How to Save Five Times More Money on Your Marketing Budget

On one of my recent Get it Done Action calls, I was speaking with Jim Palmer, the Newsletter Guru, and he mentioned some statistics that are so important I had to share them with you. According to Jim, it typically costs an entrepreneur at least five times more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain a customer. And for each one percent increase in customer retention that transforms into a seven percent increase in profits.

What does that mean for you?

It means customer retention makes a lot more sense (and cents) than customer acquisition.

As a general rule, entrepreneurs don’t feel comfortable with marketing. You go to all the expense and effort of attracting a new customer and making a sale and that’s something to be grateful for. But if it stops there and you let that customer walk away without some plan in place to keep the relationship going, it’s a real waste. It’s not just one lost customer, it’s lost revenue of all the future sales and referrals that might have been.

A better tactic is for entrepreneurs to focus more of their time, energy, and resources on nurturing and developing that relationship instead of being content with a single transaction. If you provide continual great service to satisfied customers then they’re going to refer others to you as well.

It just makes sense to focus more effort on marketing and selling to the people who already have given you money at least once. Instead, most entrepreneurs continually focus their energ on trying to get more new customers.

Of course, it takes work to build that relationship and obviously it's one thing to get them, it's another thing to keep them, and still another thing to keep them satisfied. How do you do that? By continually providing them with the information and resources that they need. It’s really as simple as that and it's a worthwhile use of your energy.

Here are some ideas for building on that relationship whether for an online or offline business:

• Throw in an unexpected bonus when they make their purchase.
• Follow up with a thank you note or phone call. And at the same time see how they’re doing with your product and get feedback on what other services you can provide.
• Send out a physical newsletter or an autoresponder series of emails and ezines to continue sharing helpful tips.
• Connect with them on social media and refer them to other beneficial resources.

Successful marketing is all about making your customer feel special and well cared for. If you’re struggling for ideas of what content to share with them, check out my free report - Take Your Brain to the Bank - 5 Shortcuts to Creating Your Very Own Revenue Generating Info-Product. (Grab your instant PDF download here.) Not only can you use it for an info-product, you can also use it for getting the wisdom out of your head to create content for your ezines, emails, and newsletters.