Keep In Touch To Get Customers and Grow Your Small Business Start Up

First you need to get customers... then you've got to serve them more. Keeping in touch with those you've drawn into your marketing funnel is crucial to the success of any small business start up. After all, you invested energy and money into the process of getting prospects and customers onto your list. But the only way it's going to pay off is to use that list in the right way.

You'll want to mail to your own house list as often as it is profitable to do so, without annoying them. This is less of a problem in the offline world due to the costs of producing and mailing materials. But online, where those costs are negligible, it's easy to cross the line and mail to the same group repeatedly. But that's about the worst thing you could do.

The first challenge of any small business start up is to get customers to buy the first time. Then you've got to work to increase the value of that customer to your business.

Send new offers to your customers as often as your list continues to respond favourably. As long as it works, you might as well keep it up. But pay careful attention not to overdo it. You don't want to abuse the trust and loyalty buyers have shown you.

It's best to determine your contact schedule from the day you first start your business. Stick to the same routine and your subscribers will come to expect it. But if you start by mailing once a month, then ramp it up to 4 times per week, you can quickly lose subscribers who think you're only there to sell them more stuff.

Look for the right opportunities to connect with your list. Send "thank you" notes after purchases, or a "nice to meet you" card after an initial consultation.

Take the opportunity to acknowledge people and reassure them of their prudent purchasing decision. In effect what you're actually doing is re-selling the value of your small business start up and shaping how customers feel about you and their experience.

Maintaining continuous communication positions you as a trusted friend, ally, advisor, and reliable supplier. Do what you can to get customers in the door. But don't stop there. Keep your list updated and active and you'll continue to generate cash flow while increasing the value of the most important asset for any small business - start up or established - and that is your ever-growing list of interested prospects and customers.

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