Many business owners focus a LOT of energy on marketing their business while they are sitting on a gold mine! If you have existing clients, marketing for new clients should be the last place that you focus. Here are three other areas to focus first:
- Close the backdoor– focus on retention of the clients you already have. It’s a great time of year to send out a customer satisfaction survey. It is so much easier to keep your current clients than to find new ones.
- Expand your offerings to existing clients– is there something else that you can provide to your current clients? They already know, like and trust you. As you listen to them, ask yourself if you can help them with other services you offer.
- Ask for referrals– Ask your clients if they know anyone they can refer to you. Have a process to thank your current customers for their referrals and treat their referrals like gold. If you do, they will continue to refer to you.
After you have the top 3 areas taken care of, consider traditional marketing. Make sure you measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. All marketing is a risk. Determine what is working for your business. Then rinse and repeat. At LifePoint our clients use a tool called an ROI Spreadsheet so that they know where their business is coming from and where they find their most valuable clients. This allows them to make a strategic decision about where to spend those valuable marketing dollars. Knowledge is power with marketing. End your year by looking at what is working and by maintaining those valuable existing clients.