The way to truly grow a business is through repeat customer sales. Think about it. If every single month you had to start fresh to find and convert new prospects into sales – you’d be exerting tremendous amounts of energy just to stay at the same monthly revenue level.

By contrast, what if your business ran with this sales model. Month one you bring in 30 sales. The next month, let’s say 10% of your customers purchased again. You received the same number of new customer sales plus the 3 repeat sales … so now you have 33 sales for that month. If you repeat this over the course of a year you’d be bringing in 79 sales a month at the end of the year! And this would snowball and continue to grow over time.

Of course your numbers will vary from this example. You may be bringing in more or less than 30 sales a month. And your repeat customer number depends on your product - so it can also be more or less than 10%. Plus there are months when you do shows or other promotional events that bring in more sales. But the theory still works regardless of your numbers.

I’m sure you’ve heard the fact that it costs more (in time and money by the way) to convert a looker into a customer. 5x more for that matter! 5x!!! In addition to all these new customer acquisition efforts, to grow your business you should be building on the momentum you’ve started with your brand new customers too.

Here’s how to do that.

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Hi there.

It's Sue.

And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

If you'd like to submit a topic,

DME over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,

the way to truly grow a business is through repeat customer

sales. Think about it.

If every single month you had to start fresh to find

and convert new customers into sales,

you'd be exerting extreme amount of energy just to stay at

the same monthly revenue number by contrast.

What if your business ran this sales model month one,

you bring in 30 sales the next month,

let's say 10% of your customers purchased again.

You received the same number of new customer sales.

Plus then you have three repeat sales.

So now you have 33 sales for that month.

If you repeat this over the course of an entire year,

you'd be bringing in 79 sales a month at the year

end, and this would snowball and continue to grow over time.

Now, of course your numbers will vary from this example,

you may be bringing in more or less than 30 sales

in a month right now.

And your repeat number depends on your product.

So it can be more or less than 10%.

Plus there are months when you do shows or other types

of promotional events that bring in more sales,

but the theory still holds regardless of your numbers.

I'm sure you've heard the fact that it costs more in

time and money,

by the way,

to convert a Looker into a customer five times.

For that matter five times,

in addition to all of these new customer acquisition efforts to

truly grow your business,

you should be building on the momentum.

You've started with your brand new customers to here's.

How to do that.

It all starts with capturing their email address online with your

own website.

That's easy.

It's automatic that when they place an order,

you'll have their email.

However, if you're selling through Etsy,

Amazon, or Facebook and Instagram shops,

you don't receive that information.

There are other techniques to capture their email that I'm not

going to dive into right now,

but we can talk about this in my Facebook,

Q and A's on Thursday mornings.

If you want,

just go over to gift biz breeze to join.

If you're not already a member there,

another place that we often forget to get emails is out

in face-to-face shows at a craft table,

ring up a sale exchange payment,

pack up the purchase,

say thank you.

And they're off.

This is a huge missed opportunity.

Make sure at these events you ask for your customer's email

at checkout,

and you should be doing the same thing.

If you have a retail shop too,

most people will give it to you.

If you explain the reason why you're asking,

you can tell them that it's so that you can give

them a bounce back coupon or to let them know about

upcoming product releases or to inform them a future shows.

You'll be attending things like that.

Then once you have that email,

you need to do something with it.

You need to use it,

send a brand new customer,

a welcome message.

You can check in to see how they liked their new

product, or if they have any questions at this juncture,

I don't want you to be selling anything.

You don't want your new customer to unsubscribe right at the

start. Remember everyone is hesitant these days to give or open

emails since we're all so conditioned to mailbox abuse,

too many emails and too much selling.

So be different.

Stand out by offering them something for free,

like a discount coupon,

or just to check in.

And yes,

I know a coupon is cutting into your profit,

but consider this as a promotional expense.

Second time purchasers are building a pattern for repeat sales.

Additionally, a repeat purchaser usually spends more.

This makes sense.

Think about it at first.

They're just trying out your product and your brand overall.

But once they've had a good experience,

they're ready to up the commitment.

They'll buy more of your products and now your relationship is

stronger. So continue to grow that connection by sharing more of

your brand.

This is the third step in emails,

give tips and advice on how to use or store your

product. Share fashion tips,

health benefits,

ideas for decorating or whatever matches your product and would be

of interest to your customer.

As it relates to your expertise.

You can also suggest they follow you on social,

where you can continue doing more of the same show behind

the scenes of your product production.

What your work day looks like.

Ask for feedback on new lines that you're creating.

There are so many ways you can engage your audience and

keep them interested in your business.

This is important so that you can stay top of mind

for these additional purchases.

I have a way for you to get more ideas on

how to do this.

Take a look at my content for maker's program.

It gives you a year of ideas that you can use

for social media posts,

blogging, email topics,

and more.

You can check it out at gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash content for makers.

What you're doing with this continual exposure is increasing your customers

trust in you.

And that leads us to the next step,

which is make a request.

The truth is most of your customers won't automatically think of

spreading the word about your great product,

unless you ask them once they've had a chance to get

to know you and your products.

And they've had a positive experience with communications and email.

In other words,

you're not spamming them,

or you've been communicating with them through direct messages on social.

They feel better about telling others about you.

So now's the time to ask them to help you out.

You can make several different types of requests.

Share this with a friend.

It could be an email or a family or friend discount.

Again. Remember this goes into the promotional expense category.

Another way to make a request is to ask for a

product review.

This just doesn't happen.

Unless you ask,

I've found that if you give them a topic to reply

to, it makes it easier for them to follow through.

So you can say,

would you please go over to my Facebook page?

And if you're doing this in an email,

include a link and write a review saying which scent of

candle you purchased and your thoughts on how it smelled and

the atmosphere it created.

Obviously you would adjust this to whatever your product is.

Another idea is to make special cards that promote a sale,

a private sale,

your customers like to feel special.

What about offering those who purchase in person a business sized

special offer card that they can pass on to their friends

or to use themselves for a limited time via a private

code. They have access to special items or discounts only available.

If they know the code,

this is so easy and inexpensive to do.

You can get cards printed up through Vista print for about

$20 that you can hand out at shows,

slip into repeat customer orders or any other way that you

want get creative,

but make sure that they know that this isn't a mass

offering it's special and you've selected them to have the secret

code. Another idea for repeat customers is holiday reminders,

depending again,

on your product,

you may have customers who buy from you only during certain

times of the year it's holiday season.

Now, of course,

have you pulled up your past purchaser list from November or

December 20,

20 better yet,

if you have their recipient names,

you can add that to an email and ask if they'd

like to send another gift to the same recipients this year,

that makes the gift giving so much easier on them.

You can't rely on people's memories to know how to reach

out to you all the way from last year,

show up in their inbox,

right in time to help them out when they need holiday

gift options.

Most let me review these again.

First thing is it all starts with their email address.

Then once you have that,

send an introduction,

email, welcoming them into your business brand,

share with them things behind the scenes and continue to develop

that relationship with them.

So they feel comfortable with you.

They've had good experiences,

a second sale,

where they're starting to build momentum in terms of purchasing with

your company.

And then you can go in and make a request.

Do you have other friends who would be interested in my

product? Would you help me out by writing a review,

things like that.

And then also pull up past customer lists for people who

only purchase from you during certain times of the year and

trigger their memory,

that you were the one who served them last year.

There's no limit to the ways that you can reach out,

show appreciation and build on loving up your customers.

It's worth it.

When you experience repeat sales that come in automatically and you

start seeing your revenue grow each and every month,

you'll know that you've put in place a successful client retention

strategy that you'll be able to rely on for years to

come. That's a wrap.

I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream

of yours.

Share your handmade products with us.