Very few small businesses do this. But for those that do, they get new business coming in from seemingly ‘nowhere’ every day. It’s easy to do. But it does require some writing, some organisation and scheduling.
Here’s who this is for:
- Small businesses with small marketing budgets
- New businesses, just starting out with a few customers
- Larger businesses facing tough competition
The Big Idea
And here’s the idea: collect email addresses and stay in touch with your existing clients.
To explain the power, here’s scenario:
Restaurant #1 and Restaurant #2
Both #1 and #2 are great places. Good food. Value for money. But they’re both facing tough times. Inflation. Patrons who don’t come as much, don’t spend as much.
But #1 has, over time, made a practice of staying close to their customers. On the very first visit they collect an email address from the customer.
- They offer them a ‘restaurant family recipe’ to reward the patron. They send it via email. Once a month they send a light email, detailing their specials.
- Via email they invite patrons to special events. In winter they send out news about their very affordable “Wednesday Winter Soup and Artisan Bread” evenings.
Restaurant #1 also collects anniversary and birthday dates.
- Two weeks ahead of these events, they send out an invitation to celebrate at their restaurant. They offer a special discount voucher. Even a special dish, your favorite!
Restaurant #2 does none of this. They just put an ad in the local newspaper. They put up the odd Facebook post. Then they hope for the best.
So, a question: which of #1 and #2 will get and keep getting business more consistently? And which of the two will be subject the the ups and downs of the market more?
#1 will. Obviously.
Benefits
Here are the benefits of collecting and using email like this:
- They’ll maintain better top of mind awareness in the mind of their customer.
- They’ll build better relationships with their customers.
- They’ll build a better reputation for service and care.
- Through feedback they’ll understand their customers better and will be able to adapt to their needs better.
- They’ll have access to their customers at the simple ‘send’ of an email.
And it applies not to just restaurants. Mechanical workshop. Hey, a place that sells bearings. A jeweller. A cleaning supplies business.
I think I have only been asked for an email at a restaurant on two occasions. One I remember well, for it’s follow up via email. The other took the email address but did nothing with it. Pity. Because it works.
[Need my help in putting ideas like this to work in your business? I can help. A lot of it revolves around writing the messages and coming up with the ideas. Let's get on a call for 15 minutes to see if we're good to work on this together. I'm on gerard@gerardleroux.me]