David Beckham, MarketProMBA Consultant

Let’s face it; your current customers are your business life’s blood. They are generally your primary source of revenue you should be spending a good percentage of your marketing budget focusing on them. A good rule of thumb is that 60% of your marketing budget should be spent on your current customers or marketing directly to them. Remember, it costs far more to gain a new customer more often that it does to keep a current one.

Take the time to get to know your current customer’s better. Phone calls, visits or emails that just check on them and get to know them better will do wonders for your relationship. Do you have a newsletter for your company?  Let your customer’s know what is going on with you as well. Of course, you want to get permission from your customer’s to be put on your email list, but most of them will do this without issue.

Newsletters can also be used to let customers know about upcoming promotions and specials within your company. Online eNewsletter programs like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp or iContact are excellent marketing tools because they give you important measurements like open rates and click-through patterns. During tough times, marketing efforts have to be scrutinized to ensure they are returning results. The analytics from eNewsletter programs helps you justify your marketing expense and gives you data to help you change and adapt your message to ensure maximum impact and sales. If you aren’t using one, you need to seriously consider doing so.

Recognize special events with your customers. Send them a gift basket on their business anniversary date and just say “thanks for being a customer!” Is there a significant date in your customer’s life or an event that is important to them? If you are getting to know your customers you will learn this information, then you can simply send a card or a small gift to congratulate or let them know you are thinking about them.

Holidays are always a great time to recognize your clients. Be careful though about what you send. Don’t just get something off a shelf and think it will make an impact. Remember, other businesses might have them as clients too and how embarrassing would it be to give them the same gift basket from a “big box store” that some other business gave them. Your gift needs to be unique, original and stand out from others to get you noticed. This will help keep your business top of mind with your customers. Also, brand your gift with your colors and logo whenever possible. This also keeps your business top of mind and extends your brand. Remember, your gift could be seen by other potential clients that may be in your client’s office so make sure you are always branding anything you send.  (For more information on gifts that stand out, see THE original basket boutique)

Hold a special event or meeting for your current customers.  An open house for your customers will give you a chance to know your customers better and offer an opportunity for them to introduce you to more potential clients.  Get with your local chamber of commerce and offer to hold their monthly business afterhours meeting.  If you are not a member of your local chamber or commerce, then you should certainly rethink that decision.  Local chambers are normally very good opportunities for networking and typically have low annual costs. Larger metropolitan areas might have several chambers. Don’t feel like you need to join all of them.  Find out which ones are the most active by asking around and talking directly to the chambers. Then you can make a decision that will give you maximum return for your investment.

Referral business is critical to your clients businesses and yours.  Initiate a referral program for your clients.  When you refer a client, make sure your client knows you sent them a customer. If one of our customers sends you a new client, reward them with some kind of a thank you. This will help reinforce their actions and let them know how much you appreciate the new business.

These were just a few ideas on customer loyalty. There are many more that you might come up with. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How do they think? If you were your own customer, how would you want to be treated? Sounds easy enough but you would be surprised at how many small business owners lose track of this. As small business owners, we tend to get wrapped up in the management of our day-to-day activities that we sometimes overlook the simple things that help build our business and keep our customers engaged with us.

In our next segment, we will talk more about marketing ideas that are not going to break your budget and help you generate more sales and build brand awareness.