Discover how your Past, Current, and Potential Clients can help you grow your business!

Do you know that Email marketing has an ROI of $44 for every $1 spent? Do you know that email marketing is consistently in the top 3 of the most effective marketing channels for businesses?

Having said that, The most important thing to do for your business is to maintain a list of contacts and clients in order to nurture those relationships and hopefully get a steady stream of work from them.

Potential Clients

New projects are great because they offer you the chance to work with new people. However, don’t underestimate the value of current and also past clients who might be willing to offer you regular projects that will keep your business ticking over.

Marketing your business can take up a lot of time. So can applying for new jobs. It can also be really frustrating if you do your best to write wonderful proposals but are not getting any work.

Even if you do get sales or contracts, they might only last for short amount of time, meaning that you still have to continue looking for new opportunities while you are working on your current jobs. This soon becomes a tricky juggling act unless you’re very organized.

Past and present customers can help accelerate profitable growth

Did you know that it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one? The first rule of any business is to retain customers and build a loyal relationship with them and thereby avoid customer acquisition costs.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t go out and get new customers, but if we can keep a larger percentage of those customers for a longer life cycle, we build on a revenue foundation that is more profitable and predictable; two factors that have created tremendous wealth for entrepreneurs.

A Happy Customer Is Your Best Marketer

A lot of business owners make the mistake of focusing on potential clients so much that they neglect their current and past clients. This can be a big mistake. Past clients who are happy are your best resources for word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations. Don’t feel shy about asking them for a testimonial or reference in relation to your work.

Current Clients

In terms of current clients, you need to impress them with how professional and efficient you are. Producing your best work even under tight deadlines is what being a good freelancer or service provider is all about. Communicate clearly, be friendly but respectful, and you could end up with regular clients who really appreciate what you do.

Past Clients

The Pareto principle says that 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. It is easier to convince someone of your value when they have already used your services (if you have done a good job) than to try to convince total strangers to give you a try.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Recent studies have shown that word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most powerful methods for growing a business. People are much more likely to accept a recommendation from someone on their social network than from any marketing material they might see from a company. This being the case, it is important to make sure you have happy customers, and cultivate them as a referral system so you can get steady work regularly without having to spend a lot of time chasing after it.

Consider Offering Incentives

This can be a bit tricky because it is really like a bribe and you need to administer the program to make sure everyone gets what they are entitled to. However, it can be a great way to get more referrals. Think discounts, one free month of service, an upgrade, and so on. Remember, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers, so keep your existing ones happy.

Ask for Referrals at the Right Time

Some business owners make the mistake of asking for a referral as soon as the new client has signed up. The trouble is, how do they know whether they like you or not? Ask for referrals once a project has been completed. Also, ask in your regular email newsletter to clients.

Another good time to ask would be at the end of a survey in which you remind them of all the services you currently offer, and then ask them what other services they would find useful if you were to add them to your business.

It’s easier than you may think to get good referrals, and it is a great way to get more business with minimum effort.

Email Marketing

One of the easiest ways to keep in touch with past, present and future clients is to maintain email marketing lists. A service like AWeber.com allows you to create up to 1000 lists in your account, so you should have no trouble being able to create three separate lists to nurture these different relationships.

For past and current clients, you could send out a newsletter once a month with some valuable niche-related content and any new services you might have added to your business. Treat them like they are special (which of course they are), and consider offering them discounts and coupons, or special service packages that bundle your offerings.

For prospective customers, get them on your list first by offering them a useful free item related to your niche. It could be a checklist, cheat sheet or other items that show you are something of an expert and can help clients. Then send them more details about the services you provide. For example, you might be a  heating and air company who specializes in HVAC. Consider offering niche-related content such as tips to keep their HVAC running strong etc.

By nurturing your current and past clients as well as looking for new ones, you will get more business with less effort.

Do you have an email list and are you spending time building it each month? Are you staying in contact with your customers? Are you consistently adding value to your email list?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it is costing you business!

Now is the time to get going with your email marketing efforts and we’ve got you covered…check out this article for some email list building and management tips you can act on today to start growing your business. Click Here