Reactivating Customers

If something cost you, say, $100,000 in marketing expense to obtain, would it make sense to just ignore it and never use it after you paid for it? Of course not! However, that is what a lot of business owners do. What I'm talking about your list of past customers and lapsed customers. Each name on that list represents every dollar you've spent on marketing and all the time you've spend on creating fancy ads, networking, writing letters and all the other marketing you do to capture customers and get them into your database.

It costs some 8-10 times as much to acquire new customers, so the "past" customer list becomes even more valuable. These customers already know you and presumably trust you, which makes them far more likely to buy from you again if you have something of value to them.

So, don't think of these customers as "past". Think of them as "inactive" customers with the potential to come back and do business with you now and many more times into the future. But you will need to help them and give them an incentive.

One good way to get "inactive" customers back, is with a letter - this should be highly personalized and begin with something like: "We miss you! We want you back!" Remind the customer that you consider them just that - a valued customer - and give them a reason why they should come back and do business with you again. Make an offer or give them an incentive to come back, such as a discount or two for one offer. Ask them to take action and place a time limit on your incentive offer.

Another way is to phone your "inactive" customers. The message should be the same as in the letter. Also, take this opportunity to get their updated contact details.

Your "inactive" customer list is almost certainly a far richer source of future business than customer you have yet to attract and sell. You still need to continue your efforts to find new customers to constantly build you database, but once you have those names, "never let them go"! (That reminds me of a song!!)