Your customer acquisition costs are likely one of your single biggest indirect expenses, yet most entrepreneurs design an economic model based on a single transaction.
As consumers, we often have a recognized need for a product or service. Perhaps we are going fishing this weekend and need some new gear or notice that our home needs a new paint job. As consumers we go online, do some research, and buy the product or service to satisfy our need. We see this as a single transaction and surmise that that is how the world works. Therefore we design our marketing as if it was a single opportunity to make a sale. Unfortunately, this is not a very efficient model.
The successful entrepreneur knows that once he has acquired a new customer he looks for ways to leverage the customer relationship to sell them additional products and service.
The simplest and cheapest way I have found to leverage a customer relationship is to capture the customer’s email address. Once I have a channel to contact the customer for free, I send some followup content to help them make the most of their purchase.
If the person bought some waders for their upcoming fly fishing trip you might follow up with an email on how to care for and store their new waders to extend their life while simultaneously including a link to your waterproofing spray product. Or you might send an email about how bacteria can build up in seams and cause problems with there new waders and include a link to your wader dryer.
If the person hired you to paint the outside of their house send them an email that talks about how changing the color of an interior room can affect a person’s mood to stimulate their thinking about hiring you again to paint their interior. If you have a do-it-for-me (DIFN) service (house painting) consider perhaps offer a do-it-yourself (DIY) offering to complement your services like a sprayer or power roller rental.
