{Print from Shirae on Etsy}
You need repeat customers to have a successful long-term creative business.
It’s much easier to get someone to buy from you again than it is to get a new customer. Think about it. When you buy jewelry supplies from a company and you’re impressed with the quality, you’ll buy from them again and again. As long as they have the stuff you’re looking for, it’s your go-to supply source. It would take something special to get you to spend your money with another company.
You want to be your customers’ go-to source for whatever you sell. If you sell handmade body wash, you want them to buy from you every time they’re running low. If you sell baby items, you want them to buy from you every time they need to buy a gift for a baby shower.
So, let’s talk about how you can make this happen.
1. Remind them you’re here.
We get busy, and we forget to check in with our favorite businesses. It just happens.
When you make a sale, you want to give your customer information on how she can stay connected with your business. This might include linking to your newsletter, blog, and Twitter account at the bottom of your thank you emails. Or, you might include these links on the business card you send with the purchase.
You want your customers to have as many “touches” with you as possible, because the more times they see your name pop up, the more likely they are to remember to buy from you. You want them to follow you Twitter, like you on Facebook, sign up for your newsletter, and follow your blog.
Don’t be super pushy about this, because that’s just annoying. Instead, make it fun. At the bottom of your thank you email, you could say follow me on Twitter to get a 15% off coupon code for your next purchase. You could let your customers know that they can sign up for your newsletter list to get sneak peeks of all your new product lines before they launch.
2. Keep them engaged.
Once you get your customers following you on social media, you need to engage with them. Don’t just promote yourself and your products. It’s called social media for a reason—you need to be social. If you don’t want your customers to immediately unfollow you, don’t send out a link every time you upload a new product to Etsy.
Spend a little time each day answering customer questions, responding to your customers on Twitter and Facebook, interacting with them, and asking questions to get to know your target market.
Send out your email newsletter on a regular basis and provide something valuable to your subscribers with each newsletter. This can be something simple like a discount for your new line of hair accessories along with a short paragraph about the inspiration behind them or a video tour of your art studio. Build relationships with your customers through your newsletter.
3. Sell different types of products.
A couple months ago I had a consulting session with a client who sells beautiful original illustrations. It takes her a few days to complete one illustration, so it was hard for her to keep her store stocked and she was frustrated with the income cap that she couldn’t surpass. It was impossible for her to produce anymore drawings than she was already producing unless she stopped sleeping. And, that wasn’t an option.
Her original illustrations are not cheap {nor should they be}, so many customers bought once and didn’t buy again for at least six months. She had repeat customers, but not regular repeat customers.
She wanted to stick with illustrating, but she wanted to make it more lucrative. So, we figured out how she could do just that. She’d start making limited edition prints of some of her illustrations, so after she’d done the work once, she could sell it over and over. She also decided to make bookmarks, calendars, and notebooks out of some of her illustrations. Now, she makes a lot more money while still doing what she loves to do. And, she has a lot more repeat customers who fall in love with her illustrations, buy some of the less expensive items, and then spring for an original.
Do you have tips for turning first time customers into repeat customers? Share them in the comments section below.
Great post, April. I would love to try a newsletter but I keep forgetting about it after doing the blogging and other things.
I started out making diaper bags several years ago. I honestly thought that someone would buy one and that would be it. But I actually get people coming back for custom orders and referrals because someone saw the bag on someone else. I even was asked about wholesaling because a shop owner liked a customer’s bag. I would like this to happen more often and your tips give me even more to think about today!
Thanks Erika. In my opinion, you gotta have an email newsletter!
That’s awesome that you get orders and wholesale interest from people seeing other customers’ bags. That means you’re definitely doing something right 🙂
I am wondering what the least unspammy way is to link to these social media outlets in a thank you convo/email/response of some other kind. I like the idea of putting them in the “signature” not necessarily the body of the text… not like this: “Oh and join my newsletter and visit me on twitter etc…” Do you think also just linking to ONE key place, perhaps a blog, might be more enticing and less spammy and then they can find your other outlets via that link? I haven’t done any of this because I don’t want to rub people the wrong way, you know? But then again, the people who I buy from, i always seek out their other outlets…
The business card in package is something I’ve always done, it makes my package feel more professional/official and even though i’ve read that people often just brush it aside and don’t hold on to it, i still do it, because it makes me feel good to do it.
I think if the card had a coupon code on it – they are more likely to keep it, I know lots of people do this as well – include a repeat customer coupon in each order.
Of course, good customer service is always key to repeat business!
Great post, April!
by “least unspammy” i meant, “least spammy”
I usually run across two types of people: people who sell/market/promote waaaaaay too much and people who don’t sell/market/promote enough. And, you seem to fall into the category of not enough. If you don’t include any links in your thank you emails, you’re definitely doing a disservice to yourself. These people bought from you!!! Which means they’re interested in your stuff and want to hear from you.
Now, I’m not saying you should push people. But including a link or a, “you can stay up to date with shop sales and new products by simply signing up for my email newsletter here” is not spammy or pushy. Sending an additional email if the person doesn’t sign up is PUSHY and bad practice.
You’re just giving your customer {someone who’s already expressed interest in your stuff} a way to stay in touch. They get to choose whether to do it or not.
Ultimately, you have to do what feels right to you. So, if including a link to your blog or newsletter feels good, but including something in the text doesn’t, then go with the link in the signature. And, these things aren’t written in stone. You can always make changes.
For me, when it’s a new customer or reader, I usually link to my website and Twitter account in the signature. I love to stay in touch with customers via Twitter–it’s a great and easy way to connect.
I think you are right, I’m going to try it out on my next sale. It is true that they are already interested and so may as well make the most of it … good advice, good advice!
Wow, this is something I definitely need to be thinking about. Like Danielle, I haven’t tried any of it for fear of being spammy. Although I know there are appropriate ways to do it – I just haven’t felt like I knew exactly what means and methods would be best to get customers to continue to stay in touch.
Also, I feel like I’m still trying to figure out which social media tools are best for me/my business, and I would hate to tell customers to, say, follow me on Twitter, and then end up deciding not to Tweet, and they check it out to see an abandoned feed. Hm.
I don’t have a newsletter yet – I think I definitely need to get on that.
Thanks so much for all this great info – lots of stuff for me to think about! 🙂
Hey April,
Thanks for stopping by!
I would start with the stuff that you already do. For instance, if you’re not active on Twitter–don’t include it in your signature. But, if you post on your blog regularly, link to your blog. You can always include Twitter or Facebook later when you feel more comfortable with it.
If you want my opinion on social media tools, I think Twitter is the best. It’s a fun way to connect and it doesn’t take a lot of time. How much time do you really put into writing 140 characters? I think it’s also good to have a Facebook page to update with new product lines and blog posts–but you don’t have to be as active with Facebook.
I’d say I spend about 30 minutes total on social media each day–and it’s definitely paid off for me. I’ve gotten sales and new customers through Twitter and I’ve built relationships with others in this niche. You can definitely set limits. For instance, you could set a timer and spend 10 minutes on social media in the morning and then repeat that again in the evening.
Hm, I really like the idea of a timer. I do use Twitter/Facebook/Blog/etc., but I just feel like sometimes they’re all so time consuming, I need to narrow it down to the ones that are most effective. But, of course, they can all be effective for different purposes, or they can all be ineffective if I don’t use them often. But setting a timer would definitely helped from getting sucked into one site for too long and prevent time wasting, yet allow me to do them all often. Thanks so much! 🙂
They can definitely be consuming!
I have a pretty strict pattern of how I use each, so that I don’t waste the day on social media. Blogging 3 times per week and spending about 30 minutes on social media a day really works for me. I think it’s all about figuring out what works for you.
All good advice! I have a Facebook page for my business and an email newsletter. I’ve been thinking about starting a blog for my business and Twittering, but haven’t taken those leaps yet. My worry is, do I have enough content for all these different outlets? I don’t want to have too much overlap where I’m saying the same things over and over to the same people…wouldn’t that come across as annoying and spammy?
Hey Stacy,
You don’t need content for Twitter. I use Twitter as a way to connect with readers, customers, clients, and others in the creative niche. I promote my blog posts on Twitter–but with only 140 characters per Tweet you don’t need to come up with anything brilliant to say.
I don’t think you have to worry about whether you’ll have a enough content. If you have the time to put into blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and a newsletter–than I think you could come up with enough content. You could only post once or twice a week to your blog, so that you didn’t feel overwhelmed by it. Plus, you don’t have to worry too much about overlap, because many of the people who read your blog might not see your Facebook update or your last 10 Tweets. I have people who read my blog, but don’t subscribe to email newsletter. And, I have about 5 times as many people read my newsletter than subscribe to my blog. But, I pull in a lot of new readers/subscribers/customers through my blog.
It’s really about what you feel comfortable with–and if you decide to add something, you could test it out for a little while and see how you like it.
That makes sense. I would definitely feel more comfortable not having everything as separate entities, but rather as cross-promoting (use Facebook to alert people to a new blog post, use Twitter to get people to sign up for my newsletter, etc.). That sounds do-able! Thanks, now I’m off to explore blogging options…. 🙂
How do I go about getting people to sign up to my newsletter? I’ve read that it’s ok to email ONCE asking to sign up and let it be. Is there a way for mail chimp to send an automatic email to people who comment on my blog? Or how about a form on mail chimp to send out to people, like my clients and blog commenters?
Hey Lisa,
Check out this video I did on how to get more email newsletter subscribers:
https://www.blacksburgbelle.com/2011/02/quick-tips-to-get-more-email-newsletter-subscribers/
and this post I wrote:
http://www.imaginativebloom.com/2011/02/17/how-to-get-more-email-newsletter-subscribers/
You’re actually not supposed to email people unless you have permission to email them. That’s technically spam. So, you shouldn’t email readers or commenters to get them to sign up for your newsletter. However, you can call readers to action at the end of your blog posts by saying something like, “Sign up for my weekly newsletter to get x, y, and z.” And, if they want to sign up, they will.
These were good tips thank you!
I often wonder what becomes of my beloved handwoven scarves after they sell. I’m thinking that it would be cool to put an enclosure in the bag/package that says something like, tweet me when you wear this scarf, and let me know how you like it! What a great way to keep and build a connection with customers.
That would be an interesting way to connect with customers!
Hey April,
Great post! I’m not sure how to get repeat customers as veils are normally a one off buy but I would like to build on getting referrals from previous brides, as I think this is how my business will grow. I always include a card with my packages and a thank you note but maybe I should add my Facebook link to my cards. I also need to do this to my email signature (on my list of things to do)but I’m still figuring out how to do it
.
I have been thinking about adding new products to my range. For example, I think silk clutch purses and fascinators for the races (really big here in Australia) might help bring in more sales.
I do know that since committing to using Facebook once a day, I’ve gone from 24 fans to almost 70 in less than 3 weeks. I’m hoping that these people will follow my blog when I launch it as well. I really don’t enjoy using Twitter but have managed somehow to link my Facebook updates automatically to Twitter so I don’t need to log in all the time ;0)
Thanks again for this post. As always you give me so much to think about.
Hey Sarah,
You’d definitely want to focus on referrals and not repeat customers for your type of business–unless you expanded your product line which could mean one customer buying all of those things from you.
Thanks for sharing about Facebook–when you want more followers you have to be active!
Hi April! : )
Ooooh, I love the last tip and the example about using her illustrations on bookmarks, notebooks and other things. That’s such a brilliant example of taking that ONE thing you do and turning it into multiple streams of income. I love it! : )
Hey Jess!
It saves so much time to take something that you’re already doing and figure out other ways to monetize it. That’s probably my favorite tip, too!
Great post with excellent tips. I’m a new seller on Etsy and 0ne of my fears of using all this media (blog, twitter, facebook,newsletter and so on) is that eventually i’ll have too little time for crafting…
This media is so overwhelming and one should know how to use it before you become “super pushy” and annoying.
I would definitely feel more comfortable not having everything as separate entities, but rather as cross-promoting (use Facebook to alert people to a new blog post, use Twitter to get people to sign up for my newsletter, etc.). Plus, you don’t have to worry too much about overlap, because many of the people who read your blog might not see your Facebook update or your last 10 Tweets. But, I pull in a lot of new readers/subscribers/customers through my blog.