By offering affiliate programs, you can increase your sales. Because by sharing some of the profits with your affiliates, you spread the word further than with typical marketing. You get other people to do your selling for you. By offering a small – or large – percentage of a sale (especially on high margin items), you get people excited about making money off of your product. And if they’re excited about your product, they’ll tell people.
Of course, you’ll want to set up some rules about how your affiliates can market your product. But once you set things up, you can …read more

Your biggest sales are going to come from your most receptive customers, those with whom you have built trust and a solid relationship. You do this by providing value over time. When people see that the information you provide is reliable, valuable and interesting, then they will begin to trust in what you recommend.
A prime example of this is Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. Over the course of time, Darren’s audience has grown. Because of the quality of posts he offers, readers have become quite loyal. So much so that when he turned a recent series of posts (31 Days to …read more

New customer incentives are important to many businesses. Attracting new clients is key to your growth. So many companies offer specials to attract new blood, especially companies that offer monthly recurring services like cable and mobile phones. And that six months of free or reduced service can be quite attractive.
But what happens when your current customers see the offer? Many people see the “new subscriber” exclusion and just move on. Why should they? Don’t loyal customers deserve a “thank you”? Why do companies work so hard to gain new clients while they ignore the established ones?
If you currently exclude your …read more

There are times when your customers are going to need to call you. And it’s possible that there’s no way around it. The customer’s question could be complex or hard to explain via email or web contact form. Maybe they have already tried contacting you via other methods, but either they’re not getting the point across or they don’t understand what you’ve told them. It could be any number of things. When they contact you via phone, you have the opportunity to shine – or shame yourself. Which will it be?
We all have nightmare tales about endless phone trees, waiting …read more

What do you say to your customers when you’re asking for a referral? For instance, if you’re a writer, do you ask clients to pass along your name when they hear someone is looking for a writer? Or do you ask them to mention you during the following situations: a friend is having trouble getting the right content on their company’s home page or sales landing page; a colleague needs a sales brochure, letter, business or marketing plan, or press release; or a family member needs a resume.
John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing recommends that you develop a list of …read more