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Guerrilla Marketing's Golden Rule #6

A customer is a very special person. Of the billions of people on planet Earth, only a tiny fraction have chosen to do business with you. They have selected your business on purpose. It is your constant obligation - though it should be a pleasure - to do what you can to improve the lives of these people: with valuable advice, reduced prices, and reviews of new products and services. The only way to do this is by staying in touch.

Customer reverence is felt by the heart and planned by the mind. Show your customer how much you appreciate them by sending:

  1. A thank-you note within 48 hours of each purchase, although 24 hours is more impressive and memorable. Anyone can send a thank-you note. Guerrillas do it ASAP.

  2. An offer of an item related to their purchase, tendered about 30 days after the purchase. The offer can be for a product or service.

  3. A questionnaire. Send each new customer a questionnaire to learn more about them and their interests.

  4. A birthday card. Use the questionnaire mentioned above to learn each customer's birthday -- month and day, not year. Then, send them a card when their birthday rolls around. Later, you can expand this tactic by sending graduation cards to the customer's kids, anniversary cards to the customer and spouse, and postcards from your next vacation. Don't overwhelm your customers, but continue to acknowledge their existence.

  5. A newsletter, sent monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. If it's created with customer reverence in mind, it will give more than it asks, provide valuable free information, and still make offers to sell something.

  6. A catalogue of your offerings, sent only to customers or sent first to customers, then to prospects, if your customer list isn't long enough. Customers will especially appreciate a catalogue that clearly communicates it is for customers only.

  7. A fact-of-interest postcard, sent in the purest sense of customer reverence. Give data that can help your customer, without trying to sell anything. Keep it brief, and customers will actually look forward to your mailings -- a dream world for most, but the standard situation for guerrillas.
Here are some of the more popular and creative ways to use postcards:
  • Thank you cards... have a picture of your business or organization printed on the front.

  • New product announcements... place a picture of the product on the front.

  • New employee announcements... feature the new employee's picture on the front, with their contact information on the back.

  • Card pack inserts.

  • Customer follow-up mailings designed to create loyalty.

  • Low-cost direct mail marketing.
If you don't stay in contact with your customers, somebody else may win them away from you. By constantly fanning the flames of love and loyalty, you will prove beyond any words that you revere your customers, while at the same time safeguarding against apathy.

Guerrilla Marketing Excellence

by Jay Conrad Levinson

Guerrilla Marketing Excellence presents author Jay Conrad Levinson's Fifty Golden Rules for Small-Business Success. Part of his popular Guerrilla Marketing series, this book features dozens of innovative ideas for anyone interested in growing their business.