The wow factor

Can you wow a client without sending a physical gift?Absolutely. There are many ways you can exceed your customers' expectations without investing your hard-earned dollars.I get it. Direct marketing can quickly become costly, but what is a high-value customer worth to you?If a $20 gift results in a $3,000 monthly retainer, that’s money well spent. It's a great investment.But if you really can’t afford it, here are my top five underrated techniques for delivering a WOW FACTOR on a budget of zero.What is a wow factor?It's the movie star who releases box office hit after hit. It's the tennis pro who can tap into a reserve pool of energy five sets into the game and return an impossible shot to win the grand slam. It's a state-of-the-art kitchen that turns a lovely home into something special. And in business, it's the experience your company or brand delivers to show customers how much you appreciate them. A wow factor in marketing could be a handwritten note, a monthly gift voucher to put towards any purchase, free tickets to an event you're hosting, or a phone call asking you how your day is going. It doesn't always need to be grand. It just needs to be unexpected. See for yourself.5 Ways Your Business Can Deliver a WOW Factor without Sending a Physical GiftContrary to popular belief you don't need to spend money to impress your customers. While a physical gift goes a long way for generating a good rapport with your customer, you can achieve the same buzz on a budget of nothing. Here's how.1. Pick up the phone and call that person directly. Think about the last time you purchased something online. What if, minutes after making your purchase, instead of the expected automated email you received a phone call from that company thanking you for investing in their product or service.It's a living being who's seen your transaction and taken action. They've gone to the effort to find your phone number and personally call you. That would make a pretty big impact. It's not something you're going to forget.In fact, you're probably going to tell your friends and family. So don't be shy to every now and then with a phone call surprise your customers every now and then with a phone call.2. Send video messages. This is something I'm seeing more and more service-based businesses implementing. I'll give you an example.About a year ago, an SEO expert reached out to me on LinkedIn. They'd spent about two minutes putting together a video analyzing my website's performance, noting gaps in my SEO strategy and advising small changes I could fix immediately.It impressed me because it wasn't the usual regurgitated email

We have been looking at the different resources in the new AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom. Last month we looked at the Core Word Planners, helping you to plan for core words in everyday activities you are doing. Today we move on to looking at the Core Word of Week Planners. They are similar, but these are more specific planners to help focused modeling and teaching of a specific core word. Let’s look more closely at this approach and how you can use these resources from the AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom.The WOW factorGet the WOW factor in your classroom! You can have a way to introduce, teach and model core words consistently if you take a WOW (Word of the week) approach. This approach means choosing one (or even a few) core words and using them consistently across all activities, throughout the day. WOW helps teams to be focused on a few key core words, allowing more time and attention to modeling just those words.Core words are those 50 to 400 words that make up most of what we say in typical conversation and writing. While core words may seem harder to teach because they are not as “picturable” as nouns, we know that with consistent modeling in natural situations, that our AAC learners can use core words to communicate independently and successfully. Core Word of the Week PlannersThe AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom has planners that can help you give your classrooms the WOW factor! The Core Word of the Week Planners are specifically designed to support teams in modeling a set of core words throughout the day, across all activities. Used in conjunction with the Core Word of the Week Displays - printable displays that show the location of the core words - you can get core words happening with WOW!Like many of our resources in the AssistiveWare Core Word Classroom, we focus on the 3W’s - the words, whys and ways. And while in the Core Word of the Week Planner, the WORD is more obvious, it is still important to use that word to communicate for different reasons (whys) and to combine that word with other words to communicate in different ways.We currently have 30 different core words (or pairs of words such as here & there, in & out), and have plans to expand to more core words in time. We have an even mix of pronouns,

Template for cold-pitching, where the sender changes a few words, mentions something notable about your company and why they'd like to work with you.I could tell this approach had taken time and effort, and as a result, I felt compelled to respond. I didn’t sign up for his services because I already work with a skilled SEO expert, but if a company was looking for an SEO agency and they received a similar video message, I guarantee that many would have hired him.As WOW factors go, this option demonstrates your expertise and delivers value upfront so I’d highly recommend adding it to your marketing strategy. Video WOW Factor Example 1:Video WOW Factor Example 2:3. Create buzz for your business. What can you do to generate buzz or goodwill for your business?For example, in a bid to support the efforts of The Ukrainian Red Cross Society, Page Optimizer Pro asked its community to donate to the worthy cause. Everyone who donated was then entered into a raffle to win access to their IMG Courses. It was a win-win. Their efforts raised $2,717 while calling attention to their course offerings. Here's another example:James Laurain, a freelance writer peddling his services on LinkedIn started hosting an online copywriting showdown. His community of business owners and fellow writers would challenge him to see who could write the best ad promoting a brand or product.These showdowns generated a ton of free press and exposure for the businesses and the writers. Laurain's list of connections grew, as did his influential status and clientele.4. Share notable information.Have you read a great article or book lately that you know will interest your client? Maybe you've discovered a useful new tool. Share this information with your client. Send them a personal email explaining why you think they’d benefit from it and include the link.If you happen to have a joint venture (JV) partnership with this authority or business, you can include a discount to their course, book, or software. I do this with all my JV partners. If they’ve written a book, I’ll offer it to my list for free or at a discount. We get the highest click-through rates on these emails. So give it a try. They’ll thank you for it.5. Remember personal details.Take an interest in what’s going on in your clients’ lives. Maybe they have a sick kid. Perhaps they just moved, or it’s their birthday. Message them to wish them well or their kid a speedy recovery. It builds customer loyalty and delivers a wow factor. It also shows your customers that you actually care and that's powerful.Forget about grand gestures.Your customers don’t need those from you. It’s the little things that count...A monthly