John Arnold Bio

There are only two ways to know what your prospects want - you can guess or you can ask. When people join your email list for the first time, it’s a good idea to find out exactly what they want so that you can send promotions that emphasize their preferences.

Here’s a 3-step way to use the new free auto-responder feature and the survey feature in Constant Contact to find out what your new prospects want before you send them your first promotion.

Capturing sales or donations during the end of this year is going to be more challenging than you’ve been used to in the previous few years. There’s no such thing as fool-proof recession marketing, but there are reliable ways to sustain your business and help ensure a strong recovery. Here are a few tips to get you thinking about ways to sustain and grow.

If you sell products
Focus your promotions on products with up-sell and cross-sell potential. That way you can gain sales early next year with add-on promotions. Make sure you track clicks and purchases so you know which customers own which products.

If you sell services
Focus your promotions on a-la-carte services instead of big service packages or long contracts. When money is tight, people don’t like to pay for anything they think they don’t need. Even one unwanted option in a package might cause hesitation. If you end up selling more a-la-carte services than usual it might impact your margins, but you’re more likely to keep your cash flow up and gain new customers who will purchase higher margin offerings sooner or later.

If you’re a non-profit (on purpose)
Focus your promotions on the specific rewards related to a donation. For example, when asking for a $50 donation, offer a choice of a tax-deduction, a free gift, a public acknowledgement, or an anonymous thank you. Don’t take the focus off your cause too much. Just remind your audience that you want them to feel even more special about making a donation while money is tight.

If this recession is prompting you to look for a lifeline, don’t lean too heavily on marketing tactics that require you to turn complete strangers into customers.

Consumers don’t engage in as much impulse buying or social shopping during a recession, and they are more likely to hesitate before a purchase decision because they tend to more cautiously examine the risks and rewards. That’s not good news if you’re trying to acquire new customers because people view the purchase of products and services from unfamiliar businesses as a larger risk than purchasing products from businesses they trust.

When you’re sending periodic emails to your own in-house list of customers, make sure your messages help to overcome purchase hesitation by demonstrating that you have a relationship of trust, and explaining why the benefits of an immediate purchase outweigh the benefits of holding on to the money. It’s a good idea to ask for a referral somewhere in your offers while you’re at it. Professional-looking emails also set you apart from your competition and make you look healthy and prosperous to your customers. Don’t let up just because your customers seem distracted.

If you don’t have an in-house email list yet - or if you’re just a little short on familiar faces - focus a healthy portion of your marketing strategy on building your email list. That way, you’ll gain a low-cost way to educate your audience so your business is familiar enough to overcome purchase hesitation no matter what’s going on in the economy.

Remember the McDonald’s signs that said “Billions and Billions Served?” I wonder how many French fries and Happy Meals that amounts to. Constant Contact can make the same claim -- without the deep fryers or toy surprises -- because more than a billion people receive an email on behalf of a Constant Contact customer every month!

If you visit the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website and click on the Most Requested Items link, the #1 question is, “How do I get a small business loan?” In fact, 5 of the top 11 most requested items have to do with finding monetary assistance.

There’s nothing wrong with a little capital infusion when it comes to running a small business, but before you agree to an easy payment plan make sure you have a good answer to the next logical question: “How do I find enough customers who will buy from me so I can pay back my small business loan fast and live the life I want to live?”