Not only can inspiring your customers to buy from you more often reward you with higher profits, it can also translate to more predictable income. Here are just a few tips for compelling your clients or customers to come back more frequently.
A time-limited incentive — ever get a pizza delivered? What is attached to the box? Usually, you will find both a menu and a coupon to buy your NEXT pizza. They coupon, of course, isn’t valid forever — they put an expiration date on it. So you haven’t even eaten the pizza you just ordered, and they are already planting the seed for your next purchase! How can you apply this idea to your business?
A loyalty program — the above strategy works great for many types of businesses (you will have to put your own twist on it) but your client is probably inundated with offers from your competitors as well. How should our pizza shop combat coupon overload? Reward loyalty. In its simplest form all they would have to do is offer a free pizza for every X number ordered (“buy 9 and the 10th is free!”). Now when holding coupons from two different pizza places, our shop owner’s clients are likely to come back again and again because their loyalty is rewarded.
Verify the benefit of the last purchase — you probably hear it all the time, the key is in the follow up. But how can you call again without being a nuisance? Well your first follow up call should be to verify that your client is truly receiving the benefit of your product or service. Delivering the computer or painting someone’s living room is not the end. WHY did they want your product or service? After some time has passed, pick up the phone and find out if they got what they wanted. Are they now more productive with the faster computer? Do they feel better about inviting guests to their home because of their great-looking living room? Follow up to make sure your clients are truly realizing the benefits of their purchase, and you’ll likely stir up more sales.
Subscription or membership — would your clients benefit from an ongoing service from your business? What if you could stop chasing them to make additional sales and instead have regular revenue on a monthly or quarterly basis that you could count on? List the kinds of ways your product or service could be used regularly, then look around you for subscription ideas. They are everywhere: wine clubs, retainer-based consulting services, maintenance services, product replenishment, etc.
These are just a few ideas to get you started. The goal? Strengthening your relationships with your best clients, while delivering more value and receiving more business in the process. Additional ideas? Please share!
I have recently given a few free workshops (sponsored by the Contra Costa Small Business Development Center and the San Ramon Chamber of Commerce). In them I outlined how to increase profits without relying so heavily on generating new leads.
Check out the 4 minute clip above for an overview of what else you need to be doing to increase profits other than slogging it out trying to generate new leads from cold suspects.
Ah, the cocktail party question. How well do you do with it? Ever wish you had a better answer at that chamber mixer or networking lunch? There is lots of good advice out there to help you, and I encourage you to soak it all up. There is nothing more important than answering that simple question.
In fact, I contend that your internal and external answers to that question form the basis of all of your marketing and selling success — it is that fundamental. There is a simple reason we all stumble over that question…
It’s the wrong question!
Don’t be fooled, it’s a trap. A perfectly innocent trap laid by well-intentioned people, but a trap nonetheless. As I have talked about in this blog many times, we should not focus our message on the products or services we provide (what we do), but should instead focus on the benefits our clients realize by working with us (what they get). Answer the question “what do you do?” and you end up right where you don’t what to be.
Here is the question you wish they’d ask:
“What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”
So what can you do about it? Don’t answer the actual question…pretend he or she asked the other one. Here is an illustration using my own business:
Innocent conversationalist: “So, what do you do?”
Andy: “I develop marketing and selling strategies for small business owners.” Or even worse “I’m a marketing consultant.”
Innocent conversationalist: “{silent groan} Oh, I think I hear someone calling me. Nice to meet you Alfred.”
So here is another scenario:
Innocent conversationalist: “So, what do you do?”
Andy: {silently translates question to be “What is the ultimate result your clients experience by doing business with you?”} “I help business owners create more profitable companies that require less of their time, energy and stress.”
Innocent conversationalist: “Really, how do you do that?”
Not only is it a more powerful way to answer the question, it starts a conversation by making it natural for the other person to ask “how?” Another way to think about this situation is to not talk about what you do and how you do it. Instead, talk about what your clients get and why they’re excited about it.
With all the buzz about social media (justifiable as it may be), some useful, traditional marketing activities can get overshadowed. Take this post as a reminder that a simple press release can be a valuable tactic.
Moreover, when submitted for online distribution, it helps your web presence as well. Include some links to your web site in your release and voila — you have backlinks from reputable web sites that post it, adding “juice” to your SEO efforts. A few keys to developing a successful press release:
Make it newsworthy. As much as your new product or service excites you, is it relevant and exciting to others? An important aim of your press release is to get some attention from writers (traditional news and blogs alike). Be sure to test your message on friends, clients, advisers, etc. Does your “news” help people resolve a problem? Is it related to a “current” issue? Bottom line, think like a reporter.
Get it out. Simply posting your press release to your web site may help you stay positioned as a viable, active business to your existing visitors, but it doesn’t help you get additional exposure and traffic. Submit your release to relevant sites, or use a service like PRNewswire or Free Press Release to get it out there.
Follow up. You can’t make someone write about the topic of your release. If you’re calling writers and professional bloggers, they have busy schedules, deadlines, etc., and pestering them will only guarantee your position at the bottom of their pile. However, you can use their busy-ness to your advantage — outline the potential “angle” for an article they could write and leave a short message on voicemail and a brief email. Don’t keep after them, just drop that suggestion and only work with the responses you get. You may hit the right person at the right time who is happy to have a story idea handed to them.
I have put together a simple report to help you create the right message and get your business the exposure you’d like via a press release. This includes a MS Word template and samples of well-written press releases. If you’d like it, just drop your email in the form below and I will send you a copy. Not sure if a press release is right for you? Check the box for a free consultation, and we’ll set up a time to talk about your circumstance. I’ll help you figure out the right plan for you.
Why is this the “last” step? Well, it is the place in your marketing where you are most likely writing checks, PLUS you have to wait the longest to realize the results. It is best to maximize the benefit of generating new leads by having your “customer-maximizing” house in order.
I’ve put these two topics together because generating leads and converting them are inextricably tied together — one step naturally leads to the next.
Components of your marketing strategy:
A well-defined target: geographics (where they are), demographics (who they are), and psychographics (why the buy — the emotional appeals that relate to the benefit you can provide)
Your Unique Comparative Advantage: a good description of the problem you solve or benefit you provide and how/why your product or service is uniquely capable of delivering on the solution your target audience needs (we have a formula for developing a powerful UCA)
Contact methods: the “portfolio” of media you use to contact those in your target audience at the right time, given the benefit you deliver
The message: an attention-getting and compelling message that exposes the pain — the deficit your prospect is experiencing because they lack your solution
The offer: the natural, “no-brainer” step toward a solution for your client that you make easily available to them by simply contacting you.
The follow-through: your multi-step plan to capture their contact information and nurture the initial interest into a burning desire to meet with you, test your product, order it, agree to your pilot program, etc.
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Not only can inspiring your customers to buy from you more often reward you with higher profits, it can also translate to more predictable income. Here are just a few tips for compelling your clients or customers to come back more frequently.
