Courting the CustomerTips for Long-Term Happiness (for both of you)Acquiring customers is costly. You’re wise to want to retain them. Create an e-NewsletterThis is an easy way to stay top, IF you can find worthwhile content for your audience. Let’s take it back to the relationship analogy. A love letter (or text, in today’s world) is a wonderful way to stay close to the person you like. If you talk about things they find interesting, peppered in with a little flattery, your communication becomes the kind of thing your beloved will show friends. However, if you talk incessantly about yourself or a topic they have no interest in, their attention will soon wane.You need to address topics they’ll find entertaining, inspiring, or educational and you need to do this from the start. It doesn’t take long for people to lose interest if you’re presenting them with something they don’t value. Here’s some helpful advice on how to create a valuable e-newsletter. Become a Free ResourceMost of us talk about content marketing as if we just invented it. For this reason, a lot of business people are hesitant to embrace it because it seems like a novelty and a trend, and they’re uncertain whether the tides will change, so they wait. But content marketing, or providing resources for your audience, to establish you and your business as an expert in the industry is nothing new. In 1895 John Deere (yes, that John Deere), published a magazine for farmers called Furrow. His goal was to become a resource for his customers by providing helpful tips to maximize production. It took the rest of the world a little time to catch on to how well this type of marketing works.You needn’t worry if the subject matter you choose to focus on is directly related to what you sell or only loosely so. John Deere knew that if farmers were more successful in producing more crops, they’d have more money, and need help mechanizing the process. The beauty behind his content marketing strategy was that he helped his audience and created a happy problem (now they needed a more efficient way to operate) that his company could then solve for. You also see this when companies that make flour, for instance, hand out cookbooks that contain recipes with what else? Flour. Remember, effective content marketing does several things:
Offer Discounts for Return CustomersNothing says thank you like a loyalty discount for past purchases. However, most businesses that offer them place an expiration date on the coupon or discount that is not very far in the future. They believe this drives business but there are certain products people won’t stockpile. In the end the discount expires before the customer uses it and the nice gesture is thrown in the trash. Consider eliminating the expiration date on the coupon, and instead, send them an email reminder periodically.
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