How well are you growing your business? Where do you put most of your efforts? Typically there are three ways a company can grow. They can:

  • Charge More
  • Sell More
  • Get More Customers

But most of the emphasis goes on the last one. Marketing and sales concentrate on finding new customers. But finding new customers is much more expensive than selling to an existing customer. So think about selling more by having customers come back and buy from you again, or by buying more each time they purchase.

Sound good? Here’s some ideas to make it happen.

Customer Service

A primary feature of a company that keeps people coming back to use them again and again is the quality of their customer service. Get this right and customers are happy. Happy customers will buy from you again and may even recommend you to others. With an excellent customer service process, you can turn a complaint into another sale.

The trick is to solve the customer’s problem in such a way they are happy with you. Go the extra mile, really shine when you fix things for them and that’s what they will remember. And now that they know you will take good care of them they are much more willing to come shop with you again.

Discounts or Credits

Encourage first time buyers to come back and buy again by offering them incentives. Let them know that with their next purchase they can have a discount, some percentage off the price, or maybe a credit instead, a certain dollar amount off their total. This tempts customers not only to buy that first time to get the offer, but to buy the second time to redeem it.

Many companies give ten percent or ten dollars off, but you can stand out from the crowd by offering twenty percent. It’s a more significant amount and gives them even more incentive to come back for a second purchase.

Loyalty Programs

Keep regular customers coming back time after time by giving them discounts, credits, or perks they earn each time they buy. This can benefit you two ways. Besides the obvious benefit of encouraging them to stay a customer, the act of signing up for the program lets you collect their email address to use for direct contact with them. Do some research to find the best membership plugin for WordPress that fits your needs. Once you have them in your program, you can offer them special ‘members only’ discounts and promotions.

Receipt Emails

A frequently overlooked option for bringing customers back to buy again is to market to them in their receipt email. This is one of the most commonly opened pieces of email customers get. Everyone wants to check that they’ve made the right purchase and were charged the right amount. Use a plug-in to add special offers to the receipt so when they open it they can check their purchase and price while you tempt them with a new offer.

Subscription Service

Depending on the product or service you sell, you might be able to set up a regular subscription. If your product runs out, or wears out, and needs replaced, you can automate the process of contacting your customers after the proper amount of time has passed and encourage them to buy a replacement or refill. You can even promote this as a convenience where instead of ‘stocking up’ on products and storing them at their home or business, your customers can let you store their purchase until they need it and automatically ship it to them.

Email Marketing

Once you have your customer’s email, you can use that list of proven buyers to do additional marketing. As new products come out, you can announce them to your existing customer base in an email. You can even send out a regular newsletter with updates on your products, information about new articles you’ve published, or anything else your customers might be interested in.

You can even make your emails personal and suggest articles or products based on their past purchases or their interests as expressed in social media. You have a lot of information about your customers, you can use that to offer things they’d be interested in instead of making the same set of offers to everyone.

Conclusion

There are dozens of other ways you can keep customers coming back to you after their first purchase. Try these, or some of the others, or ones you make up yourself. By focusing on increased sales rather than more first-time customers, you can inexpensively boost your bottom line. And make your customers happy. Win-win.