Use
Your Database To Write Customers a Personal Letter.
Database
marketing, explains business writer Mark Hendricks, aims "not to make the
sale, but keep the customer." The underlying technique is to use database
records of customers' latest purchases, and frequency and amount of past
purchases, to create targeted mailers that let you stay in touch with your
customers. The most popular of these mailers are listed above. But another type
of mailer, fast and inexpensive to produce, sometimes proves the most powerful
of all: personal letters. Take the time to concentrate on customers
individually by writing them letters personally tailored to their specific situation.
Mention that you'll phone in a week to follow up on the matters you've
broached. And add a handwritten P.S. recapping your main message.
2.
Try
Niche Marketing.
Many
of today's most successful companies have stopped marketing to the broad, some say
meaninglessly broad, customer categories of the 1980s (e.g., "heavy
users" or "women aged 25-49"). Instead they reach out to
narrowly-focused groups, using a
strategy called
"niche marketing.
·
"Compile
a comprehensive list of your prospects and customers. * Narrow the list to a
profitable group you believe you can serve better than the competition.
·
Create
a profile of the traits common to these customers, such as sales volume or location.
·
Use
this profile to tailor products, services and advertising to your niche market
and qualify new prospects.
·
Be
prepared to experiment with several niches before finding the one that fits
your company best.
3. Distribute Free
Samples. Free samples are always
welcome.
Food
and beverages are natural candidates, as are free trials of non-consumables
like furniture or office equipment. In fact, anything customers must try in
order to appreciate lends itself to sampling. Sampling has historically
produced great successes, from the free nibbles that have launched cookie
stores to the mass mailings.
4. Present Free Demonstrations, Consultations &
Seminars.
Free demonstrations
or consultations, which can take place on your premises or that of your
customers, or at homes, community centers, rented conference rooms, trade
fairs, festivals or other events. When staging demonstrations, talk for no more
than 15 minutes and end by closing the sale. When doing consultations,
determine how much information you must impart to prove expertise without
giving away too much; end by closing the sale
Twelve High-Impact
Marketing Programs part 3
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