An article about marketing for eBay sellers offers this insightful statement:
By keeping customers informed about new deals, you stay in their minds and increase your chances of bringing in repeat business and creating loyal customers.
You have several opportunities to remind your customers that you are still around to help solve their problems:
- Television and Radio
- Direct Mail
- Email Newsletters
- Built-in Marketing
You most likely come in contact with the first two of these most often. By hearing a commercial or getting a reminder in the mail, your existing customer base may be prompted to return to you. Unfortunately, TV, radio, and direct mail may not be as personal as your customers would like. We’ve spoken before about quality email newsletters, so let’s turn our attention to the last point:
Built-in Marketing
Let’s call built-in marketing where your product or service includes up sell or marketing opportunities. By simply using your product, your customer is incentivized to return and do business with you again. There are many examples of this all around you:
- Magazines have postcards inside touting get deals on subscriptions
- The box of detergent you bought has a coupon on the package good towards your next purchase
- When you get your oil changed at the Quicky Oil Change Place, they’ll put a little sticker with their name in your car reminding you to come back after 3 months.
One of my favorite tools is 37Signal’s Backpack. This online organization tool gives a wonderful example of the built-in up sell. When you reach your limit on the number of pages you can have, they stick this little message on the screen.
They provide a subtle reminder that it is time to upgrade. They provide the method to upgrade, and they explain why it is worth your money. Built-in marketing at its finest. Always include those 3 key points in your built-in marketing: the reminder, the method, and why your customer should take action.
Find ways to invite your customers to return and do more business with you via the very product or service you just sold them. If you sell a quality product with built-in marketing, your customers will return without you having to chase them down and do additional work.
Take a look at your products or services. Can you add some built-in marketing?