So far in this series on how to attract your print buyers, you’ve learned how to:
Once you’ve achieved a working relationship with your customers, all that’s left is keeping it! Capitalizing on customer retention will ensure your print business has a steady stream of great sales as well as a wonderfully rich community of people.
But, exclusivity doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes forethought, commitment, and the constant pursuit of your print buyer. Just as marriages don’t stay monogamous and healthy automatically, the same is true in your relationships with your prospects and customers. You need to prove your commitment to their success, your desire to serve them, and your willingness to take the time to understand their needs rather than rely on “we’re so great” sales messages.
Here are three ways you can build loyalty and become exclusive with your print buyers:
1. Beware the Distractions
First things first, you’ll need to understand that gaining (and keeping) exclusivity is a process.
In life and business, things are continually changing, and those changes will naturally impact your relationships. For example, over the long haul of your relationships, you’ll face things like shopping cart abandonment, search engine optimization (SEO) issues, building your email list, trying to stay connected through online and offline media channels, staff changes for both you and your print buyers, and more.
So, remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your relationships be with your print buyers. Building customer loyalty and exclusivity is a rollercoaster in which you don’t want to bail out on too soon. Keep the marathon mentality, as opposed to a sprint mentality, and understand that you’ll be building, cultivating, and pursuing relationships for the duration of your time as a print company owner.
2. Make Leaving You Completely Undesirable
Every business has its “old faithful” customers.
These are the customers that have been with you for years (decades even), and you’ve come to rely on their patronage for the monthly income it adds to your bottom line.
But, what happens when the unthinkable happens? All of a sudden, the person who ordered printing at that company for years left or retired, and the new employee has no loyalty to your business at all. In fact, they might not even know your name. What then?
It’s these types of scenarios that make a strong case for focusing on the long game in wooing your customers. This means consistent follow-up, a constant connection through content marketing, and establishing paths to make ordering and reordering as easy as possible.
By making yourself “sticky” in this way, it becomes too hard and too much of a hassle for your print buyers to order printing anywhere else.
3. Set Yourself (and Your Print Buyers) Up for Success
To earn your “stickiness,” start by focusing on these critical areas:
Getting Your Name Out There
A new employee should never be in a position where they’ve “never heard of that print company before.” To make sure that doesn’t happen, get your name out there through consistent, omnichannel marketing solutions that keep you top of mind and on their radar for print marketing solutions. You can do this through things like:
- A bi-monthly email newsletter
- Consistent social media content and relevant blog content
- Monthly direct mail campaigns and promotions
Providing Training
Training your print buyers on a new way to order printing can be hard.
However, avoiding change (and allowing your print buyers to avoid change) because it’s “too hard” quickly leads to hitting the ceiling on your own growth. So, truth be told, it’s time to choose your hard.
If you want to see longterm success in both your sales numbers and your print buyers, it’s time to set them up with longterm solutions. Begin to train your audience on how to use your website, and the features you provide that will allow them to order their printing more quickly and efficiently. Schedule demos with those large, recurring accounts and use that time to walk them through exactly how to:
- Set up company and customer accounts,
- How to place an order through your Reorder Forms Library,
- How to design a new print marketing piece online,
- And even how to connect their website to your print shop through a branded storefront or Private Label Website.
Your efforts in this area will never be wasted. When the print ordering process becomes quicker and easier for your print buyers, they’ll see your real value, and you’ll get regular, repeat business coming through your website.
WHY EXCLUSIVITY MATTERS
Exclusivity affords you the best relationships and the best (recurring) sales.
While attracting new customers is essential and necessary, creating exclusivity through excellent retention practices gives you a solid customer base and continued momentum for growth.
