Have You Done Something Nice For Your Clients/Customers Today?

Do you sit by the phone or in your business and wait for a new customer to walk in for your next sale? Well if you are like most businesses the gold mine is your existing customers, not the new ones.

The time you spend working with your customers and clients is time well spent. So how do you start working the database?

Every customer has a life cycle.

1. New customers need an incentive to return.
2. Current customers need to be reminded to return
3. Your best customers should be rewarded if they return.
4. Some customers should be ignored.

What do you do with new customers?

Special Offer
First find out as much as you can about them so you can attract more. Then mail a special offer to new customers. What kind of response can you expect? 5% to 15%* is possible.

Send A Welcome Mailing
Thank them for their business and make a special Welcome offer to first-time customers. A first-time customer is more likely to to repeat their purchase and your chances of retaining them for life are much higher. A response rates of 15% to 30% is possible.

Tell Current Customers You Miss Them
Identify your best customers that haven’t made a purchase for a period of time and mail them a great offer to get them to return. Response rates of 10% to 20%* are possible.

Remind Current Customers
Mail a promotional or seasonal offer to create excitement and new sales among your customers. Response rates of 5% to 15%* is normal.

Reward Current Customers
Reward your best customers with a special offer, event or simple thank you. Offer a promotional product or gift certificate for reaching spending thresholds. Response rates for this are typically 20% to 50%*.

These response rates are not carved in stone, but are attainable with an effective mail piece. Call me and ask how you can take control of your business and stop waiting for the phone to ring or the next new customer to walk through the door.

Event Marketing and Sponsorship for Realtors

One of my marketing clients is a small, open air shopping mall with a well defined trading area of about 5,000 homes. Twice a year I put on a client appreciation event on their behalf which is billed as “free, family fun”.

This year we had so many things for the kids to do they wouldn’t leave. We had four craft stations, they decorated cupcakes, rode in the the Spaceball, experienced riding a pony, climbed a wall, slid down a slide, explored a tunnel, played mini golf among many other things all for free.

Sponsorship

While the merchants pay for the event we look for local sponsorship to offset the marketing and advertising cost. A local Realtor, Eric Christiansen who lives in the area, sells homes in the area and shops at the mall jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the event which in turn paid for the printing of postcards and the mailing costs. A win-win solution. Eric reached over 5,000 homes as a sponsor of the event and the mall distributed 5,000 business directories at no cost. Below is the front and back of the 5″ x 7″ postcard we mailed out.

The back of the postcard has a list of the businesses and services and their phone numbers so this is a perfect example of Refrigerator Marketing. It is a great resource which will be kept either on the fridge or in a drawer for a long time to come. The artwork on the directory side is an image of an actual mural the community painted last year as one of the crafts.

Poster

If you are looking for a way to reach into a community consider sponsorship of events like this. By taking a solution to the merchants or organizers such as offering to pay the production and mailing costs in return for adding your branding to the mailing you are more likely to receive a positive response. What if I told you that you could reach more than 5,000 homes in full color for less than $ 1500.00?