Last issue, we spoke about the benefits of converting more of your customers into loyal customers. This issue, we'll start to focus on specific ways you can put one-to-one marketing to work for your business:
- Focus your attention on the customers you already have.
- Figure out what they want, and which needs you can satisfy.
- Then use the knowledge you have of them, and the trust you've built, to make additional sales.
The most important step is to get started. Most collectable dealers have a customer list. They vary from a few hundred names, to tens of thousands. No matter what the size, your list is probably your company's most valuable asset. And probably your most under-used!
What we want to do is to put this list to work!
For this step, we'll have 5 goals:
Move your customer list into an electronic database.
This can be a simple spreadsheet or a real database. Having your customer list in a database will make every other step much easier. It's much easier to keep electronic customer list up-to-date and mail-merge allows you to automate much of the work of sending out emails or postal mailings.
Prune the deadwood off your list.
This means getting rid of the customers who are no longer contactable at the address or phone number you have for them. If you have a large and old list, probably 10-20% of your customers have moved. Maybe more. They are costing you money every time you mail them a letter. Get rid of them!
Discover what each person on your list is looking for
Not just 'want lists' of specific items, but fields of interests. How? Ask them!
What you are doing is asking them for permission to send them information on items that they are specifically interested in. Customers WANT this information. They subscribe to magazines, attend shows, and crawl through websites (some of them really bad!) to find the items they need to fill their collection. If you can make this task easier, while promising not to bombard him with information he's NOT interested in, you'll be offering a useful service that your customer will thank you for.
Get an email address.
This will be easy if you convince your customer of 3 things:
- the information you send him will be incredibly valuable
- you won't abuse his trust by spamming him
- he can easily opt-out (stop getting your emails) if it turns out the information you send him is of no interest to him.
Match your customer's wants with your inventory
Especially your new inventory -- and let them know when you find a match. Most dealers already do this, to some degree or another. You probably have a number of regular customers whom you know very well. You might even buy items with particular customers in mind. However, if you have a large customer list or have a large influx of new inventory, it becomes very difficult to find all the matches.
This is where a good database can pay for itself. A good database program can automatically find all the matches between your customers and your new inventory and automatically generate match lists or even send emails to your customers, notifying them of items they are interested in and making it very easy for them to purchase the items either on-line or over the phone.
(Plug: This is exactly what our Email Marketing Package does. For more information on this incredibly useful (and very reasonable) service, shoot us an email at info@identry.com or call 631.546.5079)
Well, we're out of space for this issue. Next issue, we'll continue to looking to Permission Marketing. Meanwhile, here's a hint for our McDonald's question: those 7 little words increased profitability by selling more to their existing customers. Exactly what you want to do with your business!
