Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Even during the best of times, it’s far more costly to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. But during a recession? The disparity can become monumental as cash-strapped potential buyers hold their wallets close in their efforts to save money.

Each lost customer, meanwhile, is a step closer to disaster for small businesses. So it’s more important than ever to do everything you can to hang onto the customers who have already chosen to buy from you before. It’s time to count your blessings, in other words, and do what you can to keep them. And that, in turn, is where direct marketing can help.

‘Thank You,’ Three Ways

Postage costs may be increasing, but there are still some pieces of mail that can and should be sent out to help keep your best customers close by your side. Dispense with the hard-driving sales pitch for a while and show some gratitude instead.

1. Say ‘Thank you.’ It’s a rare company these days that bothers to send out thank-you letters, and that alone is reason enough to send one–it will almost certainly set you apart. I don’t mean the easy, preprinted postcard, either; I mean the real letter with the real signature that thanks the customer, genuinely, for their business, without trying to make a sale. A single, simple thank-you letter like that can go a long way toward showing appreciation and respect for your customer and deepen your relationship with them further.

2. Commit random acts of kindness. Your best customers will be delighted–and spread the word accordingly–when you surprise them with the occasional gift. For example, when customers of Turkish Akbank use its Wings credit card to pay for meals at participating restaurants, every once in a while they get notified that Wings is picking up the tab. Imagine a surprise gift in the mail instead of yet another sales spiel! They needn’t be expensive, but for maximum effect they should be unexpected.

3. Espouse ‘perkonomics.’ Taking the notion even further, installing a program whereby loyal customers get rewarded regularly makes good sense. This is part of what we at Springwise refer to as ‘perkonomics,’ and it’s popping up all over. More than just loyalty schemes or discounts, perkonomics is about creating novel, memorable perks for your customers: sneak previews of new products, for example, or passes that help your best customers skip a queue. Start sharing perks through the mail, and you can bet it won’t be long before customers are watching for your communications!

In short, it’s hard to imagine a more targeted and profitable list to send to than that of your already-loyal customers. In these turbulent times, if it’s a choice between cementing relationships with current customers or trying to win new ones, the decision is a no-brainer: Keep the ones you’ve got coming back for more.