BY BILL FAETH
You’re losing clients and you don’t even know it.
It’s OK. It happens to every company, but you need to take action and plan to recapture these customers if you want to grow revenue. Did you know it is seven times more cost efficient to resell to an existing client than it is to acquire a new customer?
You may be asking,“How do I recapture existing clients if I don’t even know that I’m losing them?”
This is where the We Want You Back campaign comes into play. The promotion is one of the single most profitable marketing campaigns that my team and I have launched in the past four years, and it is relatively easy to create and implement on your own without technical prowess.
The goal of We Want You Back is to identify customers with financial value who have stopped using your service so you can recapture them as clients.
Step 1: Determine Your Threshold
To start, set a spend threshold for individual client value to focus on during this campaign. This could be $200 per month, $2,000 per month, or $200,000 annually. Then determine the value of the clients you want to reacquire. Once you have established your target value, run a report in your operating system to see which clients match this criteria.
Next, you’ll want to run a second report to see which clients on this list have not booked with you over the past 90 days, six months, or 12 months until you reach your targeted value threshold. You may need to segment the date range to match the client value you are aiming for.
Step 2: Record a Video
Now that you have your defined client value and your list of target customers, it is time to create your We Want You Back campaign. You’ll need to start with a short video, which can be shot with your phone. There is no need to go out and get an expensive camera; however, there are two key elements that must be included:
Sincerity: You need to communicate that you want to earn their business back while expressing how much you valued them as a client. It is crucial to show compassion and build trust by asking to “earn” their business back.
An Offer: In order to initiate the opportunity to win back business, this is one of the few times that you’ll want to provide a discount on your services. The discount needs to be a loss-leader for you and should be valuable enough to entice a former client to give you another chance. I recommend that your discount is offered in a specific dollar amount—not a general percentage—that is equal to 50 percent off your standard sedan airport transfer rate.
Once you determine a deal for the initial transaction, you want to provide the customer with an additional discount of 10 to 20 percent on any trips booked over an established time period of 60 to 90 days. This allows you to provide even more value to the customer, making the offer almost irresistible. This also gives you more time to win them back as a regular client.
Step 3: Launch Your Campaign
The delivery of the video offer is very important. To start, you will want to script and record your video, incorporating the two key elements mentioned previously.
Next, upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and then embed it onto a landing page that is designed only for the campaign. Do not send your customer to YouTube or embed the video onto an existing service page; remember, this offer is being geared to a specific client base only.
If you don’t have the ability to build a landing page, then we recommend LeadPages.net, which allows you to easily create one without requiring coding skills.
Then, generate a discount or coupon code compatible with your operating system so you can track who is taking advantage of the offer. Be sure that your landing page includes a form that must be completed to obtain the discount or the code so you can also keep track of who converts on the landing page.
Lastly, create your launch email to send the offer using a service like MailChimp or Constant Contact. Take a screenshot of the video from your landing page to use as an image in the email to accompany the link.
Once your launch email is ready, then build a second and third email to be sent over the duration of the campaign to remind your customer to take advantage of the offer.
If you are running a 30-day campaign, send two emails two weeks apart. If it’s a 60-day campaign, send two emails three or four weeks apart. For a 90-day campaign, you will need to create a third email in the follow-up sequence. You will want to send these three emails four weeks apart over the course of 90 days.
The We Want You Back campaign has proven to be very successful at reclaiming customers, with some of my clients recapturing as much as 10 to 15 percent of their annual lost revenue in one campaign launch. Just think of what a little research, a few emails, and an iPhone can do for your business! [CD0216]
Bill Faeth is founder and president of Inbound Marketing Agents in Nashville and founder of Limo University. He can be reached at bill@limogrowth.com</a>.</em> <br /><br />"