"Gimme a #$*ing Cupcake!": How to Survey Your Way to Loyalty
You want to know what your customers think about you and your business. You're gonna love this – It's insanely complex and convoluted. (Note the heavy use of sarcasm). YOU ASK THEM!
Since I write about direct mail, you can bet that I don't advise you present this question to every person who walks in your shop. That would be inefficient and highly unscientific. Let's face it, if you can't measure client responses again the rest of the people who buy from you, you either don't have enough customers or you method of inquiry is flawed. And for the sake of this article, I am going to concentrate on proper inquiry.
You need to send a survey out to your base. You need to find out how you are performing in their eyes. This does not need to be a completely separate mailing (why spend additional money if you don't have to). I often advise clients to create 1 to 3 surveys a year and just include them as part of their regularly scheduled envelope ad mailings. That way, you only pay for the printing of the survey and not another envelope, mailing services and postage.
In case you are wondering about the title, it is in reference to a friend of mine who runs a local grocery store - Anthony. When it comes to marketing a small business he does a quarterly coupon mailing and just recently started including a survey. His survey questions ask customers for feedback on the discount incentives, the level of customer service they receive, items they would like to see more of, and a ‘write in' box that requests the customer fill in their specific requests. The mailing includes a self addressed envelope for the recipient to return. His responses to the survey tend to be higher than his direct mail effort. He got about 50 surveys and more than a few of them made a comment about his in-store bakery. The grocer offers a range of full loaf breads but not much in the way of sweets or coffee cakes. One person wrote, "You never have any samples like Trader Joes! They have a new product sample every day. You never give away sample foods! Gimme a #$*ing Cupcake or something and I might come in more!" This is priceless market research!
Well Anthony took this to heart. His next mailing promoted his bakery and specifically mentioned customers should come in on Friday for a special new edition. You guessed it – Anthony had cupcakes for anyone who stopped by the bakery counter. When I asked him the following week how his bakery sales fared, he told me the previous Friday's business was up considerably. He used a mix that is not readily available in the local supermarket and because of the samples, he had completely sold out of it along with the bulk of his bread loaf stock for the weekend!
Prior to reading the survey, Anthony really believed that samples were just money down the drain. But now he had input from existing customers. This gave him ‘actionable intelligence' on how to respond to the competition and expand on his services in a way that his customers desire. Keep this in mind the next time you feel like your customers are being wishy-washy and that ‘loyalty doesn't exist'. Customer loyalty needs to be earned. It only requires that you ask the right questions.
Questions and Answers
Blogs are totally different marketing tool when compared to traditional marketing channels. They are interactive and proved to be a killer marketing tool for small business models. They are more effective and bring flood of new customers. Blogs are very helpful in marketing your small business.
In the past, only the major corporations offered company research and marketing surveys. However, more and more businesses are realizing that consumers savor the opportunity to earn cash rewards, discounts, coupons, shipping deals, and free samples as a result of taking company marketing research polls and surveys.
How to spawn lots of money moderately briskly next to little work and little time? Don't give me answers close to prostitusion,rob a bank or something close to that..I need something valid,legal(or less legalized but no verry illegal :D ) and smart.I promise i'll share the money beside whom gives me...
Having your assumptions challenged isn't necessarily a pleasant experience, especially when you're already an established business professional, because as experts we're supposed to already have the answers, right? Wrong. When marketing online the consumer is the only expert. The sooner we, as business owners, come to grips with this the better.
We offer market research, market survey research, market research analyst, market research company, marketing research surveys online, market research companies, market research agency, market research firms, market research surveys.
Free market research analysis tools have made is easy for business owners to collect data required to carry out surveys to help improve their business and understand it better.
Avoid any relative words in advertising. Words like stronger, better, less are relative. Also avoid words indicating an extreme position like "No 1", "the best", "quickest" etc. Quantify any claim and support with a testimonial or certifying agency. Quantify quick delivery by saying how fast, most durable by saying how long. Mind can see and feel only quantified terms. So use quantified terms to make the prospects understand easily.
The most efficient use is to promote your business. Indeed, they have become a cost effective tool in your marketing arsenal.
Generating a particular variety of envelope needs knowledge of the medium, printing procedure, and tools. Recognize the fundamental procedure and components affecting envelope printing to come back up with the sought after consequence.
Even Master Marketers find the subject of writing a sales letter confusing and sometimes intimidating. There are hundreds of books and thousands of articles on the art of writing an effective sales letter, each with its own unique viewpoint.
Stop your prospects in their tracks with powerful headlines and you draw them into your sales message. Here are four proven techniques.
Marketing and sales need to work together. Dividing the two will keep you from reaching your full potential.
Postage is a non value adding item to your campaign. You are best served by keeping the mail light and your postage cost down.
Split testing is what direct marketers far and wide use to determine which ads work and which don't. Knowing how to test is the biggest challenge. Once you have it figured out, you put yourself on the path to build stronger and stronger messages.
Attention getting headlines keep people interested. You want them to open your offer and this is not guaranteed just because you have the right list. You need to spark their interest.
Knowing how to find clients is important. Knowing how to find your BEST clients is essential.
Discuss this Article
