Using Customer Retention to Build Your Business

Credit: Under 30 CEO

A great article from Under 30 CEO that stresses the importance of retaining customers to build your business. At The Callan Group, we work with our clients to build their email database and produce high quality newsletters to make this retention a reality.

Many companies today are focused on obtaining new customers through innovative marketing campaigns, daily deal sites, holiday sales, and various other promotional activities.  There are great campaigns in an effort to attract new customers or clients.

Read full article from Under 30 CEO

Recent survey on how Volusia and Flagler businnes owners use their electronic mediums.

1.How many times a day do you look at Facebook? If hourly, how often?

·         Couple of times a week   ***** (5)

·         Once a day ** (2)

·         Hourly ******* (7)

·         Every 15 minutes * (1)

·         No **** (4) 

2.Do you have an active Twitter account that you post on weekly/monthly?

·         No********** (10)

·         Yes, weekly****** (6)

·         Yes, daily ** (2)

·         Have account, do not post * (1) 

3. How many email newsletters do you receive a week?

·         25 (estimate, varies) (1)

·         5-10** (2)

·         1-5 ******* (7)

·         10-15 ****** (6)

·         Don’t know *** (3) 

4.Do you receive any emails from businesses you didn't sign up for that you

continue to receive and don't mind getting?

·         No ******* (7)

·         Yes *********** (12) 

5. Do you have more than one e! mail account that you check daily?

·         Yes, one personal, one business* (1)

·         Yes************* (12)

·         No ****** (6) 

6.How many times an hour do you check your email?

·         Approx. once per hour ******* (7)

·         3 times a day * (1)

·         No * (1)

·         Once a day * (1)

·         Continuously ***** (5)

·         Every  5-15 mins **** (4) 

7. How many times an hour do you look a t your text messages?

·         When received ************** (13)

·         Once **** (4)

·         Don’t ** (2)

8. Do you have a Smartphone?

·         No**** (4)

·         Yes *************** (15) 

9. Do you subscribe to any magazines?

·         Yes ************** (14)

·         No ***** (5) 

10. How often do you read the local newspaper whether in print or online?

·         Daily************* (13)

·         3 times a week  * (1)

·         Once a week * (1)

·         Rare ** (2)

·         When receiving a link * (1)

11. Do you subscribe to any blogs or rss feeds? If so, how many?

·         No******** (8)

·         Yes, a couple (1-6) ********* (10)

·         Yes, 10 * (1) 

12. Do you know how to display images in an email newsletter where you're

viewing x's where pictures should be?

·         Yes (15)

·         No (4) 

13. Do you know how to add an email sender to your safe sender list?

·         Yes (14)

·         n/a (1)

·         No (4) 

14. Do you know how to export email addresses out of your electronic address

book?

·         No (5)

·         Yes (13)

·         n/a (1) 

15. What do you do with print direct mail?

·         Read it (4)

·         Throw it away (15)  

16. Do you keep/save the yellow pages or phone boom?

·         No (12)

·         Yes (7) 

17. If you receive! d an ema il with a video in it, would you press play and

watch if the message was less than 5 minutes?

·         If time allowed and it appeared to be of interest  or known source(16)

·         No ( 3)

18. Do you know what rss feed means?

·         Yes (15)

·         No (4)

19. Do you know what www means?

·         Yes (19)

 

20. Do you know what https means?

·         No (2)

·         Yes (17)

21. Do you LIKE most businesses that ask you to LIKE them on Facebook?

·         Yes,  (6)

·         No (5)

·         Occasionally (If known or if interested) (8)

Retention Vs New Clients

Using your marketing such as e-newsletters to focus on retaining your existing customer base rather than getting new clients saves you money in the end. Customer retention is not only a cost effective and profitable strategy, but in today's business world it's necessary. This is especially true when you remember that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customer and clients. Taking these statistics into consideration makes you wonder why most marketing and sales campaigns are designed for the new customer.

Read article from Laura Lake, About.com

4 Ways to Use Email to Improve Website Conversions

Source
Email marketing is still one of the most effective sales channels, but many marketers overlook simple ways to optimize the performance of their email campaigns.

According to Forrester Research, email marketing spending will reach $2.5 billion by 2016, up 63 percent from 2011. Clearly email marketing represents a key way to reach customers, but even if you succeed in getting someone to click a link from within an email, it doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get the all-important conversion.

Here are four ways that marketers can make the most of every email campaign by increasing their relevance to customers.

Read full article from ClickZ

Spice Up Your Email: Add Video

From Manta

Video can take your email campaign to the next level. Adding a video into your email is the perfect way to engage your customers with helpful, useful content. It's easy to incorporate a video, just add a screenshot of the video and link to the full video on your website or YouTube site. You'll have a more engaging email and a dynamic way to showcase your products or services.

How to be a Successful Freelancer

Great Article from Small Biz Lady! Most small businesses start today as a side hustle first. In fact, 1 in 3 Americans is a freelancer or temporary worker in the post-recession era, according to research by the Human Capital Institute (HCI). The majority of contract workers are part-timers, and their ranks are growing at more than twice the rate of full-time employees, the HCI reports. Read full article from Small Biz Lady

Avoid Email Fatigue: Be Relevant

One surefire way to avoid email fatigue among your subscribers is to be as relevant as possible to their interests. According to The Social and Portable Inbox survey by Jupiter Research (2008), 50% of email users and 60% of frequent buyers said that if they did not find emails relevant, they would unsubscribe. Start by segmenting your subscriber list into categories and alter your subjects and content to be most relevant to each category. If your subscribers are getting information they value, they’ll stick with you.

Source: Manta