10 Easy Ways To Keep Your Customers Coming Back - And Spending Money With You Forever!

You want customer loyalty in your business. You want repeat business. How about making your customers into valued friends? Showing concern and empathy for their situation. The more your able to treat your customers as friends, the more business they will want to do with you. You'll watch your profits soar.

Let's go through 10 ways you can keep your customers coming back to you, time and time again. And you will no doubt make "friends" in the process.

1. Send Birthday Cards

Do you like to be remembered on your birthday? How about doing something really easy and sending birthday cards to your customers. Could you send a little gift with it? What about a "special offer" coupon? Free tickets to an event.

Dear ,

There's something REALLY special happening this month on the 17th.

It's your Birthday!!

We wanted to be one of the first to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

From the _______ at XYZ Company we wish you a Happy Birthday and would like to offer you this special gift we've been saving for this special occasion.

2. Make "How's thing's going" calls regularly

Section out 15 minutes a day to call your customers for no other reason then saying " Hi ______, I just called to see how things are going?"

Have you ever called your customers to do that? Watch your customers appreciate you thinking of them. It makes them feel that you do care. If you want to have more business, do this regularly.

3. Send out small bags of jelly beans or candies.

Could you include a bag of jelly beans, with a handwritten note on your next sale, with the note saying, " I thought you may like these, they are my favorites." Or a note saying "Here's something for you to enjoy" Watch their eyes light up.

4. Send unexpected gifts.

If you find an article, audiotape, or anything specific customers might be interested in,send it with a note saying " I thought you'd enjoy this. I just finished reading it and there are some interesting deas here. Also, if you educate your customers they will send you more business.

5. Send Holiday Cards.

What about sending a Holiday Card that is different then all the "others" your customers are getting? Make it UNIQUE.

6. Send Thank You notes.

Send Thank you notes for everything. Even when they pay their bills on time. What about thanking them for referring business, coming to see you. Whatever you want more of, reward. It works. Send a little note saying, "Hi _______, Thank you for paying your account so promptly"

7. Make Thank You calls

Now, you should started making Thank you calls, A variation from the letters. Saying, "Hi ________, Just wanted to say Thank you for referring Mr. Smith to XYZ Co."

8. Give your customers recognition

Can you put photo's of your customers in your business. How about a photo and a testimonial. They'll be flattered and you business will increase. People love recognition.

9.Give your customer awards

Yes, you read that right. Have customers of the month. Send them a award certificate or even plaque.

Dear _______,

Just the other day I was going through my records and I realized that you are one of the top (10,20,50,) customers.

We really appreciate your business. That's why I want to send you this "Top Customer Certificate" that is enclosed.

XYZ Company looks forward to seeing you soon.

10. Hold seminars, breakfasts, lunches.

If you want to give recognition to your customers and stay in touch, have monthly or quarterly functions for your customers. Have a speaker and an interesting topic.

Dear _______,

I would like to invite you to our "Special Customers" lunch.

It will be held at ______ on ______.

It's FREE

It's our way of saying Thank you. etc...


Follow these tips and ypur customers will not only love you but you they will be happy to come back.

7 Essential Tips for Reviewing Your Copy

Nothing can turn strong copy into a 97-pound weakling faster than a flawed review process. The result is severely handicapped marketing efforts and, alas, fewer sales.

How can you avoid this dire marketing situation?

By having a smart and consistent review process that preserves the selling power of your marketing communications. Following are 7 essential tips for reviewing and approving copy.

1. Review the copy from the customers’ perspective.

On the first pass, read the copy (all of it) without your red pen in hand or editing hat on. That’s how your customers or audience will read it. Now, what do you think? Does the concept work? Did the headline grab your attention? How was the tone? Does the copy flow? If you begin by editing the first sentence or sweating the details, you will do your clients or customers a disservice.

2. Don’t get hung up on grammar and usage.

If you think the copywriter broke a writing rule, 9 times out of 10 there was an excellent reason. Copywriters are sales people in print, so if we take liberty with the English language, it’s for effect. Plus, be aware that copywriters (and proofreaders) review and correct the copy before you see it. For example, I consider spelling, grammar, style issues, trademark usage, and more to ensure the quality control of every piece of copy I write.

3. Avoid copy by committee.

There’s that old joke that says if you want to kill an idea or project, start a committee. Copy by committee is no different. Conflicting and misguided comments put the copywriter and creative team in the awkward position of trying to please everyone except who matters most -- the intended audience. One way around this is to circulate informational copies to people who would like to see the copy. They can make comments without being part of the formal approval process.

4. Minimize the rounds.

Provide complete feedback on the first round, forwarding all your comments, suggestions, and changes to the copywriter. That way the copywriter can consider everything when he or she rewrites the copy and you can shorten the review cycle. Copy is typically stronger when it’s created in three or fewer rounds.

5. Provide specific comments.

When you provide specific comments, the chances of succeeding on the rewrite improve dramatically. For example, instead of saying, "This isn’t strong enough," say, "The tone needs to be more authoritative" or "These are additional benefits the copy should cover." Often times putting your comments in writing will help you be more specific than if you just provide them orally.

6. Let the copywriter rewrite the copy.

Instead of trying to "write" the changes yourself to be incorporated, tell the copywriter your concerns and let him or her address them. The copy will benefit when the copywriter does the rewriting.

7. Judge the copy based upon your objectives.

In the end, the copy was written with particular objectives in mind: to build your brand, generate leads or sales, inform about your company, products, or services, and so on. Make sure the copy is technically accurate and factually correct. Then critique the copy based upon what you want it to accomplish, not on the number of superlatives, your competitor’s latest ad campaign, or how it compares to your previous brochure.

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How to Make Your Customers Feel Special

The idea of marketing to a specialized niche of very active customers and then using that base to recruit in a viral way is new to the internet but one that goes way back in the non internet world of marketing.  It is well known that if you create an elite group of dedicated customers, they will become a recruitment army for your business and become your marketing team that works for free without even knowing they are doing so.

This approach to marketing is not as focused on email communications as many of our internet marketing efforts were ten years ago.  But that is a good thing for two reasons.  The first reason is that dynamic marketing, meaning selling through a relationship model is far more effective and yields a higher per sale basket total as well as a much higher incidence of repeat sales than cold call selling and it is far less frustrating. 

The second reason is that using email as the backbone of your sales program has become more and more problematic because of the influence of spam and spam filters which have made the free flow of marketing emails much more difficult to manage.  Because spam filtering has become so aggressive and so successful, email delivery of marketing material is harder to do and takes a greater investment of time and ongoing knowledge that pulls you away from your customers and from your businesses.  So the migration to dynamic selling and away from cold call and mass marketing email techniques is a natural evolution of the internet marketing model in the new century.

So the online experience of your customer takes on a greater importance in your marketing plan.  But you will find that devoting more time and money to building a web "place" that your customers participate in actively will be far more rewarding than any scattershot approach to email marketing could ever be even before the eruption of spam which made email delivery such a nightmare.

One way to give your customers the feel of being part of your organization is to build a specialized membership area of your web site that customers must make an extra effort to become part of.  In fact, many online retailers actually charge a small fee to be part of this membership site.  That is effective because the fee gives your members the sensation of being part of a closed community and the revenue is good for your cash flow.

Your customers who chose to become part of the membership area of your web site should get some special privileges and rewards for their elevated status.  So you might create a discount card that creates a desire to spend more in your online store only for those customers who are part of the elite membership area.  Your customers will think they are getting something very special when in fact, all you are doing is exchanging a small part of your mark up for greater volume of sales which is always a good trade off for you as a retailer.

One of the big values of creating a membership area is that those who populate that membership can become part of the team to make contributions about future product or service offerings.  This is tremendously valuable to your development teams because the more you "pick the brains" of your customers, the more you will offer products or services that are going to be a success when they hit the market.

You will see a greater sense of brand loyalty grow out of the people who enjoy exclusive membership in your reserved area of your web site.  Make it a point to make that part of the site look elegant and luxurious.  Its all just graphics but in cyberspace, graphics have a reality all their own.  And don't take your eye off of the goal of using the membership area for recruitment of new customers through referrals or to take marginal customers and make them devotees as well.  A few gift memberships can go a long way toward accomplishing those goals.

22 Questions to Ask Your Client Before You Write a Single Word

To write successful copy, you need to know as much as you can. It goes beyond reading background materials, reviewing old marketing pieces and doing some cursory research on the Web.

You need to get inside peoples’ heads.

Start with your clients. They know their business and their customers better than you do. (If they don’t, they should. You can help them learn more.)

How? Use a marketing/creative brief to get the information you need to ace the copywriting (and marketing) assignment. (A marketing/creative brief is a tool used by ad agencies and corporate marketing and creative departments.)

Following is a marketing/creative brief adapted from one I used during my stint at a Seattle ad agency. Even though I now work solo, I still use it today.

(Begin form)

Marketing/Creative Brief

(Note: Designed for B2B; much of this brief is also applicable to B2C.)

Good input is key to a successful project, campaign, or marketing program. This marketing/creative brief is designed to elicit good input. But it takes thorough and thoughtful answers on your part. Please answer the following questions carefully.

1. What is the description of the piece(s)? (Ad, Web site, brochure, radio script, direct mail, etc.)

2. What is the marketing focus? (What products or services are we telling about?)

3. What is the communications problem that the piece(s) must solve? (Awareness, positioning or repositioning, product introduction, category introduction, etc.)

4. Who is the audience? (Demographics, title, function, responsibility, etc.)

5. What is their point of view about the product, service, category?

6. Who is the secondary audience(s), if any?

7. What business problems or issues does the product(s)/service(s) solve for the audience(s)? (Efficiency issues, profitability issues, operations issues, technology issues, etc.)

8. What effect do we want the piece(s) to have on the target audience(s)? (Purchase, phone call, visit Web site, request more information, increase their awareness, etc.)

9. What can we offer to achieve the desired response? (Demos, situation evaluation, sales collateral, personal visit, white paper, etc.)

10. What is the single essential message we must tell the target audience(s) to achieve the desired effect? (Be as concise as possible.)

11. What evidence is there to support our claims? (Features and benefits, testimonials, case studies, etc.)

12. Can anyone else make a similar promise?

13. Are there any technology issues to address? (Compatibility, operating systems, hardware requirements, etc.)

14. What specific industry issues must be addressed? (Trends, etc.)

15. Are there any industry, product or competitive issues to be avoided?

16. What tone should the piece employ? (Hardhitting/serious, educational/informative, humorous, etc.)

17. What do you like about your current piece(s)? (Look and feel, tone, messaging, functionality, etc.)

18. What don’t you like about your current piece(s)? (Look and feel, tone, messaging, functionality, etc.)

19. What overall impressions (look and feel, etc.) would you like the piece(s) to make?

20. Will this piece(s) be used with any other pieces? (proposals, collateral, letters, etc.)

21. How will the piece(s) be used (online, leave behind, trade shows, mailed, etc.) and at what point in the sales cycle?

22. Any other comments?

(End form)

Admittedly, getting clients to answer these questions isn’t always easy.

That’s why it’s best to be flexible with the use of a marketing/creative brief. You can ask the client to fill it out. You can use it to interview the client. You can fill it out yourself for the client’s review. Any sort of collaborative approach works well.

In the end, stress to your clients that if they want more clicks, more leads and more sales, they need to actively participate in the input process.

One you have all the information you need, you’re ready to write a winner.

(c) 2005 Neil Sagebiel