1. Segment Customer Lists. Carefully analyze past buying behavior or your customers and categorize by their buying habits. Basically you will be slicing and dicing your database list. Discounts may motivate your customers better than premiums, vice versa for others. Study your list and break it down to create special offers for different customer groups.
2. Isolate your biggest spenders and build BIG-ticket offers just for them. These are the customers that do not want to shop the sales and always purchase your most expensive items.
3. Identify your top 20 percent and invest more in them than in the other 80 percent. Contact them more often and spend more marketing dollars on them. Consider gifts delivered during the holidays, costlier direct mail, etc. Go where the money is! Your best buyer is your BEST buyer.
4. Create Upsells. Whether selling in the store, on the phone, on the web, by mail or at the cash register, you should engineer upsells. Suggest companion items or deluxe options for just about everything.
5. Special Events. Offer many special events throughout the year such as Men’s Shopping Night with a Monday Night Football Party, Ladies only shopping night, closed door sale for preferred customers, etc.
6. Offer premiums that might be used as gifts. Premiums give you better leverage than discounts. Premiums that can be used as gifts give your customers more leverage for their dollar. For example, a $10 gift certificate with every $50 in purchases is better than a $10 discount. It costs you less, therefore will be a percentage never redeemed, and some will bring in new customers who will spend more than the certificate amount. And best of all you get more repeat business.
7. Do not buy into ‘Recession Thinking’. Do not let whatever the media, your peers, your competitors and even your customers have to say about ‘Things Being Tough’. People find money for what they really want, period.
Debbie Allen is an internationally recognized marketing and sales expert, professional speaker and author of 3 books on business marketing including, Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters and Confessions of Shameless Internet Promoters. For information email: Debbie@DebbieAllen.com Phone: 800-359-4544 Websites: http://www.DebbieAllen.com and www.AcademyofMarketing.net
