What about your: Inventory? Equipment? Cash? Real Estate?

Special process? A Patent or Trademark? Employees?

The above are the answers most given by owners and company

executives. But if you answered any of the above you are…

Wrong!

The number one asset in any business is:

YOUR CUSTOMERS!

You can survive the loss of any business asset except your

customers. Every asset you have but one can be replaced. You would

be inconvenienced and possibly lose a lot of money. But, with your

customer list intact, overnight you could start over again.

It’s truly amazing how few entrepreneurs fully appreciate the value

of their customer list. A relatively small percentage consistently act

toward building their database. And nurturing it.

It will cost you 5 to 10 times as much money to attract a new

customer than to sell to an existing one. Once fully understood, you

can act towards multiplying your success many fold.

Here is the fastest ticket I know toward building a business that will

provide you great wealth…

Develop a strategy that will build a database of your best prospects.

And, of course, your customers. And contact them regularly.

Assuming those who have done business with you are pleased with

their original purchase, people who have bought something from you

are your best prospects for future purchases.

Your main business goal should be to create a list of happy

customers. Many of them will become raving fans who will

recommend you to others. You then can sell them a continuous flow

of related products and experience continuous growth and prosperity.

There are just three ways to build any business

• Increasing the number of customers or clients
• Increasing the value of the average transaction
• Increasing  the frequency of re-purchases

Your goal ─ your mission, should you decide to accept it ─ is to design systems and programs that surround these three categories of growth strategies.  Here are just a few ways to improve each of these key growth areas:

How To Attract More Customers

• Select a niche market that you can easily reach and

dominate

• Develop an education-based marketing program that

motivates prospects to contact you to learn more about

how you can help them

• Establish a robust referral program that can open new

channels of growth

• Give your customers the opportunity to “go on record”

by giving you testimonials about your great product

and/or service

How To Increase The Value of An Average Transaction

• Up-sell your customers to add on to their purchase
• Suggest accessories, add-on items, and other services that           complement your customer’s purchase
• Create value-added packages that would cost more if

purchased separately

How To Increase the Frequency of Re-purchases

• Maintain ongoing communications to present compelling

offers that can’t be turned down

• Follow up with customers to see how they’re enjoying

the benefits of their purchase and to suggest products or

services that would increase their satisfaction

• Track your customers’ usage and buying patterns to

suggest purchases right before they actually need them

(This will effectively keep your competition out of the

picture entirely)

• Deliver uncommon customer service by going the extra

mile

• Perform stealth surveys with your customers from time-

to-time to gauge their level of satisfaction

Fact for Thought

Most business owners focus too much of their time and money on getting new customers when what they should do is spend more time on maximizing the transaction value and laying the groundwork for a repeat purchase.  It’s easier and less expensive to sell to an existing customer than a first-time buyer. You don’t have to build trust with an existing customer, so there are fewer obstacles that need to be overcome before the deal is sealed.

The marketing strategy is relatively simple and inexpensive. Each month a postcard, letter, e-mail, phone call or personal visit is made with each person on the list. This strategy produces a steady and profitable stream of new business.

In each example, the result of regular contacts, each one containing

an interesting and informative sales message, generates a constant

flow of new business.

Most entrepreneurs do not contact customers often enough.

In hindsight I left a lot of money on the table. But the biggest losers

were my customers who didn’t receive enough important information

which could have helped them more than I was able to do with a few

contacts.

I used to be concerned about contacting my database too often. But

this is a fallacy. Don’t worry about offending customers with too

many contacts. Indeed, properly done your customers will love you

for keeping them informed with product and service information,

special offers, as well as new developments in your field.

Without a doubt, you will own a goldmine by building your own

database that is carefully developed and nurtured.

There is a way.  The road to riches is being paved with automated e-communications.

Electronic Marketing Options

Automation is important to all businesses. The less time we have to spend doing small tasks, the more time we have to make more money or we could spend that time doing something besides working.

Putting an online business on auto-pilot isn’t difficult at all and it is all done with the use of automated e-communications such as email (electronic newsletters, autoresponders, etc.).  The latest technique that is the “darling”of social media marketing is e-communication using the Internet as a base:  the blog.

Let’s explore each of them in detail, starting with the new (blogs) before we get to the tried-and-true (emails).

TOOL:  8 Tips For Capturing Contact Information

Finding the names and addresses of likely prospects is critical to success, and an area in which many business owners stumble and fall.  That’s a shame because there are eight simple ways to build mailing lists (both snail mail and electronic): Let’s say you’re building a list of furniture prospects:

1. Get an electronic copy of the White Pages. These are sold in stores like CompUSA.
2. Go to the Oxbridge Directory of Publications. This reference manual contains demographics information on over 20,000 magazines and newsletters. You’ll be able to find publications that reach specific markets, which have the characteristics you want.
3. Go to your local library and browse through the Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS) list directory. In it, you’ll find just about every mailing list known to man. It is an invaluable tool for your niche marketing efforts. You will find lists of consumers who have purchased recently through direct mail.
4. Contact organizations and associations. If the associations won’t rent you a list, then ask if you can get a list of magazines, journals and publications that cater to the desired community.
5. Magazines are very good sources for renting lists.
6. You can also work through local mailing list brokers, purveyors of lists of all kinds. A list broker can help you find the type of list for which you are searching. However, be aware list brokers usually make their money from large mailing lists and may be less helpful than you want, but they also might steer you in the right direction. They eat, sleep, and drink mailing lists.
7. Placing advertisements in the local newspaper that target the interests of your niche marketing. For example, if you were targeting outdoor enthusiast, you might write up a news article about recent studies that have found that outdoor living can be therapeutic.  At the end of the article, offer a free report about the Vitamin D benefits.
8. Another place that you can locate your niche is by identifying all of the things that your target niche or niches have in common, such as associations or reading material, hobbies, affiliations. And so on. Start to market in those areas with marketing material that has focused headlines and copy that will attract your niche’s attention.

What Is The Lifetime Value of Your Customer?

Average marketers define the ‘value’ of a customer by the amount of money he/she spends on a purchase.  But a smart marketer takes a long-range view to consider the “lifetime value” of a customer.

All of your customers also have a value that goes beyond their immediate purchases. They know other people and those contacts are worth more business. They will tell others about your products and services, word-of-mouth advertising. They will give you referrals. They may have other business or personal contacts that you can do joint ventures with.

The lifetime value of a customer is how much a customer will be worth to you as long as you’re in business.  This knowledge helps you determine how much to ‘invest’ in his/her care and feeding so that you’ll achieve a positive return on your investment.

Fact for thought

If you don’t know how much a customer is worth, how do you know how much you should spend to get one?

To determine the lifetime value of a customer, you need to know and track…

How much a customer spends

• How often per year he/she makes a purchase
• How many years he/she will remain a customer

Knowing the lifetime value of a customer will also tell you how much money you can spend on your sales and marketing to get the right return on investment (ROI) for your marketing dollar such as:

• How much should you pay for advertising?
• How much can you afford to pay a salesperson?
• How much is an appropriate referral fee?
• How much should you pay in a joint venture situation?

The #1 key to marketing in a lousy economy is building a relationship and selling RESULTS! This is what restores your faith in good ol’ cause and effect.

The most insidious disease that propagates in a down economy is that people actually lose faith in their ability to create change. Essentially, maintaining the faith in their abilities to generate a response when they put out a stimulus. Strongly suggest, turning a death ear to those negative complainers who are down on their luck.

Here are the Facts in a Nutshell…We all need a Living Breathing List “database” that we nurture regularly. Yes, always executing ideas to grow our list with the right niche customers in our market.

The savvy marketer’s understand it’s all about follow-up and trust building. It works like this:

Every 2 emails you add to your follow-up sequence catapult you ahead of 1/3 of your competitors.

If you have a 10 step sequence you’re in the top 13%.

If you have a 20 step sequence you’re in the top 2%.

This is not astro-physics; it’s not rocket-science; it’s not really even ‘hard’ work. (Not unless writing emails is HARD.)

Now it’s time to address and emphasize the 80/20 rule:

Treating Everyone alike is Always a Mistake!

That is the real key. Treating them the same, like a massive block of compressed humanity, is not only rude and offensive, but it’s disastrously unprofitable.

Remember—”Content” is king! This is if you want them to keep reading…And…They will only read what’s important to them. Sorry to say, that’s all they care about…not YOU or YOUR products! They are only interested in what your products will do for them…

Are you getting the points now?

We all Know that nobody escapes the 80/20 rule—but we all get to choose which side of the 80/20 tracks to live on.

As seen on CBS “60 Minutes”; Top-Secret– America’s New Air force “Drones”. Every so often in the history of war, a new weapon comes along that fundamentally rewrites the rules of battle. Taking out the dangerous Al-Qaeda with a push of a button from the Nevada Mojave desert. Yea!

This is the type of technology that’s going take the furniture business to new levels. Imagine just a few clicks to search out the customers and prospects to zero in on demand. Creating top of mind awareness—Stimulating the excitement in the benefits throughout the sales cycle…

…till Wallah!

Consequently, the automated follow-up sequence continues, ensuring satisfaction along with referrals. Always… maximizing the lifetime value of each consumer.  Energizing our prosperous future.

Leave us a comment with your thoughts and customer stories.

• Customers who are typing search terms into Google or other search engines are looking for products or help. They are very well qualified prospects!
• You get much more control over the process than with other web marketing techniques. This means you can quickly refine and improve your results.
• What you learn from making PPC work can be applied to other type of marketing like organic search optimization (SEO).

Here’s how PPC can get the right customers to your store:

• A prospect enters a search term in Google. Clearly they are looking for something– A product, a service, some help, information, etc.
• Their search triggers one of your Keywords. It’s very important to have a good list of the right keywords to get the right customers.
• Google shows one of your ads. The ads display on the right-hand side of the Google screen (And, on the top). A typical ad looks like:

More Retail Traffic
Get the Right Customers
PPC Marketing for Store Traffic
RetailRescueProject.org

• A good ad is specific to the prospects that you want to attract and it offers them a compelling benefit.
• The prospect clicks the ad and goes to your Landing Page. You only get charged for the people who actually click. Usually, the purpose of the Landing Page is to convince the prospect to provide their name and email address in return for something valuable like a coupon or free report. For lower-cost impulse buys, you can use the landing page to actually close and complete the sale!
• But, you’re not finished! After you have the prospects email information, you must have a consistent follow-up process. Your purpose is to use email to build a relationship with the prospect and have them want to come to your store. Typically, you’ll email them coupons, event invitations, or other valuable information.

That’s how pay-per-click marketing works. But, to get good business results, you have to get a lot of pieces lined up correctly!

• You want your Adwords account and Google Analytics setup correctly, so you can measure your results and find opportunities to make improvements. Measuring and interpreting your results is essential. You have to use the data to make good decisions.
• It’s not a one-time “set it up and forget it” system. You need to continuously monitor, tweak, and find improvements. This doesn’t have to take large amounts of time, but it’s essential that you do the work.
• You want to continuously evaluate, expand, and refine your list of keywords. Get rid of the ones that aren’t working, but keep looking for new ones you had missed.
• Make sure you limit Google to only showing your ad to prospects who are in the geographic areas you serve.  This and other setting have to be right or you will end up buying clicks for prospects who are thousands of miles away from your nearest store.
• You want to continuously test and improve your ads. Google rewards ads that are more relevant and have a higher Click Thru Rate (CTR). They’ll actually charge you less per click when you have good ads!
• You also want to make sure your landing pages are working well. Are they specific enough? Do they show the customer you can help? What percentage of people who come the the page are opting-in (providing their email address)?
• Finally, you need to make sure your follow-up is working. Are people unsubscribing? Are your communications valuable or fun?

As you can see, there are a lot of things you have to line up. But, it’s worth it. The prospects who come through search engines are very qualified. They are even telling you exactly what they want. Help them solve their problems and give them what they want. You’ll gain loyal customers you were missing before.

Looking back, it is a whole lot more comforting now, than when I think back about all the anguish from bad economic news. Remember vividly, when the big boom fell on the world last October. Continuing to totally devastate nearly all of our confidence in our lives as we knew them.

The tune, “Hunkering-Down” — was the melody many of us were humming. The News each day continually fed the paranoia that the sky was falling. All of us knew better, that might be a tad presumptuous.

One thing for sure, I was saying to myself– It was not going to be the casual furniture business that I have come to know, since selling my first set in 1986.  Ironically, it was a collection called,  Jai Lai,  in Nantucket Blue and the next one was Hollywood, in the Papaya finish. That should really date me…

How the world is always changing.

One of my favorite lines I learned this year was;

Only occupied…with the Now and the Next!

That is a quote from the famous producer; Norman Lair.  Thinking forward>>>always!

You see; we can not continue doing the same things and expecting different results? Stop smoking our own Dope!

Now, I will share with you what I been occupied with this past year. It has been more of a passion than an occupation.  There I was, always searching for the right solutions that ensure the right results for the casual furniture retailers.

It did not take long to see that the right solutions were not in place in the furniture retail industry.

Where they are creating phenomenal results, is with the Internet Marketing Mastermind entrepreneurs, who are utilizing the proven 21st century marketing techniques.

It is no secret that things have changed.

The 20th century media sources, like Yellow Pages and Local Newspaper, do not create the results they once achieved. If any at all?  Just imagine this fact; over 120,000,000 (That is 120 MILLIONS) Google furniture related searches were made this past July alone.

Wow! All those potential buyers, searching for information in the world of millions of Website, Blogs & Articles.

This is just a little small fact I have learned. Many more to share with you next week in Chicago. There you will hear about the future Casual Living Magazine article series and the introduction of the Retail Rescue Project.

Double Your Sales in 2009—Guaranteed!

Look for me on the 17th floor at Cast Classics and RockWood Furniture.

See Ya in Chicago!

The Retail Rescue Project was founded to save retailers from the worst economy in generations. We’re here to get you through this mess and get you ready for the recovery which will eventually come.

How are you making it through? Leave us a comment and let us know what’s working for you.

And, we’ll be giving you some ideas, so stay tuned.