22 June 2010
Why does virtually every business spend thousands of pounds on netting brand new customers? It's a common mistake that's probably needlessly eating in to your profit margins right now. It's time to stop the rot for good!

It’s a commonly-known fact that it’s more expensive to go out on the hunt for new customers, rather than tapping into the ones you have and making them feel like heroes.
In fact, the Harvard Business Review goes so far as to say that it’s SEVEN TIMES more expensive to win a new customer.
And just in case that wasn’t enough to convince you, research by Bain and Company states that repeat customers spend 67 per cent more than new ones.
So it makes little sense that the traditional ethos of sales in the western world stubbornly hinges on the continual capture of new clients. It’s time the rule book was rewritten.
Form a sense of community with your customers – we all love to feel part of something, be it a summertime music festival or a brand cult. Think Danny Wallace.
You can achieve this by... sending out regular communications via email to your customer base.
And don’t worry about... the time you’ll need to devote to writing the copy each month, fortnight or week – FDC can do that for you, as well as setting up the email distribution itself.
As long as they’ve given expressed consent to receive emails, your existing customer base should be happy to receive these and hear what you’re doing.

FACT:

Simply by telling your customer base what you’ve been up to, you can increase your revenue by between 25 and 30 per cent.

FACT:

5 per cent increase in loyal customers can produce a 95 per cent increase in profitability

FACT:

In luxury categories, 10 per cent of customers generate 50 per cent of sales

FACT:

Loyal customers will recommend your brand to others. By 10 purchases, the average customer will have referred as many as seven people

FACT:

According to Scott M Davies and Dunn, authors of Building the Brand-driven Business, loyal customers will wait longer, travel further and pay more to use your brand. They also accept brand extensions more readily too. Think Virgin. Alex and Dale rave about its adaptability and universal popularity all the time.
And most importantly...

FACT:

Loyal customers stop considering other brands