As we are cruising through summer (a slow season for many industries, including mine), I wanted to spend a little extra time on a topic that I think all of us need to be better at: investing in our customers.
This is particularly important during slow times because it helps keep your revenue numbers stable, instead of on the decline.
With that in mind, the next three weeks of newsletters (starting today) will be addressing specific ways you can invest in your customers, so they will invest right back in you.
Up first, How to Run a Successful Customer-Only Promotion…
The easiest and most effective way to invest in your customers is to give them a deal. Treat them like royalty where it means the most — the cash register (or online payment, etc).
The great part about this is that you do not need a specific holiday or event to do it. It can be as simple as an email to your customer database that says, “We appreciate your business. Take 20% your next purchase with us!”
There are two important factors at play when you run a customer-only promotion:
1. How much the customer feels valued
2. How much money you bring in
In order to be successful, you need to strike the perfect balance. The steeper the discount (or the more expensive the gift), the more the customer will feel valued. At the same time, the more you give away, the less you end up with, even if there’s a huge response.
Keeping that in mind, here’s everything that you need to do in order to run a successful promotion:
1. Identify the discount you can offer customers that shows you value them, but still is kind to your bottom line.
2. Decide how to promote so you only reach your customers (direct mail and email are ideal for this).
3. Design the marketing piece to send to customers
4. Alert staff that the promotion is going on, so they go the extra mile making customers feel valued (they should be doing this anyway)
5. Send out the deal
The closest thing to invincibility in business is a strong, loyal customer base. Watch how your confidence and security grow as you notice people are passionate about buying from YOU, specifically.
If you want some help getting this promotion off the ground, call your marketing consultant at 800-628-1804. And remember to catch next week’s newsletter about how an educational event can increase you sales.
How many of you have run this type of promotion before? What was the response like?
Best,
Joy
