wirejewelry's Tip #2 for a Successful 2009!

Today we’re going to be focusing on your valuable customers and how to reach out to them for more business. If you will recall from the last email, your customers are the most valuable asset that you possess.

Have you ever seen a water wheel in motion? We see it all of the time now in movies and in television programs. The wheel itself has many buckets and as the wheel turns each of the buckets gets filled with water. The water then is dumped and the process starts all over again. The water wheel was used to create an ongoing flow of energy. Your customers are like the water wheel, if properly taken care of, they can provide an abundance of referrals and repeat business.

As I’m sure you already know word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful and efficient way to market your products.  Have you noticed that in recent years there has been an incredible increase in the number of affiliate or partner programs that companies offer? You can literally find thousands of affiliate programs available to you for any industry out there. So, why have they become so popular in recent years? The answer is simple – Companies understand that word-of-mouth advertising out performs any other type of marketing - period.

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wirejewelry.com will be launching their brand new affiliate program within the next little while. This program will allow you to receive a percentage of all business you personally refer to our website. If you're interested in learning more about the specifics of this program, please contact me directly at brandonh@wirejewelry.com

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Isn’t it really easy for you to “talk-up” your own business? Of course, it’s really easy for you to say something good about your own company. But what if you can get other people (who don’t have a vested interest in your company) to say good things about your products and services? Suddenly that advertising takes on a life of its own and you recruit new customers without even speaking to them!

So how do you create steady streams of customer referrals?

There are a few different things you can do to ensure that you receive customer referrals on a steady basis. The first thing you’ll want to do is simply ask for the referrals. You will be very surprised to find out how many referrals you’ll receive just by asking for them! The important thing to remember is to always include some sort of value-added benefit for your customer when asking for those referrals. They want to know what’s in it for them for referring their friends and family over to you, so give them something of value.

What are they going to receive or what are their referrals going to receive by coming to you for their custom wire-wrapped jewelry? Maybe talk to them about the very unique jewelry that you created and that they can’t find anywhere else. Talk to them about the quality of the work that was done on the jewelry pieces, or the quality of the products used in the custom jewelry.

The second thing you can do to increase your stream of customer referrals is to create a customer referral program that encourages them to reach out and spread the word about your products.

There are many ways to go about creating a customer referral program and this needs to be thought out carefully so that it works within your particular business model, however, I’ll share a few ideas and tips that can help you along the way:

1-    Create a customer referral rewards program. Tell your customers that for every 3rd person they refer, you’ll give them 20% off of their next purchase, or for every 5th person they refer you’ll give them a $50 gift card. Whatever the reward is make sure that it is worth it for the person giving referrals. A good question to ask yourself is: “Would I refer my friends and family to get this reward?” If the answer is yes, then your customers probably would too!

Here is a simple example: Let’s suppose your average sale is for $100 and you have a customer that refers 3 friends to you in January. All three of these referrals purchase a piece of jewelry – that’s $300 in additional revenue! If you were to offer 20% off to your customer for referring his friends, you would pay out $20.00. You still have additional revenue of $280!!

2-    One thing that I’ve seen done with many different home jewelry makers is they’ll create some pass along cards. Now these don’t have to be fancy or anything, but remember that these are representing your company and the quality of your work, so make sure they are professional. On these cards you can offer special discounts or incentives to buy your product. If a holiday is near you might create a special promotion for that particular holiday.  Now here’s in the important part - Make sure to provide a blank line on the card so they can fill out the name of who referred them so that you can reward that customer!

These pass along cards are great for your customers. The cards allow them to talk about your company and products in a non-intrusive way with all of their friends and family. It’s easy for them to pass them out even if they are shy or don’t feel comfortable speaking with people about jewelry.

Just remember, you’re customers can be a continual source for new and repeat business. By taking care of them and offering them benefits, you’re ensuring yourself future referrals and business.

Well, we’ve come to the close of another tip for a successful 2009. I hope that these first two tips have been beneficial for you. These tips are easy to implement, yet highly effective marketing tools that will enable you to continue to dominate your home jewelry making market!

Next time we’ll be spending some time talking about some cost-effective ways to market to new customers. So stay tuned!!

Until Next Time!

Brandon Hutchins
wirejewelry.com