| Most businesses focus their entire marketing budget | | | | Fortunately, there are automated tools called |
| on trying to win new customers and they forget their | | | | autoresponders that do this work for you. An |
| most valuable asset...the customers they already have. | | | | autoresponder is a web-based software system that |
| What's even worse is if they finally decide they want | | | | sends out emails when someone signs up to receive |
| to change this, they don't even have a way to contact | | | | them. Then it sends out emails at intervals you set up. |
| the largest percentage of their customers. | | | | You can also set it up to send an email on a specific |
| The difference between a highly profitable small | | | | day, such as a holiday. You can use that feature to |
| business and one that barely gets by could the result | | | | send out holiday reminder emails that are targeted to |
| of one thing, whether or not you capture customer | | | | bring business into your store. You simply enter your |
| contact info...and then use that info wisely. By not | | | | email messages into the autoresponder one time, and |
| attempting to capture contact information for every | | | | these messages are sent automatically whenever |
| customer who comes through your door you are | | | | anyone signs up on your customer list. |
| essentially throwing money away. To get it back, you | | | | One of the best ways to capture customer |
| need to develop a customer list and then send a | | | | information is to have customers enter a drawing for a |
| minimum of 25 "messages" a year to your this list. A | | | | valuable item right as they enter the store. The items |
| message could be an email, direct mail piece, fax, or | | | | you give away do not have to be expensive. They |
| phone call. | | | | just need a high perceived value. An MP3 music player |
| Before you have an anxiety attack over sending that | | | | would be an example of something with a high |
| many messages to your list, there are ways to | | | | perceived value. Using eBay you can even buy these |
| automate the process so you can go about running | | | | items from Hong Kong at a huge discount. |
| your business or enjoying life. This automation gets | | | | Once you build your customer list and then start mining |
| your messages out regardless of how busy you get | | | | it for the solid gold it contains, you'll start seeing your |
| (the more messages that go out, the busier you'll get). | | | | profits soar. |