Did you know that according to Bain & Company, it costs on average six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one?
It seems that marketing to your existing customers is a vital part of increasing your business’ profitability.
OK. So this is probably not news to you. But, are you actually doing it? It’s rare that we come across a client who actually is.
[Tweet “Using Xero? Use #SmartLists to easily segment your clients based on all kinds of criteria”]One of the major reasons cited for not marketing to existing customers is that you can’t segment your customer base properly, and if you don’t have a system for recording important data on customers, then it makes the segmentation much harder.
However, the good news is that you no longer needed complex and expensive CRM systems to do all this.
If you (like a lot of our clients) use a cloud accountancy package like Xero, then you can use Smart Lists to easily segment your data based on all kinds of important data, like:
- Profitability
- Quote to acceptance ratio
- Time taken to settle bills
Here’s a little video that explains a bit more:
We suggest that you create a Smart List for your most profitable customers, then create a marketing campaign just for this group.
For example:
- You could take each one out to dinner and ask what else you can do for them,
- You could offer an incentive for them to refer business to you (after all, good clients often hang around with other good clients)
- You could throw an event for them, and invite along some prospective clients – I bet they’ll end up mingling and talking to each other
- You can build a profile of each and work out what they have in common (one of our clients discovered that about 85% of their best customers were long distance lorry drivers – imagine how that information changed their marketing strategy!)
So before you throw more of your hard-earned at another advert, or some more dubious SEO, take a moment to think about your existing clients and how they can help you find new leads.
I bet it will save you money too.
