Not having an Automatic Followup System may be costing you more than you think !

So you have a successful web site. You have run a search marketing campaign which brought people in to see what you were offering.

When people come, you have a freebie that they can download after providing their email address. Congratulations, you are the proud owner of an email list.

Or, may be you have a list of past customers that's been lying around your office.

Is a customer list an asset or a liability?

I mean, besides moving it to one corner in the fall and to the other in spring. Some businesses regard past customers as just more people to be provided support. Most completely overlook the awesome power of business growth available in a customer/prospect list.

If you have not been utilising it to grow your business at least a 1000%, here is your wake up call.

You should use that list to grow your business and you should start now.

So how do you use your list?

Oh ok, here goes!

You use your list to create a follow up system that will grow your business at least 10 times faster.

There are 3 kinds of people you email/direct mail to: (1)your target market, (2)your prospects and (3)your customers.

Each one merits a different kind of approach and a different kind of letter copy. Lets talk about each one.

a] Your target market:

This is; more or less the entire world out there serviceable by you. Any person who may be able to buy your product or pass on the information to someone who may be is part of your market. Some people term this person "suspect".

Basically your followup to this segment is in the form of newspaper ads or list mailing. They say it takes about 7 to 9 times of repeat viewing before the "prospective prospect" sits up and takes notice of you. Moreover, even if this peson may not become your customer, he may definitely propose your name to his circle if you make a positive impression on him.

Most of the great marketers I know do just that.

And that, my friend, is the reason I exhort you to start and continue an email newsletter.

b] A prospect:

A prospect is somebody who has raised his hand and expressed interest in your products and services by downloading an e-book or calling a 1-800 number for free information. You did save his email id to a list at that time, didn't you ? Great !

Now you can start marketing to him on a continous basis. You need to educate him. An educated prospect buys, he need not be sold. Imagine how much easier your will be if all your prospects came into your shop just eager to spend their money. You are leading him one step at a time to becoming a customer.

c] A customer:

This is the person who has purchased from you in the past. And this is the person who offers the most opportunities for you in terms of making repeat sales and referring other people to your services. Ok, sending him more catalogs even before he opens up his purchase is not followup.

I am not saying that you should not send him a bounce back mailing. You definitely should. As part of your marketing mix, you should always try to upsell your customer.

When should I start following up with my prospect/customer?

At the same time, you should start your followup as soon as your product reaches the customer.

• Within a week of his purchase, you should send him a welcome/congratulations letter. This letter should once again re-inforce his decision to purchase the product. Go over the benefits one more time. Remind him that you are available at all hours of the day for him to call if required.
• Add a few testimonials to that letter. This helps him believe, and gets him over the buyer's remorse.
• Add a worksheet of some sort that he can use along with the product. If you sell software, send him an add-on. If he bought a book from you, send him a page-marker with your name on it. If you own a restaurant, send him the recipe of the dish he raved about on his last visit.
• This will sway two important factors in your favor. i) he will realize that you will take care of him even after the sale. ii) he will feel obligated to you and be in a suitable mood to provide a referral.
• Which is when he finds your referral form. Explain to him that your business is set up such that most of your time is spent on servicing existing customers rather than finding new business. "It was a pleasure serving you; please tell us who among your friends may be in the market for our products".
• Remind him that you will be emailing him on a regular basis to keep in touch as well as to give him tips and tricks about how to derive maximum benefit from his purchase.
• If you are sending this email to a prospect instead of a customer, inform him of how your product can alleviate his problems/ make his job so much easier.
• Always provide a link to a landing page so that he can click on it and buy more of your products/services.

How often should I followup ?

Depending on your business, you may want to follow up multiple times in a year. There is hardly any business that cannot use a good follow up system.

At the very least, you should keep in touch with your customers once a month. The more frequent your communications, the better.

I receive certain communications on a daily basis.

What do I write to them in these emails?

Ah, good you asked.

You send one or two emails to the customer thanking him for his purchase. This should go out as soon as the order has been placed. (on the day of the sale, or at least the very next business day.)

Then you send one when you have shipped out the product. Include the shipping id here.

All other messages should be send at regular intervals with the permission of the customer. (I will discuss opt-ins on a later date. )

Here are a few points you need to remember about your followup emails:

• They should be from you the business owner instead of a company.
• It should preferably be in a friendly tone of voice. ( It may be different for a B2B email).
• Be entertaining. Be genuinely interested in the benefit to the customer.
• It should definitely be full of information that the customer can use.
• You know how distasteful it is to receive promotional emails daily from the same company with nothing but catalogs in them.
• Make it interesting. Share something from your life / or something you experienced.
• Tie it back to how your product helps the customer better in such a situation.
• You may also send emails during certain holidays such as Valentine's Day promotions.
• You can send out announcements of new product launches.
• News stories that the customer is interested in and how your product can alleviate some pain caused by it.
• It should be in the form of a conversation. You may recollect what you were talking in the previous issue. You may end with what you are going to say in the next issue.
• There should be links leading back to your landing pages.
• You may also add a list of products or news of SALE/promotion that is about to expire.

All this may seem too much.

How can I take care of follow-up and do other things at the same time?

The answer is : Just like you do anything else, that needs to be repeated a number of times. You automate it.

Right at the beginning of my marketing strategic sessions, I advise my clients to start creating their followup letters. For each kind of customer you may have anywhere from one to 10 different letters depending on the stage of the selling process the prospect is in.

All email campaign softwares and services offer followup letters. The more sophisticated ones will also help you segment your lists so that you can target your lists more effectively.

If direct postal mail is more your style, your fulfillment house may do it for you. If you dont know a fulfillment house in the area, email me at Deep@NobleRiver.com.

In summary, a long and active customer list is one of the greatest asset of a business. But a nifty followup system well implemented is the greatest marketing tool available to any business owner.

Merely marketing to your list may help you avoid tons of advertising and other expenses dedicated to finding new customers and bringing them into your stores.