From
The Desk Of: John Clendenning
Date:
Dear fellow
franchisee,
If
you’re in
business to sell your services and products, you MUST be in regular
and
frequent contact with your current customers, clients, and prospects.
This is known as "Building Your Fence." Your fence is designed to keep
your clients and customers "IN" and the rabid competition who are
insistently trying to poach your herd "OUT"!
In the book, No B.S. Direct Marketing,
author and marketing genius Dan
Kennedy says
"My
single biggest recommendation is
the use of a monthly customer
newsletter. Nothing, and I mean nothing, maintains your fence better."
If you're a typical franchise owner,
you've probably invested a great
deal of time, money and energy growing your business. Knowing that it
costs five times more to attract new customers than it does to keep
(and sell more to) current ones, I have a question for you:
"Why
has it been months (or longer)
since
your customers have heard from you?"
Simply put, not being in frequent
contact with your customers is
killing your business!
Let me ask you...
- Are
you sick and tired of chasing new customers? (you know the ones
who only seem to care about “How Much You Charge”?)
- Are
you tired of
looking at your bank account each month and wondering where the money
will come from to pay your bills?
- Are
you stressed out daily, working your
ass off, missing out on family things, or worse, sitting at home
because you have no work?
I know because I used to be that business owner! The person who was so
inspired
by what I thought was going to be my financial freedom with my new
business. Then one day I realized I was really chasing cash flow, not
making any real money! I’d be dead before I had a chance to
enjoy my
life if I didn’t do something different!
If any of that reminds you of your current life, then have I got a
suggestion for you!
Let’s call it Part 1 of
“A
Small Business Rescue Formula”. Truth is
it’s
important to use it all the time, but even more so now with this
uncertain economy. It offers you more profits and more business, very
easily and with minimal effort… I mean that honestly with all
my heart.
Let me explain.
The
truth is that for just about any company,
the greatest
potential
for new business and profits lies within its
current
customer base.
That’s right - its
current
customer base. Yet a
majority
of companies
constantly spend the
majority
of their marketing efforts and resources
on
trying to
win over new customers.
This Is A
Critical
And Costly Marketing Mistake!
Let me talk about
customer
retention versus
customer
acquisition.
(Keeping what you have versus chasing after the "new")
Did you know that the businesses gaining market share the fastest right
now are doing
so by plugging holes in their operational and marketing systems and
thus
retaining
more customers; this is especially important in this current economy.
The
dominant strategy at work here is
customer
retention,
NOT
customer
acquisition. This is huge mindset shift for most
companies.
Unfortunately some companies never get this mindset shift, and
eventually go out of business.
The sooner you understand chasing new prospects and ignoring existing
customers is a money losing venture (that will keep your bank account
much lower then it should be), the sooner you will be on your way to
success.
"It
really
is difficult to comprehend. I mean, we do a great job
for our
customers, we offer incredible service, they are
always happy, but 12 months later
they don’t call us??"
The
changing point for me was about 3 years into my cleaning business.
I had 2 vans on the go, things were good. I had cleaned at this one
home myself the past 2 years. We always did a follow up after every
call, so I knew they were happy. In fact we even sent out a survey to
make sure they had every opportunity to tell us what they thought -
good or bad.
So anyway, (I can still remember this 12 years later). I’m
cleaning 4
houses down, bringing in my vacuum, and a Rotostatic van shows up at
the house I had cleaned at for the past 2 years? Like I said we had
done great work, always followed up, so why was Rotostatic there?
Unfortunately, this kind of stuff bugs me!
So much in fact I had to
find out
why
these people would betray me like that. At first I
justified everything I could... maybe a family member owned or worked
for
the other company. Maybe someone else had bought the house?
To make a long story short, I had my wife (who ran the office at that
time), make a call to them. Leslie’s very diplomatic and very
pleasant
to talk to, so she was the right person for the job. It ends up that
they just couldn’t remember who had cleaned for them??
"My Jaw
Hit The Floor...How Could This Be?"
I did an incredible job, followed
up; I did everything right! Or so I thought!
Here’s what I learned from that, and something I am sharing
with you
right now, that may be a turning point in your business and life, I
hope it is...
I
was arrogant to think that my cleaning and my service was so great
that nothing else was needed to keep my customers from calling someone
else 12 – 18 months after I had cleaned for them! The worst
part was, I
couldn’t stop wondering how many more of my customers were
doing the
same thing??
Imagine every year 10, 20, 50
...who
knows, pick a number of customers were calling someone
else because I was arrogant! Way back then my job average was around
$145.00. Think about the thousands of dollars I lost each year!
It was at that point I committed to doing a better job of keeping my
customers in my fence, and keeping more of the money I worked hard for,
for me and my family!
I bet you’ve experienced something like this before, I know
you must
have, and it SUCKS!
So what have you done about it?
Most sales reps and advertising folks are actually taught to
sell the "magic pill" that instantly and effortlessly cures all your
problems and provides a one-size-fits-all solution to reach your dream
business. However, aren't you getting just a bit tired of
guaranteed results that deliver almost nothing in the end?
Which of
These Customer Retention
Methods Are Wasting Most of
Your Time and Money?
YellowPage
Advertising - I only put this one first because I hear it
all the time. "I
spend gobs of money to have one of the biggest or best ads in the
YellowPages so I know my customers can find me there."
ARE
YOU
FREAKIN' NUTS!! You NEVER
want your customers to go searching for you in the same place all of
your competition hangs out. If you could, you should want to rip
the carpet cleaning section out of all of your customers
phonebooks so
they never have the chance of accidentally going there and calling the
wrong company.
Neighborhood
Fliers - Ok, this one is not quite as silly as the first
example but really - fliers are meant to provide a great, compelling
reason for NEW customers to give you a try. The type of
message you use to entice a new customer and what you should be doing
and saying to build a deep relationship with your existing clients is
entirely different. You just can't expect fliers to serve as a customer
retention tool.
Database
Postcard Mailings - O.K. now you're at least hitting the
right crowd - so that's plus. And for those with deep pockets, paying
for
regular snazzy postcard to go out may seem like a good idea. But here's
the problem with this idea - postcards in business are typically used
to make an offer and / or pitch your wears - right? So how
much product and service pitching do you think your current clients
will tolerate before your postcards are doing the opposite of relationship building?
My guess is not very much.
Annual
Reminder Mailings - Awesome! A reminder can
certainly generate decent action and keep some of your
customers on a very regular schedule. I always recommend any service
business have a systemized, solid, multi-step reminder system.
But reminding someone about their last service visit and
giving them an offer to use you again in "your" desired timeframe is a
far cry from what you should be doing which is - nurturing the
relationship with them over a period of months and years, being seen as
a trusted advisor and friend and their go-to source for advice on all
of the services you offer. Do you see the
difference?
Whether
You're Using Any or
All
Of These Marketing
Methods, You Are Still Missing Out On One
of the Most Profitable, Time Tested and
Proven Method of All Time...
So, here’s the real simple and easy part of what I learned
about and
then implemented in my business to stop that
from happening
EVER AGAIN...
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
MARKETING
Being in
REGULAR and
FREQUENT
contact with your customers, prospects,
and clients
in a
meaningful and welcomed way is essential to your business
growth and profitability.
Every smart, profitable business has a strong "fence" around their
customers. A fence is designed to keep your customers in close where
you can grow and strengthen the relationship – maximizing the
profitability of these relationships by doing more repeat and referral
business.
Super successful business owner and International renowned marketing
expert Bill Glazer puts it this way:
"Who
should be sending out
newsletters to their customers / clients /
patients / prospects?
The answer is EVERYBODY!!! That’s right;
there is not a business on the
planet that couldn’t benefit BIG TIME with a monthly company
newsletter."
If that's true (and it IS) then why doesn’t every business
use one?
That is an easy question to
answer.
Newsletters can be difficult and time consuming to produce. That is why
most companies that actually do have a
“monthly”
newsletter only send
it out only
three to
four times per year!
In survey after survey the top two reasons given are...
- They
take too long
to produce, and
- I’m
Always
Struggling for Content (get this part wrong and
your newsletter ends up in the trash)
The 3rd reason is I don’t have time. And as a small business
owner I
battled with all 3 reasons for a long, long, time.
At first I was excited and so was Leslie, so the first 3
month’s, no
problem - we were newsletter experts (or so we thought).
"Heck, this won't be that hard," we thought. Sure
they were A LOT of work and sure it was a royal pain in the a** but we
sent them out on time and...
Well after our initial excitement and euphoria wore off, other "more
important" things seemed to get in the way and our monthly
newsletter
became a bi-monthly ...and then quarterly ...and then...
well you get the picture.
I’m speaking from experience here, the results are rewarding
for a
lifetime, but the effort of finding content, designing the page,
printing, stuffing and sending is draining.
Or At Least
It Use To Be!
With the help of John and working with some other wise business people,
we found and
contracted the services of a seasoned copywriter, journalist and direct
response master to write
our newsletters, and I got to tell you -
it was the
best
investment I have ever made in my cleaning business - HANDS
DOWN!
A true
"No
Hassle”
monthly client newsletter - who would of thought!
So for over 2 years now John and I, along with a group
of other savvy business owners, pay a monthly fee to one of
the top newsletter writers in the industry. We
researched around for over 6 months and talked with far too
many providers that say they offer this type of
marketing?!? The one thing we found is that most are junk and
appear slapped together.
We chose the fellow we finally found because of his
understanding of relationship marketing and his willingness to adapt
and provide interesting content, involvement devices and subtle
triggers that would have our customers wanting
to read it month after month.
That’s awesome in itself because no other provider was
willing to
adapt, but even better for me (the non techy guy) was how simple of a
format is used for me to work with. I mean it actually takes me 8
minutes each month to; open the file, personalize it and have
it ready for printing!!
John and I branded ours the
HAPPY
& HEALTHY
HOME NEWS™ and our clients just love it!
You're probably thinking...
"That's
great guys,
but what does
any of this have to do with me?"
Well
here's the interesting part. A short while ago
we were having a strategy call with our newsletter copywriter and
discussed with him our concerns that, from our conversations
with the network, many franchisees just weren't doing
enough to not only survive but continue to grow during any economic
slowdown. We told him that it wasn't that we felt our fellow
franchisees were lazy or anything but that they just weren't sure what
to do.
As the conversation progressed we shared with him
how we know our monthly client newsletter was the #1 marketing tool
and backbone of each of our businesses, and helped us to sustain our
steady growth. Then we asked if he would be willing to give us the o.k.
to bringing this awesome client retention and referral tool to the
entire network.
To be honest, he thought long and hard about it for a while.
You see, we shopped around a lot before finding our
current provider several years ago. I’ve seen others offering
services
for newsletters, the prices typically range from $99/ month to
$149/ month, and none offer the
ability to adapt the newsletter the way John and I wanted. So to be
frank, it was a bit of a battle to convince the provider to de-value
his newsletter so we could share it with you and while he agreed with
the idea and recognized the need, he did put in some
conditions on us.
Next, we had to pass this idea by the other business owners we
share this program with already.
At First
EVERYONE Was
A Bit Sceptical
As with most people, when you
have something good, why would you want to share it?? After a few
emails and a conference call, we convinced all parties it was
completely acceptable and the right thing to do to let other have
access to our newsletter.
Just
to be clear, right now I pay monthly for our
newsletter - not to mention the retainer costs associated with having a
first class writer to work for us who actually gets the
psychology of readership and customer relationship building.
The deal we struck will actually
decrease
the monthly costs by 30% ...
but only for
the businesses who sign on right now.
I will continue to use the newsletter each month and
I’ll
continue to pay what we pay now (which is a lot more than the rate we
are making it available to you at), no questions asked.
But Mama Didn’t
Raise No Fool! If we get more businesses to get
involved with
this great and
necessary database retention tool and we may actually save ourselves a
bit of money
on the retainer and such,
then heck, why not!!
I want to be very clear;
there
is no underlying agenda here. It’s a
monthly
newsletter that we know you need and we need, and we can all get it at
a
better price if we work as a group!
That’s
it!
But HAVING a
newsletter is really only the first step.
Setting up an easy and effective system that is so quick and brain-dead
simple to follow that you actually DO get your newsletters out the door
each
and every month is quite another.
Between John and me, we’ve gone through and shared all types
of
processes and systems over the last 10 years to help make sure our
constant stream of client nurturing communications goes out as easily
and consistently as possible. And when it comes right down to
it, we’ve learned a thing or two about how to simplify and
maximize
these puppies so we can get the maximum benefit with the very least
amount of effort.
After all, if it ain’t easy your probably not going to do it
over the
long haul (neither would I) - and it’s the consistency that
is the true
SECRET
behind the successes seen with monthly client newsletters.
And that’s why we promise that...
We’re
not
going to leave you
hanging
You see, we’re not just interested in just dumping our truly
awesome
newsletter on your lap each month and leaving it to you to figure out
exactly
who
to send it to,
what's
the best way to get it printed,
how
to save tons of money on
postage,
how to add
your personal touches and so on.
Nope, that would be just plain mean.
So I decided I'd be willing to host a
NEWSLETTER CLUB. And
I am also going to throw in a
few
BONUS
GIFTS to make sure that you get up and running with this
program right away, get your first issue out by this time next month
and see the complete value in your monthly
newsletter retention program right away.
Let me explain:
BONUS
GIFT #1
You're going to get a
FREE
ready to personalize
issue of next months
HAPPY & HEALTHY
HOME NEWS™, to
review and use with your database. Like I mentioned earlier typical
monthly newsletters are $99 to $149 each and every month. You get to
try out one that has been tested to your type of customers, for over 3
years now, brining in a predictable monthly revenue stream, all year
long -
FOR
FREE!!
But obviously that’s not all…
BONUS
GIFT #2
I am also going to
provide you with an introductory
Newsletter Master Class Call
to teach you everything we know about marketing with newsletters,
answer your questions and make sure your first issue goes out the door
without a hitch.
As you can imagine, this has a cost for John and I. First there
is our time investment
(which
I for one prefer to be very selfish with) and of
course the conference line costs. But if we are
going to work as a team and get our franchises making some serious
growth, then I want to share what I can and also get your feed back so
I can increase my own sales.
BONUS GIFT #3
Since John is the techy and since we both understand that the
US is a
big country with various time zones, we both thought it would be good
to record all the calls and keep them available for you to reference at
any time. Even when you are on the calls it's often
helpful to
replay them and catch what you've missed. I know I
download any calls I’m on to my iPod and listen to
them again
2 and
3 times -- and I
always
catch an extra idea.
So again, at our cost, no additional cost to you, this service will be
available.
BONUS
GIFT #4
One of the first questions you will have is;
"How do I put
special
offers in my newsletter?"
Now newsletters themselves are best used as relationship and
retention devices BUT done properly, with the right tone and
layout etc. providing exclusive offers to your clients through your
newsletter has generated anywhere from
several
thousand to tens of thousands of dollars from just one issue.
So I will
host a call and provide a report dedicated to
Newsletter Inserts That Sell
and well be including
some examples of inserts that have worked for us over the years
So you'll get free samples of inserts that we’ve developed
and tweaked
over time that
work for us and a special call on inserts hosted on our line
-
all at
no cost to you!!
BONUS
GIFT #5
The above items comprise just the introduction to the
NEWSLETTER CLUB that
I mentioned earlier. Your monthly access to our exclusive
NEWSLETTER CLUB will
allow you:
- to access our NEWSLETTER CLUB
members site - (coming soon)
- to download access to each
current issue of
the HAPPY &
HEALTHY
HOME NEWS™ every month,
- to access the replay mp3
files for
all Newsletter Master
Class calls,
- to access all training
tools,
samples and videos provided to make using your HAPPY & HEALTHY
HOME NEWS™ easier than you could ever imagine,
- and (if
interest warrants) we'll even provide a members forum
where you can
share your ideas, suggestions, promotions, results and questions with
your other fellow NEWSLETTER
CLUB members! - at
no charge!
BONUS
GIFT #6
You’ll see a link at the
bottom of this page where
you
can sign-up for your very own first
month’s
edition of
our done-for-you
HAPPY
& HEALTHY HOME NEWS™ and
you’ll also notice
we're only charging a measly $1 for your first month test
drive of the newsletter and access to all of
the other
NEWSLETTER
CLUB bonuses and benefits listed above.
Most people will say
"Wow thank
you, that's an incredible offer!" and sign up
right away so they don't miss out... and I'll bet you're in that boat.
Inevitably, however, someone will be put off by the fact that
we're charging a buck for the first month trial and then call
us up to complain so I thought I would address that here. The
fact is there are several reasons for the $1 fee, but the main
one is,
nothing we get
in life for free holds any perceived value - in
our opinion.
So if you
really feel this newsletter is something you need to start
your
Client
Retention & Recession Rescue Plan, then $1 will
more than certainly not make or break
your decision.
Heck at $1 it actually costs us money with our merchant account, but
it’s
the mindset of what you are doing and what you are investing in that
holds the value to this decision.
After your trial is up,
you'll
be happy to know we've been able to get
the monthly subscription and membership rate down to an industry low
$67 / month. And you won't have to sign up again to maintain
your full access at this rate. Simply, on or about the 20th
of
each month your membership fee will be processed automatically and you
will get an email letting you know that the next months issue is
uploaded, ready and waiting for you.
And of course
there are NO
contracts to sign and NO
tiny print
mumbo-jumbo. If you find that you are just not
interested in
growing a strong, profitable and stable client base through the proven
power of relationship building client newsletters then you'll
be free to cancel your subscription and membership at any time
by simply sending us an email or calling our office. As I said earlier
there
is no underlying agenda here. We're doing this
to help make your business and the entire industry stronger
and
healthier -
That’s
it!
Point being, we think we have found a fair monthly value for our
exclusive
HAPPY
& HEALTHY HOME NEWS™ program. And when
factor in
all of the support and bonuses we're providing, the fact that it set up
to be a simple download, a few short minutes of to
personalize and costs us all considerably less then any other
newsletter on the market ... I think we have a winner!!
But you've heard enough of
me now, I'll let these others do the talking...
Here's
What Some Of Your Fellow Franchisees and Colleagues
Are Saying About Us and Our Newsletter Club Program ...
We have found the Newsletters to be
almost effortless!
We started using the Newsletter Club
in
August. After 15 years as a Chem-Dry operator, we did maintain
a certain level of mail outs - ie yearly Winter White Post cards,
follow
up surveys, and sparatic "specials". I realized that we were sitting
on our most valuable source for new work...old customers! So, one of
my goals once our last child entered school in September, was to step
up
our marketing, a notch or three.
We have found the Newsletters to be
almost effortless. The content is well
put togeather, timely and a good read. Now for the interesting
part...our
sales for the first 3 quarters of 2009 were down by 9.5%, but our sales
for the last quarter, where we introduced the Newsletter are up by 6%
over
the same period in 2008?!?!?! ...the bottom line is the only thing we
did differently is send out your newletter.
So are we going to continue...you bet!
Lisa & Steve
Business Owners, Edmonton Alberta
The Results Of This Are Amazing!
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to send you a quick shout
out about the newsletters and how effective they have become... the
results of this are amazing. Because we live is a relatively small
market our clientele is limited, but that has not made a difference.
Thanks for this amazing resource.
Jeff Crozier
Rocky Mountain Carpet Cleaning
The newsletter has become one of the
primary ways we keep ourselves in the minds of the customers in our
database.
In the economic crunch we’ve
been
facing lately post cards just aren’t getting the response we
need to
keep our schedule full. We recognize a need to develop new ways to
advertise our business. The newsletter has become one of the primary
ways we keep ourselves in the minds of the customers in the database.
Pam says the design is so simple that
even Roy, as inept around a computer as he is, can edit, tweak it and
get it prepared for the printer.
It’s inexpensive to produce
and people
are calling us because they received the newsletter!
Thanks Guys!
Roy Wood
Westland Facility Services
The Business It Has Generated Is
Remarkable!
Dear John,
When I first started my business more
than four years ago, I was, through my previous work experience, well
aware of the impact newsletters can have on a business. So of course
when I started one of the first marketing tools I developed was a
newsletter. Having written and shopped two manuscripts around, I
thought I as pretty good with the written word. Once a month I would
scour the internet for great articles, stories, and quotes, add my own
touch and put it all together and after a week of hard work,
I’d send
it out to my customers. Business picked up and that week’s
work on the
newsletter became homework, done at night after dinner. Then business
picked up some more and it became a quarterly newsletter. It had now
become more than a week of hard work after dinner to get it together,
off to the printer and out to my customers.
Now back to that
“I’m a pretty good
with the written word.” With all my hard work, all my
creative and
imaginative prose, well positioned promotions, and lovely pictures, I
was getting some response back and some of my customers were actually
using my promotions, tips & recipes, but no where near as many
as I had envisioned while sweating over the keyboard.
A few months ago Shawn and John
approached some of us with the idea of joining them in using a
newsletter that was not only professionally done, current, and
relevant, but easily customized as well.
One look at the newsletter convinced
me!
Now once a month I download a
professionally researched, well written newsletter. I customize it to
reflect my company and my customers and I have it out to the printer
within half an hour. The response from my customers to the newsletter
has been very rewarding, and the business it has generated is
remarkable.
Newsletters are the one marketing item
none of us should or can afford to be without. Shawn and John have
provided a remarkable and useful tool that should be in the arsenal of
every business out there.
I am extremely happy I am part of this
venture and intend to use it for a great many years to come.
Best Regards
Robert M McLeod
President,
EKO Carpet & Upholstery Care
So, let me recap everything that you get with your
HAPPY
& HEALTHY HOME NEWS™ subscription...
