A Low-Cost Marketing Strategy Worth Considering | Travel Research Online

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A Low-Cost Marketing Strategy Worth Considering

I am not sure if today’s message is for everyone but if it does interest you, you can file this one under a Blinding Flash of The Obvious. Entrepreneurs and business professionals take heed.

Marketing aficionados from well-respected backgrounds offer that it takes at least five times the investment to capture a new client than it does to hold on to a current one. Five times! Wow. For argument’s sake, let’s consider this to be a truth.

This infers that it makes good sense to hold on to customers. Doing so is 4/5ths cheaper than trolling for new biz. But sooner or later, it will become necessary to continue to add to your “SATISFIED CUSTOMER LIST.”

Question: What does it cost you to capture a new client? Or better yet, what is it worth to you to sign a new account?

Answer: $20? $40? $100? $500? More? Priceless?

Regardless of the answer, remember that it takes more to find a new one than to keep an old one.

Here is a business-building strategy to think about:

Contact a non-competing establishment in your community, neighborhood, or world of influence and offer to give “their” clients a very SPECIAL deal as a way for them to thank their clients for their business.

Using a travel agent example, you can offer their clients a fee-free consultation on their next trip. People may be used to paying a fee, but believe me, they would prefer returning to the old days when your service was considered to be a “free service.”

Here is a sample communication for your potential “partner.” This is not your note, it is the note your non-competing neighbor sends to his/her clients.

“I have arranged for a special gift as my way for thanking you for your business. The next time you begin planning a vacation, simply tell Dave Smith down at Destinations Travel Agency that you are a client of mine, and he will gladly waive any and all service fees connected with your booking. This could save you as much as $100 per traveler and is good for a single trip. Bon Voyage, and thanks again for your business.”

I can hear you saying, “Whoa, big boy! Not so fast. Then we would not make a nickel on the deal.”
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I then would remind you that it takes 5 times the investment to garner a new body into your fold. Your relinquished fee of $35, $70, or $150 can be thought of as an initial marketing expense to land another profitable “big one.” Regardless of your knee-jerk reaction to disengage with this week’s message, this idea makes very good sense. Sure, you lose a couple of bucks up front, but if you are as good as you think you are you will soon have another profitable client for the next twenty years.

The secret is to blow this new client’s brains out with top notch, friendly, down-home service should they take you up on your offer. In other words — you must set the “service-hook.”

Then, when time permits, figure out the potential life-time value of this new client. You will find yourself smiling until your cheeks ache.

Well, it is time again to go out and fail with some flair. And while you’re at it, confuse the dickens out of a few people by showing them that the world still has a couple of good guys left in it like you, for example.


Mike Marchev Mike Marchev has plenty of stories, strategies and tactics to keep you on top of your game.
For information on Mike’s 6-Week Online Selling Course, email Mike at mike@mikemarchev.com with the words “sales course” in the subject box.
Mike’s daily column is made possible by AmaWaterways.

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