A print industry client was hoping, without much optimism, to increase his sales by 30% or more because he wanted to sell his business in the next year or two. (Since he’ll soon take the business to market, the business name will not be mentioned in this post.)
He’d been in business for years and developed a broad client base but had a haphazard approach marketing and business development. Irregular targeted advertising and direct mail had kept the lights on.
Now, because he intended to sell, he wanted to increase sales.
He had no systematized marketing program or processes. He had no customer relationship management program implemented in the business. Client records were accumulated and maintained in the QuickBooks accounting software.
Key to Lowering the Cost of Revenue Generation
According to business.com and Inc., acquiring new customers costs 5 to 10 times more than selling to a current customer and current customers spend 67% more on average than those who are new to your business. Starting with low hanging fruit always makes sense. vT CRM Services asked if he’d consider an automated marketing campaign using either direct mail or email to his existing client base.
To minimize costs, he opted for an email campaign. He didn’t want to take the time to learn any new procedure or technology so he chose to provide vT CRM Services with his customer contact data with instructions to implement the email campaign.
vT CRM Services utilized a free, enterprise level open source software programs we recommend, vTiger. We customized, automated and launched a weekly email campaign to rekindle relationships and hopefully uncover business from his existing client base.
After a few weeks, the staff reported that they’d received phone inquiries as to the company’s response to forms they’d been directed to and completed as a result of emails they had received. Orders had begun coming in!
After 30 days, vTCRM Services called again to check with the owner, but he was unavailable. After a few weeks of unreturned phone calls and emails, vTCRM Services paid a visit to the company.
The owner was almost frantic.
He apologized for not returning email and phone messages. He said they were maxed out, operating 24/7 with business coming in. The owner, himself, was working a noon to midnight shift to help keep things going and had a makeshift bed set up in his office. He apologized and said he didn’t have time to talk right then.
Automated Marketing Increases Business 237%
Later, he called and said, “Please, stop the campaign. Business is up 237% over last year. We’re booked through the end of the year. We’re operating 24/7. I’m working a 12 shift. I’m looking for qualified help. Please put the campaigns on hold until we can get on top of the business we have.”
An automated email campaign, leveraging specific modules within a CRM software program targeted at his existing client list had transformed his business in just 60 days!
What might an automated campaign do for yours?
