Work to keep & grow the customers you have now before you look for more

Encouraging Repeat Business and Word Of Mouth

Before you go nuts trying to get new eyeballs on your store, do a little work to both keep and grow the ones you’ve already got. If everyone who buys from you now came back and bought more, that would mean more sales too. And a repeat buyer is more likely to develop brand loyalty, which can lead to even more purchases in the future. Beyond the additional sales, repeat customers are also your best source of Word of Mouth marketing, and the more often they’re pleased with a purchase they make from you, the more likely they are to spread the word.

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Word of Mouth is the single most effective type of marketing there is, and that’s because it happens naturally. Bad Word of Mouth can destroy a business just as good can make it. When a happy customer tells a friend about your store or an angry customer warns others to stay away, personal recommendations like this from their friends and networks will have a much greater effect on your business than any specific marketing campaign you could run yourself. While the middle tends to stay quiet, customers on the two furthest sides of satisfaction will talk about your business in ways you can’t control. Add to this that an unhappy customer will get their negative message out to more people than a happy one, and it’s a very good idea to keep your customers satisfied.

While you can’t stop people from talking or make them return, you can increase the chances that they’ll talk about your company, and that such talk will be favorable and increase your sales. We’re going to focus on those two things for this first section because it will make every other marketing strategy you try that much more effective going forward if you’ve got strong Word of Mouth amplifying your every effort.