Customers: Your Most Valuable Asset

This original article by Pat Friesen was first published in one of my favorite marketing publications, Target Marketing magazine, June 2002 issue and is partially reprinted here with her permission. As creative professionals, we must constantly look outside our industry for new - and renewed - ideas for finding and keeping clients. Though Pat is often talking about marketing of products, there is always crossover to the selling of services. Hope you enjoy her ideas and take this chance to review your own marketing strategies!

• Apply the old 80-20 rule: 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers.
• Segment your customers and communicate with them based on their profitability. After all, all customers are not equal.
• Increase the frequency with which you send promotions to customers whether delivered by traditional mail or e mail. The more opportunities you give customers to buy, the more likely they'll buy more.
• Treat your best customer "advocates" as solid gold. Make them exclusive offers and promotions.
• Send a customer newsletter to segments other than the "newbies" to make exclusive offers unavailable to the masses.
• Use e-mail and Web site links to cross sell related products (and services) and make purchasing recommendations.
• Acknowledge a customer's first purchase with a personal letter (a thank you).
• Customer newsletters (promotions) should not be full of company "fluff". Instead, use them to position yourself against the competition or build customer relationships.
• Make a new customer feel special by introducing a special offer to encourage them to make that all-important second purchase.
• Invite your best customers to use a special password to access a "your eyes only" page on your web site.
• Ask customers for their opinions. People are flattered to be asked for their ideas and opinions. You will strengthen customer relationships and gather good ideas.
• Ask for referral names. Referrals are highly cost-effective source of new customers. Say "thanks" for the referral.
• Invite customers to participate in an event- online or at your facility. Personal invitations get opened and read and make people feel special.
• Use your database (of past purchases) to cross - sell or "upgrade" customers to the next sale.
• Reactivate customers who haven't bought in the last 12 to 24 months. It is easier and more cost-effective to reactivate an inactive account than bring in a new one.
• Give your customers a choice in how they do business with you (on-line, by fax, by phone, in-person).

Pat Friesen is president of Pat Friesen & Co., and is a direct response creative strategist, copywriter and trainer with more than 25 years of direct marketing experience. She can be reached at (913) 341-1211 or by e-mail at friesen_pat@hotmail.com.