Are Your Missing the Goldmine Right in Front of You?
There are a million blog posts out there about how to get more traffic to your site. There are countless blog posts about how to build a bigger email list, faster. There is an almost unlimited amount of content on SEO, blog design and copywriting. All of this is focused on one thing primarily…getting leads and sales for your business. But are we overlooking the all-time best source of sales? Yes, in many cases we are.
Your Greatest Asset Is…
While building a big email list and lots of traffic is a good thing, don’t forget your greatest asset of all. Of course, your greatest asset is your existing customer base. You know…the people who’ve already bought from you!
OK…so you’ve heard this before, right? But have you put it into practice?
Once someone is on your list and has purchased from you, that’s the BEGINNING of the story. But most biz owners treat it like the end. Once that sale is made, we move on. We switch our attention back to looking for new business. We go about the work of getting more and more traffic, more and more email subscribers. But what about the poor people who’ve already bought from you?
Be honest…what percentage of your time, attention and marketing dollars go to these people?
Phase Two…the Most Important Phase
After you’ve made a sale, you have something that is very hard to get. You have a customer. And if you don’t continue to build and nurture that relationship, then you’re completely missing the real payoff to all your marketing efforts.
It’s easier, quicker and less expensive to get an existing customer to buy from you then anyone else. So ask yourself these questions:
- Have you done anything lately to reward, delight or ingratiate your customers?
- Are you creating special, targeted offers specifically for your existing customers?
- Do you have multiple email lists, to categorize and target your existing customers?
- Do you treat your existing customers differently, as they deserve to be treated?
- Do you reach out to the people who’ve bought from you for feedback and testimonials?
- Do you regularly ask your existing customers for referrals?
The Goldmine Right in Front of You
I know some marketers who devote their entire marketing efforts to a list of just a few hundred people. It’s not very sexy to talk about an email list of 300 people, is it? But what if that small base consists of committed repeat buyers AND customers who consistently send referral business?
This is exactly what happens when you treat your existing customers like gold…you get more gold.
Reward your customers highly, and focus MOST of your attention on them. Sometimes we get addicted and distracted by the quest for big numbers. This can cause us to lose sight of a real goldmine, sitting right in front of us.
By continually focusing on generating new customers, you’re tying up both your capital and your time in the least rewarding phase of marketing. Phase Two is where it all really pays off. Don’t forget about Phase Two! Even if you have only a handful of customers, getting just two referrals from each will triple the size of your customer base very quickly.
What do you think? What are you doing to reward and engage your existing customers? Are you focusing primarily on new, cold leads? Or are you focusing primarily on the people who already know and trust you? Where do you think your time is best spent?
