A typical pattern I see in many business owners is that they fail to realize that once they acquire a new customer, or someone has expressed an interest in their company, how important it is to strengthen that relationship. And the common way you can strengthen this relationship is by simply following up with them. Following-up is equally important to both new and existing customers (and doing it right) can help you boost your bottom line very quickly.

Follow Up With Prospective Customers

Most of my clients find that it is not easy to close a sale on the very first attempt. In fact, even the statistics in direct mail marketing show that response rates increase dramatically the more direct mail pieces you send to them.

Although your customer may not buy into your salesperson’s first attempt to close them, this does not mean that the prospective client is not interested in buying your product or service. Could it be that they just require more time in order to make the purchasing decision? Could it be that they just require more time and/or just have some more questions regarding your product or service? In fact, I feel definitely recommend that you contact them after your initial meeting because it will show that you are genuinely interested in serving their interests and satisfying their needs (and not just wanting to gain access to their pocket book).

During the follow-up process, you can take advantage of the opportunity and explain to your customers in depth how your product or service can prove to be beneficial to them. An effective follow-up strategy provides you with a second opportunity to make the sale.

Follow Up With Existing Customers

I remember one time I was talking to a business owner and I asked him this simple question: “what marketing are you doing to your past and loyal customers?” And I’ll never get the look he gave me. “What do you mean marketing to my existing customers”, he said. You see, most businesses do not have a system in place to market to their existing clientele.

Acquiring a new customer is definitely more difficult than retaining existing ones. Think about it…..an existing customer has already said (by their actions) that they want and like your product. So when it comes to your current customers, you should definitely treat them as pure gold and put a strong emphasis on marketing to them. In fact, I would recommend you start a VIP Status to some of your long time customers. This will definitely show that you care and value their consistent business. The hard truth is that if you don’t value your existing customers and do what’s necessary to keep them, your competitors will be only too happy to relieve you of the responsibility.

By following up with your past customers, it only proves to them that their business is important to you. Let me ask you another question: Do you like when people take the time out of their day to recognize and appreciate you for the things you have done for them? If you are like the average person….the answer to this is “of course you do”. When following up with your customers, make sure that they know that you want them to be satisfied with the service that they are receiving from your business. By doing this, you not only increase your chances of retaining them, but the probability that they will refer your business to others (in the future) also increases as well.

Reasons prospects or customers may not buy from you:

1. They may not be ready to make a decision.
2. They may have more pressing things on their minds.
3. They may have more questions about your product/service.
4. Two or three of your competitors are actively trying to sway your customer to purchase from them.

By following up repeatedly, you will have a “dramatic advantage” over your competitors, since few of them will follow up more than once. When your prospects are ready to buy, which could be one week from now, or nine months from now, you will have a better chance of getting the sale if you are uppermost in their minds. You can only do that by consistently following up.

One of the best ways I have found to automate your marketing is through the use of auto-responders. An auto-responder is a system that automatically sends out “preset email messages and promotions” to your client list who has bought from you in the past, current customers, or opted in to your email list to get something for FREE.

These emails can be text based in nature or short little videos which ad more of an entertainment experience.

Just imagine pre-typing a well thought out email campaign (specifically for your customers) that was designed to educate and give back to your customers by giving them “special subscriber discounts”.  One of the many questions I get asked is….”Tony…do you mean to tell me I can “pre-program” my promotions and communications (to my customers) over a year in advance….and its all on autopilot?

To be honest…this is one of the true joys I personally get in consulting when I see my client’s eyes light up like Christmas Trees when they picture how they can implement this marketing strategy in their business. The next question is usually “Tony, can I implement this in my business”.  I always respond with an astounding “yes”… just let me know and when you want to get started.

If you’re doubting the legitimacy of email marketing’s current and future power, let me share some cutting-edge marketing stats that some research firms have found:

1. “More than one-third said they checked throughout the day.” - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (June 2008)
2. “More than seven out of 10 employed respondents also said they checked their personal email at work – and nearly one-third said they did so more than three times a day. - AOL/Beta Research Corp.(June 2008)
3. “Nearly 70% of respondents said they had multiple email accounts. – AOL/Beta Research Corporation(June 2008)
4. “75.8% said they are using more email than three years ago.” – Direct Marketing Association (2008)
5. “66% of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through email.” – ExactTarget, 2008 Channel Preference Survey (2008)
6. “ 2/3’s of US Internet users surveyed said email was their preferred channel for written communications between friends. – ExactTarget, 2008 Channel Preference Survey (2008)
7. “67% of respondents prefer email as a communications channel over other online vehicles and 65 percent believe this will continue to be the case in five years. “- Habeas (2008)

Can you start to see how you can gain an advantage against your completion? Do you think they even know this technology is even available…not unless they meet someone like me of course.

Can you see how this technology can make your business a lot of money by sending them promotions all on auto-pilot?

However, just like a diet program, you can exercise all you want but if you don’t have the right diet to go along with the exercise— losing weight is extremely difficult. Making money with your marketing is no different…. you need a right balance between Offline & Online Marketing — otherwise you will plateau with your business profits. In when I was in the real estate industry. Most of your good real estate guru’s have a great balance between selling their programs offline (in seminars) as well as online (in teleseminars and website shopping carts).

In case you didn’t know, online marketing purchase behavior is continuing to increase at a rapid rate around the world. Here are some startling statistics by some major research companies:

Nearly half (49%) of shoppers intend to do their holiday gift buying online (versus in-store), and 72% are planning to research products online prior to purchasing (vs. 65% in 2007). (“Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey,” e-tailing group, October 2008).

According to eBit, for this year, it is expected that Brazilian online consumers will spend about BRL 8.5 billion (US $5.9 billion). The numbers focus only on B2C (Business-to-Consuner).

Online marketing research firm comScore just released new numbers that reveal U.S. online spending during the 2007 holiday season (Nov. and Dec.) exceeded $29 billion, a 19.1 percent increase over 2006’s holiday sales (1/10/08).

Overall, eCommerce sales in Asia will grow at about a 23.4 percent annual rate, reaching over $168 billion in less than three years from now, according to eMarketer (1/16/08).

Are you starting to get just a “glimpse” of the future of the internet? Do you think your competition maybe strategizing how to strategically get some of your local clients to come to their establishment instead of yours? And in my opinion most local small business owners haven’t even begun to tap into the wealth of marketing their business online.

That as a foundation, I’ve also witnessed this behavioral pattern in a lot of my small business owner clientele.  They get into trouble “doing” the wrong marketing activities.  Specifically, marketing activities that were programmed into them since birth.  Most people think…well we need to market the business so let’s put $1,000 per month into Radio, Yellow Pages, or Newspaper Advertising (like most do) and they see if it generates any results.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for testing to see if different marketing may work.  However, the majority of business owners (I run into) follow the pattern of just seeing what marketing sticks in traditional popular marketing channels.  But that sad thing that I see is this type of business owner does not have any concrete basis (or statistics) for it.  If you want to “do” the right marketing activities the right way, you must start with a good marketing plan.

Definition of a marketing plan is as follows:

A marketing plan is a written document that is an organized set of activities that is designed to promote your product, service and/or company.  A marketing plan is designed to increase customers and company profits and usually “planned out” between one and five years in the future.

CAUTION ALERT: Solid marketing strategy is “the foundation” of a well-written marketing plan.

While a marketing plan contains a list of actions, a marketing plan ( without a sound strategic foundation) is of very little use to businesses.

Elements of a good marketing plan

Wisdom: “focus your efforts on a few BIG things”

1. Conduct quality research as the foundation to build your marketing plan
2. Business & Marketing Mission Statements (they should be different but connected)
3. Determine specific goals and time frames to reach these goals
4. Determine what your effective “marketing channels” are
5. Determine your marketing budget (do steps 1-3 first)
6. Delegate responsibility to carry out each segment of your plan
7. Measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and re-valuate