I love my customers. You should too.
In fact, when they come in your door, you should be turning cartwheels and jump up and down, figuratively speaking that is.
When a brand new referred customer walks in the door, it means you won't have to spend one hundred dollars of your hard earned money on useless advertising.
Drive bys and referrals
Ninety percent of my new business is drive-bys, referrals and internet. The other ten percent comes from my yellow page ad.
I rarely spend any money on direct advertising for new customers except for the yellow page ad.
Here's Why:
Most of your business will come from your repeat EXISTING customer and the referrals they send to you.
So How Do You Get Your Existing Customer To Come Back Again And Again?
Your Most Important TIP - Capture the new customer's name, address, city, zip and phone number accurately when they first appear in your store for a custom framing purchase and later send them a direct, response letter.
And you do this over and over again.
When you do a direct mail offer to your existing customer base at least three to six times a year, it can bring in more sales than you can imagine. And the momentum builds from those mailings.
Some customers will give you a company name, because they may want to write off the framing purchase on their tax return as an expenditure for their office. That's OK.
When you start to write up the invoice, the customer will say, "Oh, just put that under my company name". NO.
You will not just put it under the company name. You'll say back to the customer, "Yes, I'll do that, but I need your first and last name FIRST! We need a human being's name for the computer".
Just make sure that you get the customer's first and last name on the first line of your invoice, then the company name and everything else comes after that.
TIP: You want the customer's first and last name because when you send a mailing to that customer at the company address without the customer's name at the top, guess where your letter will go? You got it!...the forbidden circular trash file.
Why do you want to capture every customer's name?
Because every customer's name is like a bar of gold and you're Fort Knox.
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When you capture your customer's name you don't have to go out and pan for gold in the stream. It's already at your doorstep waiting for you to take it. How much easier can it get?
OK, so I get carried away with this capturing the name thing. You will too when you find out how many thousands of extra dollars it puts in your pocket when you market to your existing customer base.
TIP: Don't waste your time or money seeking new customers.
TIP: Work your existing customers with direct mail marketing and you'll have all the money and referrals you want.
Referrals ARE new customers. The only difference between a new customer you spend money advertising to get and a referral is the word FREE. Referrals are free.
Every picture you frame is like a large calling card on someone's wall.
"Inch by inch..."
When someone sees your frame on a friend's wall and asks who did it, your name will pop up and that will stick in that person's mind when they want to frame their picture. This is how you build your goodwill. One person at a time.
How to set up your customer base:
• The best way to capture your customer's name is on your computer.
Unless you have a framer's software package installed on your shop computer, you'll have to do double entry. This means you'll take the customer's name from the hand written invoice and transfer it into your computer.
There are mailing list programs you can use to do this.
If you're using a picture framers software for your business this will include a mailing list in it.
You can use Quick Books Pro for your accounting and use the built in customer data base in that program to do your mailings.
And there are other software accounting packages that allow you to build your customer data base.
• Another way is by hand, either by saving an office copy of your invoice or transferring the customers name to a 3 x 5 card. This is cave man method.
Especially when you consider you already have a computer or you wouldn't be reading this now. Use your resources that you have at hand. You don't have to go out and buy a dedicated computer for your customer list.
Always be sure to ask your customer for their zip code. When you do a mailing, the post office will demand it be placed on every letter, whether by hand or machine or even bar coded. (Most mailing programs allow bar coding).
You may have only 20 customers names that you have captured. You may have 200. Soon you will have 2000 and more.
I used to do all my mailing by hand in the shop. I would gather a couple of the staff around and we would stuff, lick and stamp for a couple hours. Or you could hire a high school kid to do all this.
Now, all my mailings are done through a mailing house. The mailing house even picks up the finished mail out project from the printer and within two or three days, it's done and at the post office ready for distribution.
Everything is done through a couple of phone calls. All you do is prepare a check for the mailing house for the postage and of course their fee for the service.
Every mailing house charges a little differently. Shop around.
Here's how to make sure all your letters get delivered by the Post Office department:
How To Make Sure Your Mail Is Delivered
TIP: Before doing a mailing, insert your name in the mailing list and even include an employees name back to your business address or your home address. Spell your name several different ways, i.e., with initials, full name, etc. This is 'spot checking' and will let you know that all your mailing went out successfully from the post office and didn't get thrown in the trash.
I still average between thirty to fifty NEW customers a month. Yours may be more or less depending on the factors of your location, how long you've been in business, whether you live in a large city or small town and if you have an active referral program in place. More on this referral program later.
If you're a new business, you should receive many new customers every month simply because you're new and are building your customer base as a start up business.
Don't whine and cry...
...But Steve, I don't know how to do a mailing. I'm not good at writing letters. I don't feel I need to do a mail out to my customers. They love me enough and give me plenty of business and referrals already.
Oh Really!
I don't want to hear about it. If I told you how much extra money I make every time I do a mail out, you would change your mind.
I hear every excuse in the book why somebody CAN'T DO something. Think positive and tell me why you CAN DO something.
And don't tell me your customers don't like it when you send them a mailing. Bull doo doo. Your customer will tell you when they're sick and tired of receiving your mailings. Until that time, keep those letters and postcards rolling, sports fans!
You are always on their mind!
And it's not even the fact that you can make extra money doing the mail out.
What's really important here is not whether the customer throws your letter in the circular file, but that you have put your name on their mind for a few seconds.
Who is the customer going to visit when they want to frame something. YOU! Why? Because you're one in a million who does regular mailings to your customers.
When Is The Best Time To Do A Mailing To My Customers?
The best time is anytime. Aim for a minimum three to four mailings a year.
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Don't say it's never a good time to do a mail out to your customers. KEEP your name fresh on the minds of your customers!
You never know when someone is ready to frame a picture and they just need a little push (your incentive letter) to make them come in to your shop. My customers even tell me this in person.
Even if the customer has no intention of framing right now, they will remember that you sent them an offer and they WILL think of you the next time they are ready to frame.
If your incentive inside the letter is strong enough and you create an urgency to the letter by including an expiration date in your offer, this will motivate the customer to act within that limited time period. (Usually thirty to fifty days).
After your mail out hits the streets, your biggest rush of return business will happen within the first two weekends, then it trickles in for awhile and then you get the last minute rush again near the expiration date. TLMP. Those Last Minute People.
TIP: I always honor my mail out offer after the expiration date. It shows the customer you can bend your own rules for THEM. They appreciate this and will remember the favor when they want to frame something again in the future.
Customers and Clients want to be recognized and acknowledged. Always offer your customer a little "private and personal" service when you see them.
We all want to feel as though we are very special. Treat your customers with this same empathic feeling and your cash drawer will flow with money.
TIP: Never put your name or letterhead at the top of your mail out letter. A strong headline should be the ONLY thing at the top of your letter. Your name should be at the bottom of your letterhead stationary.
TIP: Your mail out letter must contain four basic elements: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. I use six elements in my letters: Attention, Interest, Desire, Conclusion, Call To Action and Satisfaction.
TIP: Ninety percent of your brain power should be used in composing your Headline and sub headlines. You want each Headline, Sub headline, Sentence and Paragraph to grab the readers attention and lead them to the NEXT Headline, Sub headline, Sentence and Paragraph.
Don't worry about what to say in your mail out letter for now. This is all covered in another letter in detail. For now, here's a lifelong homework assignment:
Look at other HEADLINES that capture your attention and think about the headline you will use in your letter.
Save the ones that grab your attention and use them in your own Headlines.
To Your Super Success.