Consumers are a funny breed, not ha-ha funny but a curious type of funny. They follow trends, and some follow fades but no matter what path they choose it’s vital to understand the three principles of customer acquisition; acquire, activate, and retain.
Acquiring new customers can be expensive but doesn’t have to be, it depends upon how it is approached.
So how do you go about gathering new buyers?
First it’s important to know what consumers are thinking; where are they going, what are they buying. Most consumers they think what the media tells them to think and they buy what is popular. Statistics prove that they rely on others, not necessarily friends or relatives, to endorse or recommend a product or service they are interested in purchasing. One might think that consumers don’t think for themselves, but admittedly they do so it’s up to us to capitalize on this piece of evidence.
Trends are an a vital marketing barometer that can steer a business in the right direction. For example do you remember the ‘dating nights’ at supermarkets? That’s where singles would shop for groceries and the store had specials and contests that filled the store on specified nights when sales were normally slow. Eventually this lead to a new game called ‘isle bowling.’
These promotions were a direct result of a trend in society; the need for a meeting place for singles (of course this was much before the FaceBook/Twitter era). It was genius and that the supermarkets picked up on it. Since that time there have been many more trends that have mushroomed into sales bonanzas. When was the last time you check on trends? A good place to do that is at Google Trends.
Another appropriate example is the awareness in health and wellness. Wherever you go you’ll see someone carrying a bottle of water with them. It’s a sign of the times, a trend in the health and wellness of consumers. How many bottle water companies can you think of off the top of your head? I’ll be at least six.
Do consumers think for themselves? It’s not of real importance if the do or don’t, the important fact is this; they respond to trends and buy what is trending at the time.
Here’s one example of what I did to turn a trend into increased revenue in my five star restaurant.
My business was located across for a hospital and adjacent to ‘legal row’ a community of law offices. Fortunately, my noon lunches were jammed packed every day. There was one problem and that was that I was limited as to the amount of each check. This was because of the trend toward drinking and driving and the new DUI laws plus my diners only had 1 hour for lunch so I had to come with a plan that would take advantage of a trend to increase my noon lunch profits.
I began offering unique bottled waters from the world’s top bottlers. Servers would roll an iced cart with beautifully crafted bottles of water set in the mountain of ice. Sales soared and the it not only took up the slack of alcohol sales left it made a great profit as well. But that’s not where it ended, word got around and the restaurant’s reputation was becoming well known as a healthy eating establishment so I added many more health-conscious menu items.
I have a question for you. Do you know how much each customer is worth? This may seem like an unnecessary question but it’s vital that you know how much each customer contributes to your business. I have an online product where each one of my customers is worth $750; this means that this is the average amount each customer will spend with me for that product. Now multiply that by the number of customers and you’ll understand why customer retention is actually important residual income.
Customer acquisition will require a method of retention. Once a method has been defined retention doesn’t just happen, it must be cultivated. If your business isn’t cultivating the retention of your customers, you are giving up a generous portion of your income.
Cultivating current customers doesn’t mean that you have to spend bundles of money doing so, as a matter of fact is inexpensive, logical and easy. You can create specials, offers or campaigns such as , a VIP Club, an Inner Circle club, or a Frequent Diner Club Card. There are many more creative ideas only limited by your imagination.
The most effective method in achieving this is mobile marketing. Because mobile is inexpensive doesn’t mean it’s ineffective it is widely accepted and tremendously effective.
Here are five reasons business is turning to mobile marketing.
One. People never leave home without their keys, wallet and cell phone. Cell phones are now a personal ‘carry with’ item.
2. SMS, or text message campaigns, have been shown to have tremendous open rates. Users read text messages within 15 minutes and virtually all types of phones can read text messages.
3. Some 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65% since September 2009. (Source: Pew Internet Research.)
4. Local merchants have a direct line to consumers. Mobile phone users rely heavily on local merchants for specials.
5. 95% of smartphone users have looked for local information, 88% of these users take action within a day, indicating these are immediate information needs. 77% have contacted a business, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business. (Source: Google 2011).
Once you’ve obtained your customers’ cell phone number you have an immediate connection to cultivate your residual income list. You’ll be able to send out immediate text messages that they can take advantage of immediately.
The final element in our discussion is reactivation. This is the most difficult part for any business. It almost requires a re-boot of the marketing campaign but it’s not impossible. Here’s how one business got the job done. This doctor’s office used everything at their disposal to reactivate old patients-this can be done in any business. They created QR codes, tent cards, wall posters/flyers and they also added a QR code and a text to code in the office and all their existing advertising in addition to updating their patient list. Over a short period of time they were able to bring back 41% of patients who would never have returned without this effort.
So how did they do it? They offered information-information is the key to anything. Dr. OZ is a phenomenal success, why… because he offers information on health. So by offering information on cholesterol, cancer information, and general health this doctor’s office is full of reactivated patients.
This can be accomplished in most any business not just health. Auto repair shops can benefit, physical trainers and gyms can enjoy a boost from this concept as well. More at http://LocalMobileSecretsRevealed.com
Tagged as: business texting, cell phone marketing, commercial text messages, mobile marketing, sms text messages
