Are you using email properly? Would you rather mail out 10 expensive sales letters to 10 different, random prospects of unknown quality, or would you rather mail out 10 cheap letters to a single, ideal prospect who you know will be an excellent client to try to entice him to use your services? Are you curious how to do the latter?
Most businesses already have a known body of excellent prospects that they refuse to mine. Do you know which prospects I’m talking about?
I’m talking about regular customers, who are generally your good customers. The ones who you can almost be sure will spend money when they come in or call — and if they don’t this time, then there’s probably a good reason. But they’ll be back later.
If they’re reminded.
CUSTOMER MAINTENANCE
Customer maintenance is as important as any other kind of maintenance a business owner will perform. But almost none do it. Which is nuts, because it’s practically FREE for you to do so these days.
The strategy that I’m talking about is to build an email list of your customers. You should then mail to that list regularly on whatever schedule you establish. Your goal is to remind your customers that you are still around. Send them useful information or news that’s unrelated to your sales pitch. The point is to not inundate them with sales offers, but to keep you and your services always in the back of their mind. You can show them that you’re a person behind the counter, not an impersonal corporate committee.
HOW TO SWEETEN THE DEAL…FOR THEM
In your email you can offer a weekly special, made available only to those customers who are on your email list. Remind them that this isn’t an offer you make to the general public. Create the feeling of importance in your readers. After all — and you can probably attest to this — don’t we tend to feel better when we know the businesses we give our money to understand our value to their company and don’t take us for granted?
It makes us more likely to return. Even when prices go up, having that kind of emotional bond in place will make us reluctant to switch to a competitor. Switching providers means taking the risk that, in exchange for cheaper prices, we lose the service and customer appreciation that we have grown to value.
There is always a price. At what cost to ourselves are we willing to gain access to cheaper prices? What will we give up in return for lower prices?
PRACTICAL WAYS TO IMPLEMENT YOUR NEW EMAIL LIST
You can offer a sign-up sheet at your counter. Require minimal information from your customers that won’t make your request feel too intrusive — just their name and a preferred email address. Announce a benefit in big, bold letters at the top of the page in exchange for providing their email address. This lowers the barriers to entry.
You can build your own list using common email clients such as Outlook (click here) or Thunderbird (click here). You can automate the process by using MailChimp for free up to a maximum number of subscribers, at which point you have to pay. Adweber is another candidate that is popular to use. It starts off at a monthly rate.
Remind your customers that you are still around. Receiving periodic, routine emails from you will serve as a gentle reminder to them. It’s better than cold-calling. It will also help bring in a larger volume of repeat business, especially if you make special offers. And consider how cheap it is to send an email!
Post a sign in your store that reminds your mailing-list members about this week’s (or month’s) special members-only offer. It will build interest in customers who aren’t on your list.
A customer’s lifetime value (CLV) is critical to most businesses, especially service firms. Do you know what yours is?
Once you know your CLV you can improve the focus of your marketing. If you know that bringing in new prospects by offering a free widget usually generates a retail sale that day, followed by some number of repeat visits on average that also generates sales, then you can utilize that factor in your marketing.
Implementing this strategy in Acworth, GA will put you far ahead of your competition.