Looking for New Customers? Try Old Ones!
Often, when marketers are looking to generate new business, they purchase a prospect list
and send out a direct mail campaign. This can be a very effective strategy. However, there is an expense involved in purchasing,
qualifying and cleaning up a new list.
There is another way to drum up new business. You can invigorate an old customer
list instead!
This was the successful strategy of Quality Lawn Care, a small company that provides a variety of lawn care services.
It wanted to bring in more revenue, but instead of purchasing a list, it resurrected relationships with former customers.
Working
with its creative agency, Quality Lawn Care mailed 300 1:1 pieces to these inactive customers. The design featured a child on
a well-landscaped lawn. A personalized message referred to services that recipients had used in the past and invited them to
reconnect with the company through a special offer.
Because relationship marketing is about relationships, you might want to
create excuses to open dialogs with your customers. This might include an occasional customer survey, feedback form or customer
contest, such as for the best new dog treat fl avor idea or the best picture of a pet eating your treats. This creates an interaction
between you and your customers that makes each person feel valued and gives them a stake in their relationship with you. At
the same time, it gives you more information to further personalize future mailings!
That’s relationship marketing—and it’s one
of the factors that makes 1:1 printing great.
The Results?
The campaign generated a response rate of 14.6%. Among those responding,
the close rate was 27%. The project immediately generated $5,700 in revenues, but with a lifetime value to the client of $52,000,
the projected ROI was more than 8,000%! All without purchasing a new list.
Do you think this is just a fluke? Metro Nissan of Redlands
launched a similar program and had a similar result. It dug into its database for customers who had not visited the store in
a period of three to eighteen months. To each customer, it sent a personalized direct mailer with a personalized incentive to
come back. The response rate was 5%. For customers who hadn’t been to the dealership in more than 12 months, ROI was 467%. For
those who had not been to the dealership in nine months, ROI jumped to 655%. Total campaign investment? $4,500.
What are you doing
with your inactive customer list?
Get more mileage from your old database.
Now you can grow your business by turning old customers into
new ones.
