to leverage this strategy on the free weekly webinar series on December 4th. So you don't want to miss it. Make sure you sign up early so you can be one of the first brands to take advantage of this really cool technology.

And if you're listening to this in the future, not a problem. You can always go back and watch the replay. This is exactly why I do what I do.

This is why I started the podcast and why I started the free weekly webinar series. This show is about you and it's for you. And at the end of every podcast episode, I always include one easy to download, quick to digest strategy that you can instantly adopt and make your own.

One that you can use to grow sustainable sales with and compete more effectively with. Details about this week's free download and how to get it instantly are at the end of the podcast episode. Remember that the goal here is to get your brand under more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers, including online.

And don't forget to go back and listen to prior episodes where I might solve some of your most pressing bottlenecks, the things that keep you up at night. A moment ago, I mentioned the free weekly webinar series. When Expo West was canceled, I leaned in and launched a free weekly webinar series because I realized that the best thing that I can do during these difficult times is to find the best expert to help solve your most pressing bottlenecks and to find strategies to help give you a competitive edge in your market.

You can get the complete schedule on the events page of my website, along with registration links to future webinars as well as all the replays. If you liked this episode, do me a favor and share it with a friend. Help me raise the bar in our industry.

And make sure you're subscribed so you can be the first to get new brand building content as soon as it becomes available. To instantly sign up for the webinar, go to retailsolved.com forward slash gratitude. That will take you to the same place as brandsecretsandstrategies.com.

I have several different domains pointing to the same place, all designed to help you get the resources and the help you need easily. When you attend this webinar, you're going to learn from the experts how to leverage this technology to give you significant competitive edge. You're going to hear from the brand itself that developed this innovative solution.

You're going to hear case studies, live case studies, that have actually worked for a lot of people across different industries. This is going to be a game changer for you. So why am I doing this?

As I mentioned, this is how I give back. This is how I help you help solve your most pressing questions, your most pressing bottlenecks. This is a strategy that I'm adopting because this is a strategy that you'll be able to use to develop that trust right away by letting people know that you care, by letting people know that you're important to them.

And after all, isn't that what we all need, especially right now? We need people to reach out to us and let us know that we're heard, that we matter to them, and that we appreciate them buying our product. As you know, I spent a lot of time on this podcast talking about developing a committed community, a tribe outside of traditional retail, a loyal tribe that you can leverage to drive sustainable sales anywhere your product is found.

This is what retailers really want, including online retailers. And more importantly, to help you personalize your brand, to help you personalize your message to your ideal customer. After all, that's the future of CPG.

Brands that can personalize their messaging, personalize the way that they communicate with their customers, brands that can personalize the way that they promote their products. This is a unique opportunity that you have to not only differentiate yourself, but more importantly to get more runway to grow and scale. This is how you maximize your trade marketing ROI.

This is how you maximize each and every opportunity that you have in front of a customer. This is how you maximize your relationship with your brokers, agencies, and retailers. This is how you make your go-to-market strategy every bit as innovative as the ingredients inside your package.

I wanted to make this show really short. I wanted to simply say thank you. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for sharing these episodes. And thank you for reaching out to me and letting me know how this has impacted your life, how this has impacted your brand, and how these strategies are helping to give you a competitive edge. And then more importantly, by letting me know what you need so that I can help solve these problems not only for you, but for everyone else in our community.

That's what makes Natural Natural. And remember, if you want to learn about this new strategy that I'm adopting and how you could leverage it to gain a significant competitive edge, then you're going to want to attend the webinar on December 4th or at least listen to the replay. Or you can simply download the free guide at the end of the podcast episode to get a sneak preview.

But you'll still want to attend the webinar on the 4th to learn how to maximize this cool solution and to learn how to customize it and make it your own. Remember, the future of this industry is in personalization. How do you personalize your message?

How do you cut through the noise so that your customers hear you over and above everyone else? That's what this is about. This week's free download is my strategic selling in a competitive world.

Do you wish you knew the advanced strategies that big brands rely on? True category management is the art and the science of getting your product under more store shelves and into the hands of more shoppers, including online. It includes all the advanced strategies that the big brands rely on.

A key reason marketing is largely ineffective is because it overlooks your individual customer. Personalization is the future of our industry. Early adopters will gain a significant competitive advantage. It’s as easy as starting a conversation with a new friend and it does not require any complicated algorithm.

You will learn how to:
* Nurture new customers and make them feel welcome and appreciated
* Thank them for choosing and sharing your brand
* Onboard customers and introduce them to your brand. Share your brand story.
* Build trust and authority. Shoppers look beyond the four corners of your package. Be transparent and authentic
* Shoppers value mission-based brands. Invite your customers to partner with you to make a bigger impact. Make it easy for them to help you do more good on their behalf
* Share and perfect new product innovation with your tribe before launching in retail. This will save you valuable time and money. Imagine knowing you have paying customers lined up and waiting for your new products before you launch
* Maximize your trade promotion ROI with a customized rewards program for your loyal tribe and laser targeted promotions at retail
* Check-in with shoppers to learn more about them and the problem you are helping to solve. Learn how your brand has made a difference for them or what more you can do
* Share actionable insights gained from your commented community with retailers - what retailers REALLY want
* Future proof your brand. You don’t “own” the shoppers who buy your brand in retail. Your shoppers are your most valuable asset. You do not have a brand without them. * * Learn creative ways to boost loyalty and shopper engagement
* Leverage your connected community to boost sales and profits in traditional retail and on-line