Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape. Today is Strategic Tuesday where we’ll start looking at how to gain advantage over your competition. We want you to remember that marketing doesn’t have to be complicated but it should be consistent. That again is the purpose of our blog, to get you to think about marketing whenever you can. Today’s topic is called: “Making Existing Customers Count.”
There are lots of ways grow your business. That’s what Once a Day Marketing is all about. One of them is finding new customers, which is a very good strategy. But another good strategy is to develop more business from your existing customers. And that’s what we are going to focus on today.
Why is that a good idea? Existing customers already know you and you have an established relationship with them. It’s not costly for you to get the word out to these customers about new product offerings. These customers are familiar with your brand, trust your brand, and have confidence in your brand. They are a very good candidate to try to encourage to either buy your product more often or to spend more money when they do.
Before we get into the strategic thinking part of our day we’re going to talk quickly about the 80/20 rule. You’re probably familiar with it, but what does it really mean? Typically, it means that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. When you relate that to marketing it means that 80% of the sales come from 20% of your customers. Keep that in mind as we get to our next section where we are talking about strategy to increase sales from existing customers.
Now I want you to put on your strategic thinking caps and pull out the whiteboard or notepad or some piece of software that allows you to keep track of your ideas. Now go back to the 80/20 rule and the 20% of the customers who are driving 80% of your business and ask yourself “why?” What are you doing to get them to continually purchase your product? They like your product. They understand your product. They like the value proposition. They like the benefits they derive from purchasing and using your product. Think about that 20% and we’re going to start going through a laundry list of things that might be causing them to buy your product. We’re going to use these ideas to try to create new strategies to drive even more traffic from that customer base.
I’m a big fan of the “7Ps of Marketing.” We are going to use the “7Ps” right now to identify ways to encourage your customers to return to your business more often, to buy more products, and to spend more when they do.
The first “7P” is Product. What do they like about your product? What can you do to enhance that product so the coveted 20% will buy even more?
Next, how about Pricing? Since they’re the coveted 20%, can you do anything with pricing to encourage them to purchase even more?
Another “7P” is Promotion. They know you, you know them. Is there a clever, faster, cheaper or better way to let them know they can buy your product today? That you’ve revamped your product, you’ve changed your pricing, whatever those changes might be. How can you devise ways to let them know and get them excited.
Next is Place. Where are they buying your products? Can you make it even easier for them to get your product? Perhaps you deliver it on their doorstep. Think about how they are getting your product today and make that better.
Now look at the People in your organization. They are interacting with your customers, and people in your distribution channel who get product to them. Is there any way you can improve distribution so that 20% would love you even more?
Next is Physical evidence. What are customers actually seeing about your product? Can you enhance what they see and entice them to buy more?
The last is Process. What is the flow of your customers into your sales channel and how are they coming out of the channel with product in hand? How can you make that a great experience for them? We’ve talked about this in the past. Really work on enhancing that experience, especially with your 20%. They already know your product, you just need to refine it in their mind and make it even more appealing. So when you complete this review you’ll have some new strategy on how to target that 20% so that they’ll buy more often and, when they do, perhaps they’ll spend more.
As always, thanks for tuning in. Be sure to join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday. We are now on Twitter - find us at Once a Day Marketing and follow us then to get announcements when our next video blog goes online. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, and we’ll see you next time.
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