If there is one single truth in business, it’s this: your customers are everything.
They are the reason you can afford your business, your home, that fancy dinner out, and even that flight to Fiji you’ve been salivating over (unless you’re a trust fund baby in which case your parents’ customers were everything).
And most business owners do a relatively good job of luring leads in with a great product and customer service. But once they make the sale, the customer is all but forgotten.
HUGE MISTAKE.
That’s like leaving money right there on the table and just closing the door and walking away. Why? Why? Why?
Let’s say you sell health-food cookbooks and someone purchases your 98 Gluten-Free Recipes That Taste Like Gluten. A few months later you come out with another cookbook. 57 Gluten-Free Desserts You Can’t Live Without. Who do you think is more likely to purchase your cookbook: a random stranger that sees your ad or the customer that uses your cookbook every week?
Your current customers are your goldmine. In fact, 61% of small and midsize business owners report that more than half their income comes from repeat customers. Even more, Bain & Company found that for some industries a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to more than a 25% increase in profit. That’s because return customers not only continue to purchase more over a lifetime, they tend to require less operating costs over time. Plus, they also spread the word to friends.
Moral of the story: focus a little more energy on keeping your current customers happy, and your business will see great rewards. Use the three tips below to encourage repeat business.
1) Work on your post-sale sequence
First impressions count for a lot. Which is why your post-sale email sequence is so critical, especially for first-time buyers.
It’s no exaggeration to say that your first contact with a customer after they make a purchase can affect whether or not they request a refund AND whether they make additional purchases in the future.
Start by putting instructions on the “thank you” page. There’s always a possibility that your customer might miss your first email or forget to check it for several days. Post-sale instructions should include things like…
- A genuine “thank you” message.
- What to do next.
- How to get started using the product.
- Where to go to get help.
- Information on where the invoice has been sent.
- A reminder to check for the “welcome” email and to whitelist your domain.
Your “welcome” email should repeat much of this information, but you can also use this message to introduce yourself and the company and give the reader a flavor of what you stand for (hopefully, something good – if you stand for feeding beef burgers to swans you should probably keep that sort of thing to yourself).
But don’t limit yourself to a single email. Follow up with a sequence that demonstrates your attention to detail and how much you care. You could dedicate one email to introducing your comprehensive support system. Another email that gives some background on you and your colleagues. Another email that gives tips on using your product more effectively. Another email reminding your customer about some of the upgrades you offer.
This is the time to forge a relationship with your new customer. It’s an old adage but it’s never been truer to say that it’s cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one.
Nurture your new customers as if every single one has the potential to be a lifelong customer and advocate for your business. Because they do.
2) Use tags to encourage additional purchases
Customers should be tagged. It’s not a great expression, given that it invokes images of your customers wear orange boiler-suits and ankle bracelets, but it’s an important tool in the modern-day tool box of an Internet marketer.
If it helps, think of it less as a tracking device and more as a friendly name badge that says, “Hi, I’m Daryl. I’m your customer. Isn’t that awesome?”
Because it is awesome. In a world of virtually infinite opportunities – someone has given their time and money to you. What are you going to do now?
The first thing you should do is expand your range of tags. The tendency is to have lots of different tags for prospects (visited the site, watched a video, registered for a mailing list, arrived via a Facebook ad, etc.) but only one for customers (made a purchase). Customers should have just as many, if not more, tags because their post-purchase actions will help you identify customers that need help and those that are hungry for more.
If, for instance, a customer makes a purchase but has made a number of visits to the support area, create a sequence that offers them training. Or if a customer makes a purchase and has subsequently engaged with your marketing or made several visits to your blog, this is an engaged customer who is enjoying what you have to offer and is more likely to be interested in upsell opportunities.
Ask yourself honestly how much of your marketing attention is going to customers compared to prospects. If you’re not giving at least 50% of your attention to the people that have already purchased from you, and creating tags and sequences to nurture them, you’re not taking care of the long-term health of your business.
3) Add a “Super Signature” to your system emails
All online business systems generate emails. There are password resets, payment notifications, system updates, and all the other dull but essential emails that your customers expect and rely upon.
Your marketing system, if it’s worth its salt, will let you edit the templates for these emails. If it’s a REALLY smart marketing system, such as Kartra, it will let you edit the signature that is appended to EVERY system-generated email.
Why is this important?
Well, aside from being able to dress it up as something nice, you can also add a P.S. containing promotional offers. If effective marketing is based on repetition, a message attached to every system email is a great way to get into the minds of your customers.
You could add a P.S. that reminds the reader that you’re in pre-launch, and every system email sent, will convey this message. You could include a link to your latest firesale, complete with an expiration date, and simply update the P.S. once the offer ends.
You could even add a P.S. containing your affiliate link for Kartra, and remind your customers that they can use the same marketing strategy if they adopt our system. Now THERE’S an idea…
This article has been adapted from our free ebook 101 Ways to Blow Up Your Business with Kartra (in a good way). If you liked this article and want to increase sales and, well, make business boom, download a copy of the full ebook here (it’s filled with even MORE amazing tips).
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