The Latest

YOUR BOTTOM LINE

Want to substantially increase your business this year? Sure you do. Here are three steps to insuring a healthy bottom line:

1. Collect data from your customers
2. Do your marketing based on the data

3. Collect new data from your customers

Sound complicated and a bit redundant? No, it's actually a rather simple feedback loop that grows your business through loyalty marketing to your best customers. Let's examine the steps a little more closely:

1. Customers come into your business. They buy things. Your job is to identify your customers and track what they buy. This is easier now than ever because computers like the one on your desktop can collect go through and analyze reams of data very speedily. If you keep data on your customers at all, it's likely you already have the data you need to launch a marketing promotion.

2. This is the fun part! Design a campaign to bring your customers back. Have a special offer that just goes to your customers. Your current customers are a fantastic source of new business. Just make sure you offer them something of value. You can deliver the message to your customers by email or a postcard or a letter or even a phone call. It depends on the size of your business and what you are trying to sell. Send your current customers an offer at least once a month. That is a sure-fire way to increase your business this year.

Don't worry that you will turn off your customers by sending them too much communication. Customers who sign up for special offers will be happy to receive them.

You can refine this procedure. You can make different offers to different customers depending on what they have bought or how much they have purchased. Start by looking at what some of the companies you admire are doing for their customers. I like the way Amazon.com tracks my purchases and suggests other items I might want to buy. And J. Crew tracks how much we spend with them (mostly my daughter) and sends us a gift card after we reach the $500 level (not hard for her).

3. The third step is the most important. Analyze your marketing. Determine what campaigns work best by examining the quantity and quality of responses and your gross sales and net profits. This will give you new data to move forward and you can start the process all over again.

Raphel Marketing is an expert in loyalty marketing. Check out the new look of our website at www.raphel.com.We can handle any of your marketing needs including web site development, marketing consulting, postcard, letters, or email programs.

Book News

IT'S ABOUT TIME

Raphel Marketing is proud to announce the publication of "It's About Time," a new book by Harold Lloyd, a leading speaker and educator in the retail and food industries. "It's About Time" contains hundreds of tips on how to use everyday management tasks to free up more time at work. The book shows how to ZAP! the distractions that pull you away from your work, how to create and use a To-Do Today list to keep you on track, and explains why starting each day by “disappearing” briefly will help you manage your schedule. You can improve delegating skills, run meetings more effectively, and even recruit and hire staff better to maximize time management and take control of your time at work. In fact, if you use the time management ideas in “It’s About Time,” you’ll feel as though you have added 5 extra hours to your week! Who wouldn’t want to have more time every week?

"I found my first five hours in the first four chapters. This book is a keeper." - Jennifer Kinner, President, Product Promotions

Customer Service

GALLEGOS NEWSLETTER

We’ve been delighted with the great response to Don Gallegos’ new customer service newsletter. Don is not shy about calling out companies that are missing the boat on customer service. Click here to see the latest issue of the newsletter. If you like what you see, please sign up for the newsletter at www.dongallegos.com.
We've worked with Don for many years. Now retired from the supermarket industry, Don is a top-rated speaker. We published Don’s customer service best-selling book, "Win the Customer, Not the Argument," and manage his speaking career.
Don will show you which companies are dropping the ball on customer service and which ones are doing a good job. We think you'll enjoy his stories, and we hope they will inspire you to look at customer service in a whole new way.