These are the customers who will keep coming back to you, which is more profitable than making a single sale. However, would you say you are maximizing your client list? If you want to get the most out of your mailing list, there are some secrets you should know.
The following information can be found on most customer lists of businesses: Name, City, State, and Zip, That is all there is to it. Sadly, this mailing list has almost no value. More information than that needs to be in your files. A mail-order business has a customer database with 32 fields of information! If you don't use a computer (which you absolutely should), all of this information should fit on a large index card in a card file. You should be able to set these up in the database of your computer. Here is an additional valuable field, to remember for your client information base:
Last Name; First Name; Title; Position; Company Name; Address1;Address2; City; State; Zip; Per Phone; Bus Phone;Fax Phone; Inmate; Refer Source; FollowUp1; FollowUp2; Renew Date;Purch1; Purch1Date; Purch1Amount; Purch2;Purch2Date; Purch2Amount; Purch3; Purch3Date; Purch3Amount;Tot Amount; Comments; Cost# The first ten fields (reading across) ought to be straightforward. Practically any location conceivable can be placed into my data set without leaving out data or contract. The following three pertain to phone numbers. If at all possible, you need to have the phone numbers of your customers in order to respond to them promptly and effectively. One phone call can make all the difference between making a big sale and not making any.
Since it is always the same day (there is no excuse not to follow up on your inquiries on the same day you receive them), the Ingrate field is where you record the date the customer first inquired about your products and services as well as the date you sent the information. Together with the Refer Source field, this data reveals when and how quickly people are responding to your ads. You will know that you require additional action incentives in my subsequent advertisement if you observe that inquiries are arriving slowly or for an extended period of time after the advertisement goes out. Enter the "key" from my advertisement into the Refer Source field. You should indicate the publication and issue from which the inquiry originates by using a letter code following my street address. For the same reason, you should code your mailings as well.
To indicate when you want to send follow-up literature to customers who do not order on the first try, you enter a date into the two Follow-Up fields. In FollowUp1, you should set a date two weeks after the Ingrate, and in FollowUp2, you should set a date two weeks later. Then, on a daily basis, you ought to conduct a search on these two fields to locate any records that contain the date of today as a follow-up date. You can print labels for the envelopes and literature you have prepared for follow-ups and stick them there.
If you decide to publish a newsletter, the following three fields—Renew Date—should be utilized. These would include the date you received their subscription, the amount they paid (you should occasionally run special prices), and the date you want to send information about their subscription renewal. You can then print names similarly as you accomplish for the Follow-Up fields.
The Purchase fields come next. There ought to be three sets of purchase fields, one for each purchase made by the customer. Enter a code for the product they have purchased in the purified. The date and amount of the purchase are retrieved from the other two fields. For the customer's second and third purchases, the information in the second and third sets of fields is identical. The best clients to mail offers to are the ones that have bought inside the last90 days, so you don't need to stress over numerous clients making multiple buys during that time span (however I really want to believe that they will!). On the off chance that somebody makes a fourth buy, move the second and third arrangements of information up to the first and second lines, and enter the new buy data in the third informational collection.
These fields are critical. You can in a flash draw up a rundown of clients that have bought inside the beyond 90 days, or60 days, or 30 days, or even 15 days. This information is essential when renting your house mailing list. The rental sum you can charge increments as how much time since the client's buy diminishes.
Tot Amount is the next field in my database and contains a formula for determining the total amount a customer has purchased from me thus far.
You can store any other information about the customer that you think is important to know in the Comments field.
A uniquely coded customer number that you give to each customer can be entered in the final field, Cost#. Utilize this code to recognize the beneficiary of any commissions you might pay to clients who have brought business my way.
You might be wondering why I need all that information, given that it's a lot. You already know how to use the purchase data fields to determine the customers' "age." You can also create a list of customers who have purchased more than a certain amount from you by using the Tot Amount field. Together, these field searches can be utilized to create a tweaked mailing rundown of, for instance, clients who have purchased more than $50 in the beyond 30 days. These eventual the most responsive individuals to mail to, and would deliver the most elevated rental pace of my client list.
You can also find people who should be removed from my list by using specific mailing list fields. For instance, you can look for clients with FollowUp2 dates that are a month past the present date, and Tot Amounts of nothing. It is possible to remove these clients from the list. Or, in the event that they inquire again, you could keep them on file and include a few words in the Comment's field reminding them not to receive anything else. These recoveries me the expense of mailing something to somebody who likely will not answer. They might, but it's unlikely that they will.
Lastly, you can add information, to the Comment's field, about a customer who has returned too many orders or defrauded you in some way. If they order again, you'll be able to use extra caution with them because you'll see their history when their file opens.
As you can see, if you set up your customer list with foresight when you first start, you'll have a useful tool that can help you get more orders, make more money by renting specialized lists, and cut down on mailing costs by getting rid of "deadwood." One of the most crucial strategies you can employ to improve your chances of success is this.
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