With Customers
You Already Have
by Dr.Kevin Nunley
Index
of Articles
Recently
businesses have started tallying up what they
spend to get each customer. One car dealership
estimates every new customer costs at least $100
in advertising. An e-commerce firm figured out
by the time they advertise and gave away free
things to get customers, the cost is $250 per
customer.
This
illustrates one of the biggest problems businesses
have. Generally, when we think of building bigger
profits, we think about getting MORE customers.
That isn't the whole picture. For bigger, quicker
profits, also market to the customers you already
have.
It
would be great if your marketing hit the consumer
and instantly persuaded her to buy from you now,
but the process is almost always more complicated.
Here's why focusing entirely on new customers
can bleed your marketing budget dry with little
sales to show for it.
STEPPING
TO A SALE
Before
anyone buys from you, they have to step through
at least four stages. 1. You get their attention
(the toughest stage of all since we are bombarded
with hundreds of marketing messages every day).
2. Get the prospect to think about your offer.
3. Have the prospect make up their mind to buy
from you. 4. Then the prospect must take ACTION
to buy from you.
All
four steps take marketing effort on your part.
Each step can represent another ad you need to
buy to march your prospects toward a sale.
Even
after someone buys, they may not come back to
buy again. Studies show many people can't accurately
remember where they bought things several weeks
after the purchase. Meanwhile, current and past
customers are the easiest to sell again.
All
this clearly leads to the need for you to stay
in touch with customers you already have. Also
include in this group hot prospects who have shown
an interest in your business in the past. These
are the most targeted and willing audiences you
will ever find.
BUILD
YOUR HOUSE LIST
Start
right now to make a list of people who have bought
from you in the last week, during the past month,
over the past six months, and within the past
year. The idea is to develop different list so
you can send just the right offer to interest
and motivate them.
If
you clearly see that a big group buys one product
or service while another group goes for a different
offer, divide your customers up along these lines.
You can double, triple, and quadruple your response
rate by making your ads zero in on just what a
customer or prospect is truly interested in buying.
Here
is how this works. Meredith's sewing shop includes
two major groups of customers: people who buy
supplies to make crafts and people who like to
design and make their own cloths. Some of the
crafters only come in around holidays. Others
are more active during winter months when they
spend more time indoors. A large group of those
who design their own cloths have no interest in
crafts.
Meredith
can develop specials, new products, and offers
to deeply interest each of her main groups of
customers. The seasonal crafters can get her mailed
flyer one month before each major holiday and
two months before Christmas. Others get her information
monthly or only during winter months.
You
can use any database program to keep your lists
organized. Most word processing programs include
a basic database feature, or you can use a more
specialized program like Microsoft Access.
AFFORDABLY
MARKET TO YOUR LIST
The
main reason for working your in-house list of
customers and hot prospects is to keep your business
in their minds. These days people have LOTS of
options to spend their money on, even when buying
specialized products and services.
If
you live in a city of any size, there are anywhere
from a few to dozens of businesses selling the
same things you do. There may be thousands more
on the Internet that can take your customer's
credit card order and deliver the product within
a few days. If you don't work to stay in the minds
of your customers, others will.
But
how do you work your list without taking out a
major loan from the bank? Sticking stamps on thousands
of letters can add up in a hurry.
Smart
marketers who have come before us have endured
all the trial and error to give us two good answers.
Thousands have found their best low-cost marketing
tools for working an inhouse list are postcards
and email.
Postcards
are cheaper than letters to send and don't require
the customer to open an envelope. Having no envelope
is a BIG advantage. I didn't fully appreciate
this until I watched my neighbor pull his mail
out of the mailbox, walk over to his trash can,
and start to drop letters in after only a momentary
glance at the envelope.
Put
a color photo or graphic on one side of your postcard.
The other side should have your main offer in
a bold, black headline. Follow it with a deadline
for the offer. Busy people may put off buying
and soon forget about you. Your postcard offer
will never be more powerful than it is right now
when the customer has it in his hands.
Finally,
be sure to briefly tell people how to buy from
you. List your web site, phone number, store location,
and email address.
Building
an email list is even easier and almost free.
Unlike a postcard, your email messages can contain
just as much information as you want them to.
BUT, be careful how you gather addresses.
Get
a free list management service like Yahoo Groups
or Topica.com. Both will give you a form to put
on your website to gather email addresses. You
can also place a printed form in your office or
store so that customers can request to get on
your list. Make sure you keep the form they filled
out in case there is ever a question.
Email
messages tend to work best if they offer helpful
information along with brief advertising messages.
I put a short article with tips my customers will
appreciate right at the beginning of the message,
then follow it with a short ad.
There's
an old saying that 80 percent of your business
will come from 20 percent of your customers. Building
your own inhouse list and marketing to it consistently
will allow you to pull even more business from
people who have already proven they like to buy
from you.
