You’re a smart business person – so you already know the value of your existing customers. Although the precise multiple varies from sector to sector, typically an existing customer is up to 10 times more likely to purchase from you than a new prospect.

Despite this compelling statistic, most business owners completely ignore what could be one of the most valuable assets in their business – their list of customers.

Almost every business keeps records of customers together with their contact details for accounting purposes – but most do nothing to leverage this asset in their marketing efforts.

So, here’s what you can do today (and every day) to show a little love to your most valuable asset.

Take your list of customers and select half a dozen names at random. Now, pick up the telephone and give them a call. Here are examples of some of the things you might say:

• “Hi Mrs Smith, it’s Mr Jones from My Store Ltd. I hope I’m not inconveniencing you, but I like to try to call a couple of my customers each day and see if there is anything I can do for you.”
• “How can we do a better job for you?”
• “How can we make you like our service so much that you recommend us to all of your friends?”
• “Here’s my number. Give me a call any time if you have any questions.”

When you make the calls it is important to avoid any hard selling – particularly if you haven’t interacted with the customer for a while. Your goal is to warm your relationship with the customer and get your business back into their mind. It is more powerful to simply have a conversation and to listen to what the customer is saying than it is to pitch your wares directly.

And if you do this well – with genuine warmth – you will turn your customers into raving fans.

Show a little love to your most valuable asset is a post from: Sharp Dart

No doubt you already know the power of word-of-mouth referrals. An incredible amount of purchase decisions are made via recommendations from friends, family and work colleagues.

But as a business owner, what are you doing to actively increase the number of referrals your business receives? If your answer is nothing then a huge opportunity awaits you!

So, how do you get more referrals?

It’s as simple as asking for them! After all, if you don’t ask, how will people know that you want them?

Many people assume that your business is already “flat out” and you wouldn’t be able to accommodate Auntie Joan even if they were to recommend you to her. So they don’t bother.

Here are some tips to kick the referral rate for your business into overdrive:

• Explicitly tell your customers that you would appreciate referrals. Say something like “If any of your family or friends need help then it would be great if you could pass on my contact details.”
• Give out three or four business cards to customers instead of just one – it is more likely that several cards will be shared around to friends and family.
• If appropriate (and legal) for your sector, offer a reward for referrals. Gifts such as restaurant vouchers generally work better than cash.
• The rate of “natural” referrals will increase in proportion to the quality of the service you provide. Word spreads rapidly when, for example, a customer raves about how honest and reliable their car mechanic is.

And finally, remember that referrals do not only come from customers. Two other important sources of referrals are your own employees and professional referrals from owners of complementary businesses.

The latter is particularly powerful and you should always be on the lookout for reciprocal referral arrangements with other quality business owners.

Kick your referral rate into overdrive is a post from: Sharp Dart

There is one time above all others that you have the undivided attention of your customer. And that is the moment they purchases from you and gets their hands on your product or service.

Let’s say, for example, that your business delivers products using snail mail or a courier. The customer is typically waiting to take delivery of the product and may even be excited to open the package.

Apart from the product, what do they find inside? A crumpled invoice perhaps? Maybe even nothing at all?

If your business operates this way then you are missing a golden opportunity to engage with the customer at the time they are most attentive to your message.

So what can you include in your next package?

How about a hand signed letter thanking the customer for their purchase and welcoming them to the business?

Better yet, how about also including a one-time irresistible offer for one of your related products? Technically known as up-sells or cross-sells, these offers are proven to yield fabulous conversion rates and will bring additional revenue into your business for the cost of a few pages printed on your office printer.

And if your business sells products or services face to face then this strategy will be even more powerful – because you can make a similar offer in a much more personal and engaging way. What’s more, you can do it at the exact moment your customer has committed to buy from you and is reaching into their wallet for their credit card.

If you are wondering whether this strategy works in the real world – spend a few minutes in McDonalds and tally up the conversion rates when the sales assistant asks “Would you like an ice cream sundae with your meal for an extra 50 cents?”

So, what’s your ice cream sundae?

Your ice cream sundae is a post from: Sharp Dart

Every day your prospective customers are asking themselves the same question about your business. Your response to this question and how you communicate it can mean the difference between your business thriving and going under.

So, what’s this all important question that your prospects are asking? It is this – “Why should I choose your business/product/service over all other options – including doing nothing at all?”

Our world is full of choice. For any problem there are countless solution providers vying for your prospect’s attention.

With so much choice around, what is it that makes your offer stand out from the crowd – and what makes it compelling enough to overcome your prospect’s natural inertia and have them reaching for their wallets?

Here’s a task.

Grab a pen and a sheet of paper and write the above question at the top of the page. Spend the next 10 minutes brainstorming your response.

Approach it as if your ideal customer has just walked into your premises and asked you the question directly. What would you say? Try to talk in terms of benefits to the customer rather than features of your product or service. You can think of a benefit as specific outcome that the customer will get from using your product or service.

For example, a benefit of hiring an accountant is that you will not have to worry about getting a nasty call from the tax office.

Once you’ve finished brainstorming, highlight the most compelling one or two benefits and summarize them into a short statement.

If you like you can call this your positioning statement or USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

But don’t stop there. Your positioning statement won’t do any good gathering dust on your desk. It must become the central theme of all your marketing efforts and you should take every opportunity to communicate it to your prospects and customers.

Step into your customer’s shoes is a post from: Sharp Dart

Nothing builds credibility and trust like being a published expert in your field. It is a feature that will set you apart from your competition.

Now, I’m guessing that you don’t have the time or motivation to write a traditional 400 page book – but there is a powerful publishing tool that should be well within your time and budget constraints.

That tool is an e-newsletter.

An e-newsletter (or ezine) is an email based publication that is sent on a regular basis to a list of subscribers that have agreed in advance to receive it.

Here are just a few benefits of publishing an e-newsletter:

• It will enhance the visibility of your business, products and services.
• It will build a reputation for you as an expert in your field.
• It will capture visitors to your website that may have otherwise been lost.
• Researching topics for an e-newsletter will help you to keep on top of your game.
• It will help you to develop a long term relationship with your readers – turning prospects into customers and customers into raving fans.

And it will do all this for little cost and minimal resources. Convinced? Great!

So, what can you do today to get started as an e-newsletter publisher?

The first step is to talk to your web developer about placing an e-newsletter subscription form on your website. This is how your visitors express their desire to receive your content – and how you build your subscriber list.

Once that is done you can set to work writing your first newsletter. Start by picking a topic in your sector that will be of interest to your readers.

For example, an accountant you might choose to write about a new ATO ruling that will affect her reader’s tax returns. Once you have selected a topic, write your article in an interesting and informative style. Aim for about a page in length and make sure it is well written and free of spelling errors.

You might jazz up the e-newsletter by also adding in a couple of quick tips or industry news items.

And when you’re happy with your content your e-newsletter can be published at the click of a mouse button.

Aim to write a couple of e-newsletters per month and you should see your readership – and your reputation as an expert – grow steadily over time.

This post is part of a series of website marketing tips for small business.

Website Marketing Tip 4 – Become a published expert (within an hour) is a post from: Sharp Dart

If you are set up like most businesses, the telephone will be one of the most common ways that prospects initiate contact with you. Typically a prospect will find your telephone number through an ad or by word of mouth and then call to inquire about your products or services, pricing, opening hours and so on.

Given that callers are essentially raising their hand to say they are interested in doing business, it is astounding how little thought most business owners give to how their business is presented on the telephone – and how little is done to capture these callers and convert them into paying customers.

Planning what to say when a prospect calls – and creating a basic script to ensure that your message is consistent – is such a powerful strategy that you could literally double your business for zero cost and very little effort.

Do the math. If you get 100 telephone enquires per week and you currently convert 2 of those callers into customers, your conversion rate is 2%. Implementing even a basic script could raise your conversion rate to 4% – doubling the amount of business that flows via the telephone.

Here’s what you can do today to knock your telephone conversions out of the park.

First you need to review how you currently handle telephone inquiries. If you are the person that usually answers the phone sit down and think about what you say. Better yet, use a tape recorder to record yourself during the next few telephone inquiries.

If you have staff members answer the telephone then go outside your premises and call your business telephone number from your mobile. Ask a typical question and listen to the way the staff member deals with you.

Once you’ve taken stock of how your business currently handles telephone inquiries it is time to sit down and ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I friendly, courteous and helpful to callers? And is the image I project congruent with the overall image of my business?
• How can I communicate the unique benefits of my products or services to callers – in a natural, conversational way?
• What discounts, bundles or event based offers can I make on the spot that will be irresistible to the caller?

Convert your answers to the above questions into a simple script that you can use on all new callers. Instruct your staff members on how to use the script and talk about the image you would like to convey.

Then, stand back and watch you telephone conversion rate skyrocket!

Catch them here or risk losing them forever is a post from: Sharp Dart

I have another experiment for you. If you have a website, open it up and read the contents of the home page and one or two other key pages.

Ask yourself this question – “what are these pages about?”

90% of readers of this post will say they are about their business, their employees, how long they’ve been operating, the features of their products and services etc etc…

Well, I’m afraid this is WRONG and it is losing you a lot of business.

Your website (like all your marketing) should not be about you and your business – it should be about the customer. It should demonstrate how your business offers a unique and compelling solution to their specific needs. After all, the most important thing to your customer is themselves – not you!

With that in mind, how might you change your website copy, images, video and an other material to be more oriented towards your customer?

This post is part of a series of website marketing tips for small business.

Website Marketing Tip 3 – Whats In It For Me? is a post from: Sharp Dart

The Internet is a huge, cluttered place.

In fact, it is probably second only to the Yellow Pages in terms of competitive advertising spaces.

One thing is for sure – your visitors will only be on your website for a short time, and once they leave they are highly unlikely to ever come back.

So, you need to make the most of every single visitor – and be sure to capture their contact information so that you have an opportunity to actively follow up with them at a later date.

To do this you need a couple of things.

Firstly, you need to set up a system on your website that enables visitors to leave their name and email address – and perhaps even their telephone number. Such systems (known by various names such as autoresponders, contact management tools and CRM’s) cost relatively little, are easy to install and can be very secure and reliable.

Secondly, you need to provide a reason for your visitors to willingly give you their contact information. This is commonly achieved by offering something of value and that is of particular interest to your target audience.

For example, a car mechanic could provide a guide on how to look after your car during the cold winter months. Or a restaurant owner could offer a 15% discount voucher or a free bottle of wine.

With an appropriate incentive and a prominently placed submission form, most small businesses will be able to build a good sized list of prospects.

Of course, building a list of prospects is only half the story. To convert the list into real business you’ll need to design a good follow up marketing campaign.

This post is part of a series of website marketing tips for small business.

Website Marketing Tip 2 – Capture visitors is a post from: Sharp Dart

For any small business there are basically two types of website.

The first – and most commonly sold by web developers – is the brochure website. Brochure websites are characterised by heavy designs, stock images and page after page of generic “corporate speak”.

Now, as an Internet marketer I am a little biased but in my opinion a brochure website is the WRONG type of website for the vast majority of small businesses.

Why? Because they are BORING for visitors. They are standard fare – seen over and over again. They do not connect with the needs of the customer and they do not provide any opportunity for a business to communicate whatever it is that makes it remarkable.

Worse still, brochure websites do next to nothing to bring new leads into a business. In particular, they are rarely constructed with search engine ranking in mind.

So, what is the second type of website? It’s what’s called a direct response website. Direct response websites are designed and implemented specifically to deliver bottom line results for a business.

They engage with the visitor, speak directly to their needs and desires, and provide them with clear instructions (and a compelling reason) to take the next step.

If your website is not generating a steady stream of sales leads then it is likely that your site is a boring brochure – and it is not standing out from the crowd and connecting with your target customer.

This post is part of a series of website marketing tips for small business.

Website Marketing Tip 1 – Avoid boring brochures is a post from: Sharp Dart

Do you have a online business idea you are thinking of starting up? Here are the top 5 reasons why it is absolutely critical to conduct market testing before you take the idea into full product development.

1. You will limit your risk

How confident are you in your idea? Willing to bet 10 or 20 thousand on it? Or maybe 500 to 1000 hours of your own time?

Why would you gamble when, for a very small investment, you can test to a high degree of accuracy whether your venture will be a winner?

To ram this point home I’ll use an analogy – would you choose to buy a $10 lottery ticket or a 10 cent report telling you whether your lottery numbers will win the jackpot?

2. You will find out about your market

Smart market testing will help you to identify a wealth of information about your target market. The types of information you can gather include:

• Market size
• Browsing habits and key phrase usage
• Potential conversion rates
• Competition strength

3. You will understand your customer’s pain points and motivation

For this reason alone you’d be insane not to market test. Knowledge of your customer, their needs, pain points and motivations must be a thread that runs through your entire project from product design and development through to positioning and other marketing activities.

Ultimately, developing a product or service that meets an acute market need is virtually guaranteed to be a runaway success.

4. You will make money and build assets before you’ve even started!

Certain types of market testing will generate income or help you to build Internet assets such as lists and traffic.

Imagine generating an income through market testing that helps to fund product development! This scenario is quite achievable.

5. You will be able to effectively prioritize

In all likelihood you have at least a dozen ideas in your queue vying for attention. From all those great ideas which one do you choose to work on? Why not market test several ideas and then focus on the one that produces the best results?

Market testing will also help you to effectively pipeline your projects. Have some business ideas in the market testing phase while others are in product development. This is a great way to accelerate your asset building.

I hope this top 5 list has convinced you that market testing is a must in your online business.

Top 5 reasons you’d be mad not to market test is a post from: Sharp Dart