- Home
- » Learning Center
- » Constant Contact Blog
Your Recession Marketing Lifeline: Repeat & Referral Business
Posted on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 15:01 by John Arnold
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.
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.
Comments
getting referrals via email
Posted on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 00:21 by scottsteps to creating a referral program
Posted on Thu, 11/20/2008 - 19:47 by John ArnoldThe first step is to make sure your customers are even willing to help you with referrals in exchange for a discount offer. I recommend a survey to your customers asking them whether they value discount programs and what levels of participation interest them.
If you find a willing audience, one way to promote participation is to send an email with two matching coupons. Ask your customers to print the email, use one coupon on their next visit, and give the second coupon to a friend. Then offer them an additional incentive when both coupons are returned to the store. (You can use Constant Contact's "insert contact details" feature to place a unique number into each coupon by adding a coupon number field to your database.)
That being said, my experience tells me that you might be better off with a loyalty program instead of a referral program. In your case, your customers are really the kids so that's where you'll want to focus your loyalty efforts. Maybe kids who repeat get to pick a prize out of a special prize box and after a set number of repeat visits they get an extra special gift.
Thanks for the great article
Posted on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 23:32 by Albert KaufmanUsing Customer-Speak
Posted on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 15:59 by John Arnold