While growing businesses need to acquire new customers, their primary focus should be on retaining existing ones. Since it costs at least five times more to obtain new customers than it does to retain (and resell to) customers they already have, businesses that do not retain their current customers will likely fail – unless they have unlimited sources of marketing funds.

The good news is that effective customer retention will lead to higher growth and profits through more repeat business (remember, these are more profitable than “new” customer sales) and also through referrals from your satisfied customers. The bonus built in to this marketing strategy is that referrals are the best way to acquire new customers, because referrals are not only easier to sell, they are more profitable.

The best news is that shifting to a dominant marketing strategy of customer retention instead of customer acquisition is not difficult. It doesn’t require studies, focus groups, consultants, or the reinvention of any wheels!

It just so happens that there is a proven marketing tool that, when used properly, is absolutely phenomenal at achieving mind-blowing, jaw-dropping results. This phenomenal marketing tool is called a monthly customer newsletter. I know what you’re thinking. “A newsletter? No way, I’ve heard this shtick before.” Perhaps you’ve even tried a newsletter in your business and had dismal results. Fair enough. Your skepticism is understandable. However, the dismal results you’ve experienced in the past are your own fault. Sorry, but it’s true.

Whether or not you were steered down a path with bad advice and simply didn’t know any better, you must take responsibility for the results. I have identified the reasons why your customer newsletter did not work. My findings are based on my 25+ years of producing newsletters for companies in just about every industry. When it comes to reasons why, I’ve seen and heard it all, and to be quite candid with you, I’ve reached my breaking point with excuses and “not to be believed” reasons why.

So guess what I did?

I wrote a 20-page report identifying all the areas where entrepreneurs and companies fail to do the right thing when it comes to effective newsletter marketing. Despite years of “in the trenches, battle- scarred” experience and enough empirical evidence on how to generate more profits and customers for life to fill five filing cabinets, when it comes to doing the right thing, the vast majority of entrepreneurs and companies are simply being pansies. You’re not doing what you need to do. Sorry, but that’s the nicest way I could think to say it.

Oh, yeah, the report.

Since we are unquestionably in a difficult economy, I thought now would be a good time to get entrepreneurs and business owners to open their eyes, perhaps swallow some medicine, and begin to market their businesses in a way that will help them grow and become more profitable.

So, if you’re finding yourself open to a new way of thinking, a new way of marketing your business, and if you’re open to shifting your priority and philosophy from one of customer acquisition to one of customer retention, I invite you to get and read my FREE 20-page report, “Don’t Be a Newsletter Pansy.” Go to www.TheNewsletterGuru.com/pansy immediately and begin to implement what you learn.

Continuing from my last blog post, here’s an introduction to the three stages of what I call People-Centered Marketing.

The key challenge: moving suspects and prospects from a state of knowing nothing about your business to readiness to buy.

People don’t automatically know about you, what you do and how you can help make their lives better. You have to tell them. You do this with the tools of advertising and public relations. Of course, I propose that a friendly customer newsletter is the best way to do this. Once people know about you and what you do, they’re ready to buy.

The key challenge: identifying qualifying suspects and prospects and helping them make a wise decision to buy from you.

Buying from you for the first time is scary for most new customers. Remember that we are creatures of habit. Doing something new, even if it is likely turn out good for us, requires an act of decision and will. Sales tools are what matter here. You need to know what I call the “Approach Path” that brings new customers to you. You need to know something about how and why they buy.

The key challenge: retaining and increasing business originating in current customers and referrals to new customers.

If the tools for this section have a name, it’s usually “Customer Service.” That sounds too clinical and too much like a department. I like “Trust Building” better because trust is the key element in keeping a customer and increasing the business and referrals you get from him or her. Once again, regular and frequent communication is vital to building trust and appreciation. For more on what I often refer to as ‘The Secret to More Profits and Customers for Life,’ I encourage you to get a copy of my book, The Magic of Newsletter Marketing.

I also want to encourage you to get a free copy of my 20-page special report, Don’t Be a Newsletter Pansy! Click here to get your free copy.

The secret to successful newsletter publishing is writing your newsletter so your customers feel as if you are writing to them, personally. I’m constantly amazed at how many clients and people in my audiences think that marketing is an event. They’re looking for the one thing that they can do that will produce instant, profitable business.

It doesn’t happen that way. The reason is that people don’t work like that.

People don’t just wake up in the morning and decide to find you and buy from you. They generally don’t buy because they see a single, stunning ad or get a single, persuasive letter. No, when they show up at your door or web site, it’s the result of a process.

They have to know you. People won’t buy from you unless they’ve heard of you and know something about you.

They have to like you. People must be comfortable enough with you and the way you to business to take a very big step: buying from you for the first time.

They have to trust you. If you have a choice, you won’t keep doing business with a company you don’t trust. Neither will those first-time customers that you want to become lifetime customers.

For years, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on about marketing. I’ve gone to seminars and conferences. I’ve talked with colleagues, worked with clients, and absorbed the thinking of people like Jay Abraham, Dan Kennedy, Wally Bock, Joe Sugarman, Theodore Leavitt, and many more.

People-Centered Marketing starts with people and their needs and wants. People-Centered Marketing is the process of developing mutually beneficial relationship with customers that extends over time.

I divide the process into three stages because your relationship with the customer is different for each one. In the beginning, you don’t really have a relationship. Then the customer takes the leap of faith to buy from you for the first time. From then on, every contact with your customer puts a stick on that pile of your relationship, or takes one away.

The key challenge: moving suspects and prospects from a state of knowing nothing about your business to readiness to buy.

People don’t automatically know about you, what you do and how you can help make their lives better. You have to tell them. Of course, the most effective tool for this is a friendly customer newsletter.

The key challenge: identifying qualifying suspects and prospects and helping them make a wise decision to buy from you.

Buying from you for the first time is scary for most new customers. Remember that we are creatures of habit. Doing something new, even if it is likely turn out good for us, requires an act of decision and will.

Sales tools are what matter here. You need to know what I call the “Approach Path” that brings new customers to you. You need to know something about how and why they buy. 

The key challenge: retaining and increasing business originating in current customers and referrals to new customers.

If the tools for this section have a name, it’s usually “Customer Service.” That sounds too clinical and too much like a department. I like “Trust Building” better because trust is the key element in keeping a customer and increasing the business and referrals you get from him or her. There are many marketing and customer relationship communication tools such as postcards but again, the greatest customer relationship, business-building tool is the monthly customer newsletter.

Again, the secret to successful newsletter publishing is writing your newsletter correctly. The reason for this is fairly simple; the newsletters that get read are the ones that produce results.