By MARK RIFFEY for the Flathead Beacon Newspaper
As we head into retail’s peak shopping season, the big question is “Will my clientele buy…again?”
Have you had any contact with them since last November or December? The people spending money are in your client list, right?
Client list?
If they aren’t on your client list (or you don’t have one), how would you tell them important news when they aren’t on your site or in your store?
Without an accurate list, the only way to attempt to reach them is by spending a ton of money on advertising that isn’t guaranteed to reach your existing clients.
While you may want to advertise anyway, the message you craft (note the use of the word “craft”) for your clientele about this news should be different than the message received by the general public (or your market, if you’re business-to-business)
Think about it. How would you tell them these things?
- We’re moving.
- We moved.
- We expanded our facilities.
- We added a new location.
- We closed an old location.
- We’ve expanded into these great product lines that are perfect for you.
- We got rid of a product line that wasn’t up to our standards.
- We’ve hired someone who is an amazing subject matter expert on (whatever is important to your clientele).
- We bought a competitor, now we have even more great locations and consistent product and services. For those who are clients of the competitor, here’s how we’re different, better, etc.
Your client list is an asset as much as a building or your checking account. If you aren’t building it, it’s difficult to keep a connection with your clientele. What will keep them from randomly going to someone else?
The medium you use to reach them doesn’t matter. Reaching them is what matters.
What do I say to them?
What’s changed at your store in the last year? What’s new in the last year?
If “Not much” is your first instinct in response, consider these questions:
- What service, product, customer care, processes, payment methods, shipping, return (or other) policies have changed?
- What are people buying this year that they weren’t buying last year? Why? Is the reason important to your clientele?
- What isn’t selling this year that was last year? Why? Is the reason important to your clientele?
- What have you learned in the last year that can benefit them?
- Do you have new staff members that can help them?
- What new equipment do you have that allows you to serve them faster or better?
Would those changes be jarring to someone who hasn’t been in your store in 10-12 months? Warn them in advance than surprise them when they walk in the door or move to your checkout page.
But Mark, I don’t have a store
That’s OK. The question is at least as important for you if all of your sales are done by phone, online or in a mobile storefront (think “food cart”).
If you sell on Etsy, on your own site, via Shopify or Facebook or at local events like the farmer’s market and ballgames – how will they remember you when it’s time to buy if they haven’t heard from you in months (or longer)?
What do I say?
I covered that above, but it’s important enough to discuss in general terms because you will eventually feel like you’ve run out of things to say.
At that point, the temptation will be to do one of these things:
- Send something, any old thing, just to stay in touch.
- Send ads when you can’t thing of anything else to say.
- Send nothing.
All three are a bad idea, but the first two are the worst.
The first one often results in a shrinking client list because they aren’t receiving anything meaningful from you.
The second one requires care. If you are sending useful, actionable information often enough, then an occasional ad email or footer on your regular emails is OK. What you don’t want to do is forget why you built the list in the first place and start advertising 100% of the time.
The third one is not ideal, but it beats the other two.
The key is to communicate with meaningful, useful info. You may think you have nothing left to say, but the reality is that you’ve forgotten more about your business than they’ll ever know.
Given that… Be helpful when you contact them. It’ll pay off.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at mriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.
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Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him atmriffey@flatheadbeacon.com. Check out the Flathead Beacon archive of all of Mark’s blogs.