The worst thing you can do in business is sell a one-off product.
Why?
Because there is no reason for the customer after that.
That whole scenario is deadly. Especially if a marketer has thrown everything to generate the lead or prospect.
What type of companies or business owners have lucrative, attractive, fun businesses and... the lifestyle to match?
Yes, those businesses who deal way beyond a simple one-off transaction.
These business owners deliberately and strategically, create their
enterprise to have an ongoing continuity or membership to it.
However, monthly memberships is not the only vehicle that will keep a customer coming back for more.
If products are created on a monthly basis and rolled off the shelves,
that would be reason enough for prospects and customers to stick around
and hear what you have to offer. And when that happens, there's a
business being built. There's equity. There's value created in the most
important aspect of a business - the customers.
However, what if you have a business where you have no real accurate
records of your customer transactions, their purchases, what date they
spent their money with you... and... you know that a number of previous
customers are no longer contacting you... what then?
How would you boost the value of your business? How would you create momentum and do it without breaking the bank?
Well, what seems to be the obvious, economically sound choice is to
contact the previous non active customers who have previously bought.
Yes, it's that simple.
But how would you approach them... what would be a non threatening way of getting back in touch with them?
Well, as it's 5-7 times more costly to get a new customer than it is to
sell an existing past customer, we need to develop a programme of
getting in touch with these past customers.
Here are 7 ways to get back in touch with previous customers who have
purchased, but have not recently invested in any products or services.
1. WE MISS YOU - a simple straight forward communication along the lines
of the following, "Dear Jack, we haven't seen or heard from you for a
while now and wondered if everything was alright".
2. FREE GIFT - BUT THEY NEED TO CALL IN - A simple, harmless warm letter
asking the customer something like "Joe, as we haven't heard from you
we thought of sending you this gift we have right here on our table,
and... it's got your name on it. All you have to do to claim it is to
bring this letter in to the store, or enter the code on the website and
we'll rush your gift to you..."
3. A COMPETITION - Competitions do crazy things to people. They just
want to win the damn thing! How about something like - "John, though
you're a customer of ours we haven't heard from you or 37 other
customers, for several months now. We hope that's about to change. You
see, we're giving away a super prize just to see which one of you will
respond the quickest to this letter... "
4. WRONG LETTER TECHNIQUE - This is a little sneaky. Though, if you've
the courage to pull it off, simply plead insanity if you get called up
on it, okay! The wrong letter technique is where you send a letter
knowingly to the intended person, though with someone else's details on
it! Here's how I will explain it.
A letter addressed to say, Gary Smalley but with someone else's
information on it', can be used in the following way. "Dear John, thanks
for visiting our webstore last week. We were a little concerned that we
hadn't heard from you for a few months now but were overjoyed you
responded to our 'free gift letter'. And, that letter was sent to you
because we hadn't seen your name come up on our special purchasers list
for a while now..."
I think you may get a call from Gary Smalley to be added to your now 'current spending' customers file.
5. OUTRIGHT BRIBE - Like the word or not, it works pretty well in
promotions. It's amazing what people will do when you give them
something for free. How about, "Jake, we're hope you're well because we
haven't heard from you or seen you in a while. So, just so that we can
see you again, we're going to ask you to accept two wonderful free
gifts, are you okay with that?.
6. LAST PURCHASE LETTER - This approach simply acknowledges that he
customer hasn't been buying for a while and that she should doing so
again. Something along the lines of "Jennie, we've noticed that you've
not made a purchase during the last few months. So, in order to win you
back and get you back on the website again, I want to gift you something
that will pretty much astound you!"
7. ASK FOR A TESTIMONIAL - Even though we've not heard form a certain
bunch of our customers, there's nothing stopping us from writing to them
about their past purchases! Something along the lines of "Hi Trevor, we
haven't heard from you or seen you in our webstore for a while now.
And, looking at our records Trevor, you bought something from us nearly 8
months ago. We'd like to ask if you have used the product and would
like you to tell us your thoughts..."
As you can probably imagine, there are numerous ways to get back in
touch with previous paying customers. All it takes is an appreciation
for the residual value of a client, and, the sending out of one of the
above letters.
Nothing could be simpler. And that's where most non savvy marketers and
business owners fall down, purely because of the sheer simplicity of it
all and because of the inherent value of a past customer, it just makes
good economic sense to get back in touch!
by:
Nick James