I recently read an article by Kathleen Gage with the same title as this post. You can read the full post here. The guts are the article is simply that communication with your customers is critical to increasing repeat sales. The fact that many people have great experiences with a business, but cannot remember your company’s name to refer your services.
The following is a reprint from her article, but I think it drives the point home. Below, I have some ideas and recommendations on what KS2 Solutions Inc. uses to keep in touch with our clients.
How often does this type of situation occur? Sadly, more often than not. And how many sales and potential sales are lost as a result of poor follow up after the initial sale? Sales that could be easily won if people could only remember your company name, the phone number, and the web address.
If you are like most people you have set goals and outcomes for the coming year that include increasing the client base and revenues while increasing profit margins. The sad truth is these are probably the same goals that are set every year and the strategies for achieving the outcomes are probably the same also.
Why not use a smarter strategy? Cultivate relationships with your current client base and keep your name fresh in their mind.
Fact is if someone has already bought something from you and they were pleased with their purchase there is a good chance they will buy again. That is if they remember you and your company when it is time to make the purchase. This applies to hair salons, dentists, specialty gift shops, pet stores and dog groomers, clothing stores, nail salons, or just about any type of business.
The #1 way in which we use to keep our company name in people’s minds is our e-Newsletter. This bi-weekly newsletter is delivered to over 2000 customers and prospects and contains information about local marketing and the Internet industry. Many times I am at a business function and when I introduce myself and my company people start to make comments on our newsletter like, “I really like your newsletter”, and “there is good information in your newsletter”.
This is one strategy that we like to use to help keep our name in front of our customers and our prospects. On January 28, 2005, I had a posting about e-Newsletters and what Blockbuster and CalgaryPlus.ca were doing with theirs, that is also a good read.