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Discover How To Find The Customers That
Are
Five Times More Likely To Purchase Your Product -- And Get Them To Buy More!
Have
you ever heard of the "Pareto Principle"? If you haven't,
you are missing out on one of the MOST EFFECTIVE routes
there is to bigger profits.
Also
known as "The Vital Few and Trivial Many Rule," the Pareto
Principle was named after the Italian economist who observed
in 1906 that 20% of the Italian population owned 80% of
Italy's wealth. He then noticed that 20% of the pea pods
in his garden accounted for 80% of his pea crop each year.
Coincidence? Well, it got him thinking...
Vilfredo
Pareto applied this 80-20 rule to pretty much everything
-- and whether or not you agree with it is your prerogative.
But when it comes to your e-business, you're missing out
on a lot of profit if you don't realize that...
20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your
sales!
With
other applications of the Pareto Principle, it's often
impossible to determine the accuracy of the ratio (i.e.,
20% of the food you eat is responsible for 80% of your
health). But in your e-business, you can easily track
which customers are buying customers...
It's
a little-recognized fact that at least 20% of people who
have purchased from you once will buy from you again... IF you follow up with them. One-fifth of your
customer base is just waiting for you to offer them something
new.
So
if you are not following up with your customers, you're
actually ignoring 80% of your business' profit
potential.
1. Follow up with your key customers
If
you don't follow up with your customers, you are losing
a lot of profit -- it's as simple as that.
The
fact is, when a person trusts you and likes your product
or service enough to buy from you once, they'll often buy from you again and again. Your existing
customer base is four or five times more likely
to buy from you than a "cold" market... and the
"lifetime value" of these customers is one of the greatest
assets of your business.
Repeat
sales can be so profitable that some people even offer
their product or service below cost on the first sale -- just to get their potential customers to buy (think
of all the mail-order book clubs and CD clubs that let
you purchase 11 books or CDs for a penny!). Because once
people have bought for the first time, at least 20% of
them will buy again...
And
this backend market should be where you focus
a good deal of your attention.
You
have already cultivated a relationship with your customers
-- you have put in the time and money to get their attention,
establish credibility, and close that first sale. That's
by far the most difficult part -- not to mention the most
expensive. Think of all the planning, advertising,
and promotional activity that goes into getting those
initial sales...
But
once you've acquired those customers, you can develop
their "lifetime value." Show appreciation and offer special
incentives to them. Send them "thank-you for your purchase"
messages, renewal notices, and free information. Reward
them for being loyal customers and they'll become even
more loyal.
And offer them more products. If they liked what
they bought, they'll buy from you again.
2. What to offer
The
most brilliant thing about follow-up offers is that they don't cost you a single red cent. You've
already dealt with the salespeople, the brochures, the
mailouts, the ad placement, etc.
But
now that you've made those initial sales, and in the process
collected the e-mail addresses of your customers, you
can simply e-mail all of your previous customers
your special follow-up offer... so all of the
sales you garner are 100% pure profit!
Of
course, you have to ensure that what you're offering is
something your customer base is actually interested in
-- so the kinds of follow-up items you offer will depend
on your business. But consider the following types of
offers and think of how they could apply to your business...
Offer
products that complement your initial product.
For example, if you sold golf clubs, you could offer
customers a golf club bag to carry them in. But it
doesn't have to be quite that closely related -- for
example, if you sold memberships to fitness programs,
you could also offer fitness clothing, fitness books...
you could even promote daycare programs to provide
fitness moms with more options!
Even if you have to struggle to come up with an idea
for a complementary product, it will be well worth
the effort. You've already got the interest of your
customers, so at this point you have to think of any
way possible to keep them buying, because buy
they will... unless you don't offer them anything!
Sell
more of the same product at a discounted price. Show customer appreciation by offering them a "special
discount" on the product they're already buying. If
your product is refillable, you've got it made. Your
"Vital Few" customers will purchase the product repeatedly
over a lengthy period of time -- and this gives you
a legitimate reason to get in touch at regular intervals.
But even if your product isn't refillable, you can
offer upgrades, newer versions, improved models, or
add-ons to the original product. And each time you contact
your customer, you can offer a special discount on
a new or related item also -- even offer something
free to maintain their interest!
Use
newsletter subscriptions as up-sell or backend products. Once people trust you enough to buy from you, they'll
likely be interested in hearing more of what you have
to say. Newsletters are also an excellent way to stay
in constant communication with your customers, answer
their questions, respond to their concerns, and provide
them with the kind of knowledge they'll need if they're
using your products.
In the process, you will establish yourself as an
expert in your industry and a reliable source of information.
Try
splitting up your current product and selling
it as separate segments. For example, if you were
selling a book on research methods on the Internet,
you could offer a basic version for $9.95 to generate
a large volume of sales at a low price. Then, 30 days
later, you could offer them an advanced version for
$29.95 or even $39.95, and increase your profits dramatically!
You could sell the smaller, individual parts of your
product separately, but also offer a package deal
with everything included for a bit of a discount.
That way, you'll cover a couple of different price
points and appeal to a wider range of customers.
Try
selling your customers an upgrade to their product. If they've used and liked your basic model,
they'll be open to suggestion, provided that you can
show them why and how the upgrade is better.
Offer
someone else's product! I know it sounds
a bit odd, but as long as the product or service is
not in direct competition with your own, you can make
a good profit (and further develop your relationship
with your customers) by offering a great backend item
as an affiliate.
Joining affiliate programs can be a very lucrative
way to increase your sales. With an affiliate program,
you have the opportunity to give a highly credible
personal recommendation to your customer base (which
is one of the most effective sales techniques) and
claim a percentage of each sale... without having
to develop a new product of your own! This can
be an enormous timesaver and, done right, can make
up a significant part of your business.
In fact, many people earn considerable online incomes
these days just by promoting affiliate products. You
have to do your research accordingly, however, and
only recommend products that you truly believe in
before you can make a business of selling them. Also,
keep in mind that selling too broad a variety of products
as an affiliate will do nothing but confuse your market
-- and lose you sales. Keep your focus narrowed and
your niche well-defined.
If you are interested in checking out affiliate programs,
the following are a few good places to look for the
programs that are right for you:
And,
of course, you can always join the IMC Affiliate Program.
We offer excellent promotional tools and other resources...
and some of the highest commission rates in the industry.
Go to http://www.marketingtips.com/assoc/ to see if
this opportunity suits the needs of your business
and your customers.
Offer incentives and information to keep
your business in your customers' minds. You don't always have to be pushing products -- in
fact, if you try the hard-sell approach each and every
time you contact your opt-in list, they'll start to
see you as a nuisance.
So offer a "tip of the day" or contest entry to entice
your customers to your site. Stay in touch through
newsletters and discussion groups. Observe holidays
and special occasions... (you could tie in
promotions to these events).
Because while you certainly want to sell more products
or services to this lucrative group, you also want
to balance sales with relationship building... developing
more trust, credibility, and customer loyalty each
step of the way.
3. Automate your follow-up
Okay,
maybe I was wrong... maybe this is the most brilliant
part about follow-up offers: Not only do you not have
to spend any money to make follow-up offers -- you
don't even have to spend any time!
You
can automate the entire process using autoresponders
that will...
Send
a "thank-you for your purchase and order confirmation"
type of message -- you could also offer a discount
on a related item in this message
Send
instructions for use that may also mention your newsletter
or discussion group (you probably wouldn't want to
include a "hard sell" here)
Follow
up with a message a few days after the purchase that
asks how things are going and then offers a discounted
related item
Send
another message a few days later to remind your customer
of the discounted offer and urge them to buy before
the offer ends or the product runs out
Send
"time to refill" reminders or "time to upgrade" messages
as appropriate
If
you use autoresponders in this way, you can start confirming
orders automatically... providing instructions automatically... and generating huge
profits in follow-up sales -- automatically!
Important Note: Using software such
as Mailloop, you'll have access to unlimited
autoresponders. This means that you can easily
use Mailloop to e-mail your past customers… with
only a few clicks here and there.
Even
better, Mailloop will allow you to automatically
personalize each of your messages,
so that each customer is greeted by name and
receives a personal e-mail tailored with their
purchase date, product bought, etc… You can
even send HTML e-mail that'll increase your
response by as much as 40%!
And when you automate your mailings, you'll not only tap into
the 20% of your customers who will be responsible for
80% of your profits -- you'll also save yourself an
incredible amount of time in e-mail chores and customer
service!
Final Thoughts:
Focusing
on your "Vital Few" customers is the best way possible
to increase your sales through your backend products.
Once you've done the initial promotion work and made the
first sale, promoting to this highly responsive group
is FREE... and once you've automated the process, it won't
even cost you any time to do it!
As
you can see, putting an automated follow-up system in
place is hardly the most difficult aspect of Internet
marketing, though it is definitely one of the
most profitable techniques out there -- and one
of the most often overlooked.
But
now that you know how profitable it is to follow up with
your key customers, and now that you understand how the
Pareto Principle applies to your business, you can start
running your promotions more effectively and increasing
your profits exponentially.
And
who knows... maybe you can start getting more peas out
of your garden, too!
To
Find Out How To Market Your Business
Online CLICK
HERE
