Jeff Kallil: The Importance of Connecting with Your End Consumers

It’s important as a marketer to try and gain more leads and prospects, but you should never lose sight of your end consumer. An end consumer is someone who has actually purchased your product or service. Repeat customers are just as valuable as new ones. If they’re happy and keep coming back, they may even start referring new customers to your business. This is why it’s vital to connect with your end consumers and continue to keep them engaged. You don’t want anyone getting bored and giving up on your brand, so you need to find a way to give consistent value to your customers. 
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If you’re struggling with connecting with your end consumers, you’re in luck. We recently interviewed Jeff Kallil, who gave us a lot of useful information on how you can continue to grow with your existing customers. His insights as a marketer are all you need to bring a spark back into your relationship with your audience. 
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In today’s Rediscover Marketing article, we’ll put a focus on how you can connect with your end consumers, but there will also be insights for gaining new leads. You’ll get advice on everything from adaptation to data review. 

Get To Know Jeff Kallil

Jeff Kallil is the VP of Marketing for Convivial Brands. Convivial is a family of brands, and they are currently operating with five businesses. One of the companies that Convivial works with is Design Design, a stationary greeting card, and gift wrap business. There is also Style Life, an online lifestyle boutique and direct sales opportunity so people can start their own mini businesses. TABLEAU is a lifestyle brand focused on tabletop and textiles, Verdant Graphics is a manufacturing and printing company, and Convivial also represents an events venue called The High Five Grand Rapids.  

The Art of Adapting

When discussing what Jeff is proud of his team for achieving this past year, he gave us the three words: agility, adaptability, and adjustment. He told us that there are things they’ve adjusted to because they’ve had to put on hold their events venue. They pivoted to telling their story and building relationships.
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What Jeff’s team did was dive deep into understanding who their consumers were, understanding where the market was going to go while also serving the best they can to their current customers who needed their product to maintain their business. They were very successful at adapting and doing this, but things are looking at moving back to normality. As soon as stores allowed merchandisers to go back, things started picking back up. Slowly, but surely. It’s now at a place where it’s looking pretty solid, but it took them many months of adapting to get there. 

Connecting With End Consumers

One big piece of advice that Jeff gave us was that you’re missing a huge opportunity if you’re not connecting with your end consumers. He found that the personification of brands is what really opened up his eyes and allowed him to do this. Bringing awareness to what you do based on your passions has been an evident pull, not only to grow your business from a consumer standpoint but also from a talent and trust standpoint. People want to know what’s behind the machine, and Jeff has found it’s evident that those who have relationships built have it better off.  

Below are some tips to follow if you want to connect more with your customers:

• Conduct surveys 
  
  Customers sometimes feel appreciated and valued when they are asked for feedback on your products and services. You can do this by conducting surveys and sending them out to your end customers once they’ve had a chance to use what you’re selling. Not only will they feel happy to give feedback, but you’ll also be able to use that feedback to improve your brand. Don’t just give out surveys for the sake of it because they serve a purpose. Go through them and try and identify trends where you are doing things correctly and where you aren’t. When customers see that you are using their feedback for the better, they’re more likely to return. 

• Start a monthly newsletter
  
  Things change in any business, and you don’t want your customers to feel out of the loop. For example, if the ingredients in a product have been changed or you’ve adjusted your opening hours, you want to let your customers know this. You can update it on your website, but it’s less likely that your audience will be checking this daily. Compiling a monthly newsletter to update your customers on any changes or exciting news is an excellent way to keep them informed. You’ll also be reminding people about your business and potentially draw them back to your website. 

• Post blogs on your site
  
  Providing value to your customers is important as a marketer. One way you can do this is by starting a blog series and posting them to your website. Don’t make the blog completely centered around your product or service, but instead, write about topics within your niche that customers may be interested in. Try and solve a problem for your target audience by providing information and then relate it to your offerings. For example, if you sell dog toys, write a blog on the most popular tricks to teach dogs and then provide a call to action about how your toys can be used to conduct these tricks. Don’t make it obvious that you’re trying to sell because the main aim is to provide value. 

• Respond to customers queries
  
  You may have an email campaign as part of your marketing campaign, but don’t just send the emails out and then never respond. Customers like to ask questions because they want to ensure they’re getting the most out of what you’re offering. Offer an option at the end of each email for them to reach out to you. Provide contact details or suggest they just respond to the email they’ve just received. Take some time each day to actually respond to any queries that come your way. If you don’t reply and leave an unopened message in your inbox, you could have just missed a sale. You’ll also gain more trust from customers when they know you’re responsive. 

• Stay active on social media
  
  Similar to responding to emails, you want to stay active on social media. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are great ways for customers to share their thoughts on your business. If you frequently post updates and exciting news on your brand, you’ll see customers engage with you a little bit more. However, just like with emails, don’t just post something and leave it there. Go through comments and see if there is any way you can respond to customers to help them with any queries they may have. Sometimes you can just have an interesting debate or conversation with your customers. When an answer is out in the open, other customers will be able to see it and use the help too. 

• Utilize webinars
  
  Webinars are becoming increasingly popular in the marketing world. It’s a good way to provide insights from well-known people in your industry. Unlike blogs, it gives a more personal element and sometimes allows customers to interact with your brand in real-time. Put together a schedule of speakers that have valuable insights for your customers and advertise the webinars frequently. Choose topics that your customers want to hear about. You can do this by asking them on social media what they want or send out a survey. Offer a Q&A section at the end because it’ll make your customer’s voice more heard. 

• Monitor reviews
  
  People love giving reviews, especially if they’ve had an exceptionally good or bad experience with a business. Not every review will be left on your website or social media, so you will want to have a look and sign up for accounts on websites such as Yelp. When it comes to negative reviews, take them with a pinch of salt and use the feedback constructively. You don’t want to get defensive with your customer if they have left a bad review. Instead, try to understand what they are saying and offer a solution for their problem. 

Data Review

Jeff and his team have a more unconventional approach to data review. When asked if he has put together a successful review process, he told us he has, but in regard to products. What he was looking at specifically at the time was the lifecycle of paper products, which is the main brand with Design Design.

In general, Jeff and his team analyze voice copy, design aesthetics, and how the sales are between types of grocery, types of boutique, and types of larger big-box chains. The analysis that Jeff thinks is really relevant currently is looking at what people are saying in forums online, images people are pinning on Pinterest, and other things relevant to the end consumer. Although his team’s data review hasn’t been formalized presently, he looks at sales figures and figures out what is working in his campaign and what isn’t, and then adjusting from there.

Data Security

Although Jeff doesn’t rely purely on data for his marketing, we wanted his opinion on what he thinks about the amount of data that advertisers get given daily. He told us that he doesn’t think it’s a problem because it’s contradicting what we as a human race are saying we want. We say we want it simpler and faster, but we also don’t want anyone knowing anything about us. The truth is, the moment you open up a browser, you aren’t secure anymore. 
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With his opinion on data security, there was no surprise that Jeff told us he feels secure sharing his own data but only with the proper expectations. He knows that it’s likely not everyone is utilizing the data about him properly. However, he does like the idea that he could be adding to a statistic that could be essential to a global approach. If other people are telling stories about you or your brand online, it’s Jeff’s opinion, that it’s his own responsibility to articulate the truth so as to cut through the noise.

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As we started to wrap up, Jeff gave us his last few views that focused on marketing planning. He told us that if you don’t have a lot of access to data, you need to do your own research and look at what people care about surrounding your offering. You must then market to the consumer based on what the value you can add is. Utilize your ability to create a customer-centric approach and do it with empathy and compassion—that’s the key.