Okay, I told you there is a personal way you can communicate with your customers easily, whether you have 10 or 10,000, and make a lot of money doing so.
Visiting their houses’ would take ages, and they’d probably be unhappy to see you show up on their doorstep without warning every time you want to tell them something.
Getting telemarketers to call them all can be costly. And it’s not that personal. A telemarketer can’t replace you, the owner or manager of the business.
And no, you likely can’t make all those calls yourself. At least, not on a regular basis.
While print and online advertisements by a skilled copywriter can work effectively for generating leads and making sales…they aren’t always personal enough for the kind of communication we’re talking about and their cost can add up.
Radio is the same. There’s really nothing personal about it.
You could send letters in the mail. Direct mail can be very effective when done right. If you want to offer a product or service or generate leads, than getting a copywriter to write your letter can be a smart move. But paying a copywriter and the cost of postage each time you want to communicate with your customers could put a strain on your business, unless you really do it properly.
So what’s the solution? One of the best ways is to use an autoresponder. An autoresponder is just like email, but with much more power. This technology will allow you to send an email in plain text (just text) or in HTML (with pictures, colors, etc) to all of your customers. What makes this different from regular email is that you can personalize each email, but you only have to click the Send button once. Autoresponders use Merge tags (I’ll explain below what they are) to personalize information. So you could write:
“Dear <firstname>,
Spring is just around the corner and I thought you’d appreciate knowing we’ve just received an exclusive shipment of French coats. You know <firstname>, these are the latest coats designed by Fred Pierre and won the Coatstyle award and we….blah, blah, blah”
When you click the send button the email will fill in <firstname> with your customers’ actual first name from your database. It’s not limited to first name or last name either. You can create several Merge tags to accommodate many different kinds of data about each of your customers. You can use product names, locations, and more.
You get the idea? This technology saves you hours and makes each communication personal and relevant.
There are several companies that offer Autoresponder services that I recommend, including Aweber, iContact and Mailchimp.
This also means that you can ’sign’ each email from you, the president or owner. Customers are happy to receive a new announcement or special deal from the owner of a business they like. It’s a lot more meaningful than a group email that is clearly going out to hundreds or thousands of other people.
Autoresponders also allow you to track and view reports of everything you send. So you’ll know how many people read your email, how many people clicked a certain link, how many bought and so on. This is valuable data. Analyzing it and then adjusting your offers and business will put a whole lot more money in your bank.
There is another solution you should consider. When I wrote the first version of this book I didn’t include it, but I think it’s gained so much acceptance that you need to know more about it. I’m talking about a company blog. Most people know about blogs, and more and more companies are creating their own, but small businesses could do much better in this area.
The blog can be where you, the owner, or your manager, or other staff communicate directly with your customers. You can provide valuable information, your thoughts on recent news, or a special promotion. The great think about blogs is that your customers can reply directly to you on the blog and you can then reply right back to them. This gives a very personal feel to communication with your customers.
There are some challenges however. The first is getting your customers to actually see your blog. It’s not as in your face as a personalized email which lands in their inbox, though you can send them a note each time you have a new blog post. The other challenge is time. Updating your blog and replying to all the comments can be time-consuming. But if you’re getting lots of comments that’s a good thing.
If you can put the time into blogging and the dedication it requires, you’ll have one of the best marketing weapons around and a very effective communication platform.
A personal communication goes a long way to promoting sales and gathering valuable information for your business. Remember, building that relationship with your customers is critical.
Okay, let’s get back to the customer…