E-mail—use it or lose business

Excerpted from the newly released book: Mind Capture: How To Stand Out In The Age of Advertising Overload ©2006 by Tony Rubleski. He is president of Mind Capture Group based in Spring Lake. For questions or comments, e-mail: tony@mindcapturegroup.com.

Three crimes are committed millions of times day after day by most businesses and sales professionals—crimes that drastically hurt their chance for long-term success. What are they?

1. Not collecting pertinent customer and prospect data;

2. Not communicating consistently to existing and prospective customers;

3. Not making enough offers.

Top direct-mail and catalog companies consider customer and prospect information to be their single most valuable business asset. They know the massive leverage an accurate, detailed customer/prospect list gives them when creating new marketing and sales offers to drive revenues and repeat business.

An e-mail customer/prospect database is the most valuable tool for staying out of trouble in terms of communication crimes.

Quit gambling
The two biggest offenders when it comes to not capturing customer information are small retail shops and restaurants. They let a fortune walk in and out of their locations day after day with little if any plan to capture data on who these people are and what they purchased.

When things slow down they’re left with the options of hoping (or praying) for people to stop in or running costly and often ill-timed advertising blitzes to attempt to generate in-store traffic and business.

This is a kind of gambling where, sadly, the house (the media rep) often wins more times than the retailer, who’s counting on drawing a marketing 21 or throwing a seven with the advertising dice.

What if you could tap a button and have orders come in the same day via e-mail, fax, phone and through the front door? How valuable would this be to your bottom line (and your stress level)?

By using e-mail to communicate with existing customers and prospects who have opted to receive updates from you, you can tap that button—or click that mouse.

The main benefits of using e-mail marketing for your business are speed and cost. You can send special or important announcements out quickly to your customer database. It’s much less expensive than using snail mail and takes less time. Other benefits:

• People are more likely to look at the e-mail since they’re already customers.
• It’s a great way to solicit feedback, suggestions and new product/service ideas. “Snail mail” is one-way communication; e-mail is two-way.
• It can be a great complement to your other communication pieces.

Communications major
A second major crime is lack of consistent communication to existing and prospective customers. When I ask audiences how many of them communicate with their customers at least once a month through direct mail, e-mail, fax or in-person, a typical response is less than 20 percent. This is baffling and disturbing at the same time.

Here’s a startling statistic you should plaster in your planner, computer and office wall as a powerful visual reminder to the importance of staying in frequent contact: for each month that goes by without some form of communication to existing customers, an average of 10 percent top-of-mind awareness of your business goes out the door.

The best way to combat retention issues and spend valuable marketing dollars is to establish a strategic and consistent contact plan with customers and key prospects.

The third crime—not making enough offers—is also aided by e-mail communication. A monthly e-mail newsletter can offer coupons, announce sales or simply remind customers of the great product lines they already love, especially when a new product is added to a favorite product line.

Product rollout
What’s the best way to roll out a new product or service? Introduce it to your best current customers. This seems blazingly obvious but the folly I continue to see within lots of companies tells me otherwise.

Existing customers have already demonstrated they trust you and are willing to consider and respond to additional new promotions and offers.

An even easier way to gauge if a new product or service is worth offering is to survey 20 of your top customers. Your e-mail database is a great way to do this quickly and simply. Of course you may also ask them face-to-face.

Ask for their honest feedback on a new item you’re thinking of adding to your business and whether it’s something they’d be interested in.

If you receive a large amount of positive feedback and even pre-orders, you’re on to something. If the reaction is lukewarm or negative, save yourself time, grief and money and spend little if any time doing a test launch or new product rollout within your customer base.