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Customer Loyalty Programs and Your Local Business

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Customer Loyalty Programs and Your Local Business

You’ve probably participated in a customer loyalty program. Many famous businesses have them, like Starbucks and Best Buy. In fact, both companies said that implementing their customer loyalty program has increased their bottom line.
These programs have their benefits. You may think, as a small business owner, that they’re too complicated to employ. That’s simply not true. You can make a customer loyalty program work for your small business. It’s not out of your reach. In fact, you’d be surprised at how easy it is to employ one.
Making it work, however, is a different story. It’s not impossible, but it will take a little bit of careful planning, and a lot of hard work.

Customer Loyalty Programs and Your Local Business

A customer loyalty program rewards repeat customers for continuing to buy from your business. It can be as simple as a punch card that allows you a free sandwich for every 5 you buy. Or it can be a program that allows you to accumulate points towards a prize. It doesn’t matter how it’s implemented. The point is that the customer gets something in return for their patronage.
Why Customer Loyalty Programs Are Important
You’ve probably heard that 80% of your business will come from repeat customers. So embrace it!
Customer loyalty programs help you obtain repeat customers. People love rewards. They will shop with you as long as the reward is something that is worth it to them.
Loyalty programs can be used for almost any type of business. Businesses in the food, health and electronics industry benefit from loyalty programs the most. However, that doesn’t mean that if you’re outside of this industry you can’t use a loyalty program. You just may have to be a bit more creative with how it works.
Choosing Rewards for Your Customer Loyalty Program
What type of reward you offer your customers will determine how many people sign up for it. If it doesn’t appeal to them then there’s no reason to sign up. So what should you offer as a reward?
Most businesses go with a free item. It could be a sandwich, a drink, or even a tanning session. You can also offer a percentage off. GNC offers a percentage off to Gold Club members on a certain day of the month. Even though you have to pay to get into the program, it works. If you pay to get into the program you’re going to make sure you get your money’s worth. That means you’re going to spend your money at the business whenever you get a chance. This helps GNC retain customers and keep them coming back.
Another idea is to partner with businesses that compliment yours. You can all use your loyalty programs to gain new customers and reward repeat ones. Let’s say you run a tanning salon, and there’s a gym and a spa in the area. Perhaps you can suggest to the other businesses that you set up a loyalty program together. If you buy 2 sessions from each business, you’ll get one session from a business of your choice for free.
Can you imagine the impact that would have on your business?
Just make sure that your rewards are actually attainable. If people have to make 100 purchases to see their reward, they’re probably not going to bother going through with it. A small amount of purchases are best. Try to stick to something under 10.
If it’s over 10, make sure that the reward is worth it. Perhaps after 15 purchases you get $50 off a $75 purchase. Or you can give them free tickets to a local sporting event. As long as the reward is reasonably attainable, people will work for it.

The Top Customer Loyalty Programs

Here are the top four programs for small to medium sized businesses.
Swipely: www.Swipely.com offers a loyalty program and aggregates data for you. It’s free to use, but you have to use their POS in order to get into the program. The data that they gather tells you things like whether your sales are working, what your most popular items are, and who your top spenders are.
The loyalty program actually gives cash back to customers. That’s a pretty good incentive. For business owners, you can monitor your online reputation, campaign effectiveness, and your financial data. In truth, Swipely gives you a ton of features. The loyalty program is great; users haven’t reported any problems in it. But the fact that they help you manage your business while gaining new customers makes them one of the best loyalty programs.
Belly: www.bellycard.com Belly is easy to use. They are a rewards card program. They set everything up for you. You even get an iPad with the system installed on it when you sign up for their program.  They give you analytics, email marketing options, mobile marketing, and everything else you need in order to run your loyalty program. While you can’t get the kind of analytics you get from Swipely, you will get pretty solid information about your customers spending habits and how it effects your business.
Belly plans start at $99 a month.
Five Stars: www.fivestars.com
This is a pretty simple rewards program. Once you sign up for it, they do all the work. Using this program, customers only need to put in their phone number to sign up. No one needs anything special to become a member.
Another plus is that they use automated campaigns. They contact customers that haven’t been to your store in a while an offer them incentives to come back. They also have a birthday rewards program. Five Stars pretty much runs your loyalty program for you.
There’s no pricing information on the website, but you can try out the demo for free.
Customer loyalty programs can really help your small business thrive. Sometimes it’s difficult to compete, especially if there’s a national chain in the area. But a loyalty program can help encourage people to keep coming back to your store.

How to Turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

How to Turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

Here’s the deal. Your business can have a huge presence on Facebook with thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of fans, but still struggle to get new clients. Why is this? Well, for the most part it is because you’re not doing a good enough job of turning those fans into actual paying customers.
You have done a great job with the first step in the process which is attracting people on Facebook and ultimately building a raving fan base. Now is the time, however, to take that next step of turning those fans into people that actually pay you money for what you have to offer.
Here are 4 strategies to consider that will help your fans turn into customers.

Be Consistent  With Content
In the overall scheme of things it is important that you keep your Facebook fans engaged and keep your brand in front of them at all times. To that end, it is very important that you as a business owner maintain a consistent approach to the content you are publishing for your followers. A good practice is to put something out there once a day that is likely to be shared or liked a lot. Not only will this help your content go viral and get in front of more people, it will also establish you as an authority in your industry.
Examples of content that you can post on a daily basis are how to articles, tips related to your industry or even interesting photos that your fans may want to see.  The key is to make this content as engaging as possible so that it keeps getting shared and it keeps your fans coming back for more.
Now, when one of your fans needs the service or product you offer who are they going to call? Exactly! They will call you because they know who you are and consider you an authority in your industry.

How to Turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

In order to convert more fans into customers, first your fans actually have to SEE what you are posting and promoting so they have the opportunity to become a customer.  One of the most dramatic changes Facebook has made recently is minimizing organic reach for brands.  Basically this means that only a tiny fraction of your fans will see your updates in their newsfeed.  According to Edge Rank Checker as of march 2014 it was estimated that you reach about 6.5% of your fan base with every post you make on your fan page.
There’s a number of ways you can increase your posts visibility within your fans newsfeed, and one of the best ways is to promote your posts.  A promoted post starts off just like any other post you’ve made on your fan page.  You simply choose a post you want to promote, like a special sale, or a story you want to share about your business.  Then you set a budget and the post is shared to a set number of Facebook members depending on your budget.  Your post will be seen by your fans, and even friends of your fans depending on your budget.  Promoting your posts is a very inexpensive way to ensure you get maximum visibility.
Another way to ensure your fans see your updates is to educate your fans that they can ‘Get Notifications’ from your Page.
Most of the time, users aren’t even aware that they aren’t getting seeing your updates.  Simply by telling them how they can stay better informed with your businesses special promotions will boost the number of people that actually see your posts.

Create Offers with Urgency or Scarcity
If you want to turn more of your Facebook fans into paying customers then you are going to have to market to them – plain and simple.
Now, a common and effective practice to use is creating offers and posting them to Facebook that have an element of scarcity or urgency to them in order to get people to act right away. In other words, why not post a coupon limited to the first 10-people who claim it for a certain percentage off your service? Or what about a special offer on a service that expires in 24-hours? Make the offer something that your fans cannot pass up and you will see the phone begin to ring! That said, once you end driving your fans from Facebook through your doors it is your job to keep them coming back. Use these special offers as a way to get them there – it’s up to you to keep them there.
Another way to reach your audience with a special deal is through Facebook Offers. This is a form of paid advertising where you can create an ad and target specific people with a special offer that will fit their needs.  Once the ad is created and displayed it will have a “get offer” button on it. When a user clicks this button they will be directed to an area where they can claim the discount offered by your company. The thing that makes Facebook Offers unique and very powerful is that they will actually email the person that claimed the offer to remind them to use it. In other words, they will do some of the dirty work for you to ensure that the person actually becomes a paying customer!

How to Turn Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

Having a robust fan base on Facebook is great and can be very profitable but there is an even better way to engage these people to turn them into customers. What is it you ask? Simple, it’s email. If you are able to drive your fans to your email list then you will be able to communicate with them on a whole other level.  Email newsletters are still the best way to communicate directly to your audience.
Think about it for a moment. Not only are you engaging them within Facebook, but now you are also engaging them within their inbox. This is very powerful as the more “planes of engagement” there are between you and your potential customers the more you will see your bottom line increase.
The best part about building that email list from your Facebook fan base is that it’s easy! You simply need to drive your fans from Facebook to an email opt-in form on your website or to an opt-in form right within Facebook. There are many apps out there that make it really easy to create these lead capture forms right within Facebook so the fan never has to leave if you don’t want them to.

Please keep in mind that people will only opt-in to your email list if you give them a good reason. Don’t be afraid to offer a discount or some other valuable form of content to ensure they sign up right away!

Show Them Some Love Too
A final strategy to turn fans onto customers is to show them some love too! What this means is making sure you are active on Facebook and sharing content that your fans have produced. This will create a feeling of reciprocity between you and your fans and also show that you are just a normal person too – not a corporate machine.
People love being engaged with in social media. If you take a few minutes each day to engage with some of your fans then you will see that investment on time come back to you tenfold. All of a sudden a normal fan will become a raving fan just because you reached out to engage them. Who do you think that person will do business with when they need what you have to offer?

All in all, getting your Facebook fans to turn into paying customers is easy if you know what you are doing. Just follow the strategies that are outlined above and watch your business take off like you never thought possible!

4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System

4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System

 

You hear it all the time if you have been involved or are involved in the home business or internet business industry:

“You need a system to succeed.”

I like to take this a step further. You not only need a “system”, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.

Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.

Step 1: Create a “capture” or “squeeze” page.

Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been “captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped-up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have not, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list so that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.

Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.

Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service, or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services, and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.

This all leads to the second technique for creating a totally automated system, email autoresponders.

Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email

This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow-up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as Aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information on your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, and monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow-up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.

4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System

While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. The fact is, that email follow-up and marketing are becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.

In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.

Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system

Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the “new email.” Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospect’s phone number on your capture page, and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Cold calling, voice shot, pro builder plus, and protus are just a few.

Step 4: Postcard follow up

Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow-up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear from you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.

There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email autoresponder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospect’s mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot. You can even create custom postcards for any business, service, or opportunity.

4 Steps To Making Your Home Business A True Automated System

If you use that simple 4-step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.

 

3 Pillars of a Solid Home-Based Business

3 Pillars of a Solid Home-Based Business

 

In this day and age, it is almost impossible to maintain a decent standard of living on one paycheck, but in a family where children are involved, it is not always feasible for both dad and mom to have a job outside of the home. Daycare expenses, the need for a second car, and too much time away from the children are some common drawbacks. This however is the exact situation that a Home Based Business works to its greatest advantage.

Home Based Businesses are great and can be extremely profitable but without the proper knowledge and tools, you can waste an incredible amount of time and/or money which defeats the purpose you started out with, namely to make money and have time to do the things you want to do. This article was written to give the average person like you and me a practical guideline to getting started in a home-based business the right way, and to save you wasted time and money.

My experience has shown me that there are basically 3 main pillars or principles of a solid home-based business.

Pillar #1: It must have minimal start-up cost.

A home-based business that has a high start-up cost will take longer to see a profit, and as we said earlier, time is one of the things we are trying to cut down on. The minimal cost will also make the home-based business more assessable to a larger amount of families or individuals who are just starting out.

Pillar #2: It must be easy to set up and maintain.

The more complicated your home business project, no matter what it is, the more likely you will give up out of sheer frustration before seeing a profit. A business that is easy to set up and maintain will give you confidence and a sense of accomplishment as you complete each simple step in the process.

3 Pillars of a Solid Home-Based Business

Let’s face it if you enjoyed wasting a lot of time and effort maintaining a home-based business you would not be reading this article. This is about freeing you to spend time with your family and doing the things you love, not creating another taskmaster to replace your job! The first two pillars of a solid home-based business are necessary for the third to occur.

Pillar #3: It must have a quick return on investment. (ROI)

You can spend months building a home-based business but it there is never any real profit generated in a reasonable amount of time many people may get discouraged and give up. What is a reasonable amount of time? I would plan for a time frame on the order of weeks instead of months. Depending on the type of home-based business some people have had a decent ROI within days, and unbelievable as it may sound some businesses that deal with affiliate marketing and sales can see profit as early as 15 minutes from startup!

3 Pillars of a Solid Home-Based Business

You may be thinking to yourself “that’s too simple!” Let me say that within these 3 pillars there is plenty of detail to keep anyone busy. The business that you choose to start should definitely be something that interests you and possibly even something that you already have a measure of experience in doing. Whatever home-based business you get involved in make sure that it is propped up by the 3 pillars listed in this article. Do not make the mistake of overcomplicating your efforts or you will see very quickly that you will get bogged down with a lot of needlessly wasted time and effort.

Here’s to your home-based business success.

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