What’s the most valuable asset in your business?
Your staff?
Your building?
Your product?
Your customer service?
Your location?
Nope. It’s none of the above.
It’s actually your customer list. Because your customer list gives you absolute control over when and how often your customers come to your business.
Your list is the MONEY-MAKER
A customer list is the moneymaker of your business, waiting to be utilized. It’s a compilation of your past, present, and potential customers’ contact information, and holds the key to fostering strong customer relationships, increasing sales, and boosting your business’s overall success.
If you’ve been an independent Business Owner for a while, then you know one of the secrets to success is to collect your customer data. This isn’t a new concept. But, how many businesses have collected business cards, or created a list of their customer email addresses and then done nothing? Or started a loyalty program only to find that the benefits aren’t as strong as they though they’d be. Or, worse yet, not bothered at all because they think it’s an old concept and they like the shiny new ideas.
When you build a solid list of your EXISTING customers who have given you money in the past, you are then able to communicate with them – building a strong, loyal relationship. People don’t want to do business with a ‘brand’, they want to do business with people, especially when we are talking about local businesses. Having contact information allows you to communicate and establish new habits for your customers.
Why you should build a customer list:
- Personalized Marketing: With a customer list, you can tailor your marketing efforts to the specific needs and preferences of your customers. Personalized marketing campaigns are more likely to resonate with your audience and lead to higher results.
- Repeat Business: Existing customers are far more likely to make repeat purchases, after all, they’ve already decided they know, like and trust you. By staying in touch with your customers using multiple methods of communication, you can encourage them to return to your business and spend more.
- Customer Loyalty: Building relationships with your customers through regular communication helps to foster loyalty. Loyal customers are more likely to refer others to your business and become your biggest advocates.
- Cost-Effective Advertising: Compared to acquiring new customers, retaining existing ones is more cost-effective. A customer list allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the people who are already interested in your products or services.
Great local Business Owners know that marketing isn’t just about getting people in the door once. It’s about connection and providing what your customers want so they return again and again.
Your list only has value if you use the data to increase the frequency of visits and get your best customers to promote your business for you. Simply offering loyalty points and awards won’t do that, but it DOES give you an enticing reason for your customers to provide their information.
What You Do With A List
- Use A Marketing Platform: Invest in a marketing platform to manage your customer list and send targeted campaigns. Use as many media options as you can, email, text, direct mail, social media, so that the system keeps track of customer interactions and automates your marketing efforts.
- Segment Your List: Categorize your customers based on their preferences, purchase history, and behavior. Segmenting your list allows you to send highly relevant content and offers to different groups.
- Regularly Communicate: Keep your customers engaged with informative, valuable, and engaging content. Whether it’s updates, newsletters, or exclusive offers, stay in touch. Not every communication needs to sell something, but it needs to be engaging.
- Analyze and Adjust: Use data and analytics to track the performance of your campaigns. This will help you refine your strategies and improve your results over time, so you aren’t wasting money on under performing campaigns.
The Power Is In Your Hands
The truth is your existing customers are where the big money and profit is. It is 8 times more expensive to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Your success does not depend on how many new customers you can attract, it’s about how many customers you can KEEP coming back, moving up the profit pyramid.
When we track average monthly sales, the highest spending customers and the sales you make from their repeat business is all at the top of your Profit Pyramid. We have analyzed many of our clients lists and see this repeat itself over and over – 80% of your sales comes from the top 20% of your customers.
All your money is made on repeat transactions.
The best way to increase your sales is to focus on moving your one-time transactions into long-term repeat customers and up your Profit Pyramid and to do that, you need a customer list.
Use your list to increase your sales, increase frequency of visits and to build a relationship of loyalty. Reward your customers for spending their money with you, and in return, it provides you the ability to communicate with them so you can get them to return more often when you can use the extra business.
In addition, in a time of crisis, if you needed to close your business, road work shuts down access, there’s a fire or flood in the
building, or whatever the reason, you need to be able to communicate with your customers and let them know when you’ll be back in business.
The other side benefit of having a customer list is that if and when you want to sell your business, a strong customer list adds value to the
sale and makes a much more enticing opportunity for the potential buyer.
You have to use the data to make it beneficial. Have an effective system in place that builds a strong relationship by communicating with
your customers through your marketing and you can influence them to return more often.
Your customer list is the key to unlocking the potential of your business. Don’t let it go to waste. Let’s work together to turn
your list into a valuable asset that drives growth, fosters customer loyalty, and enhances your bottom line.
We will build you a customized marketing program that runs on autopilot as you build and grow a customer list. Book a call using the
button below to get started.
