Go Live! How to Revive Your Lapsed Customers

Article by Dee Blick

The Marketing Gym

Why do so many businesses focus their energies solely on attracting new customers in preference to reopening the pipeline to their lapsed ones?

It boils down to:

1. Fear of rejection. What if they say no?
2. It doesn’t occur to them that a lapsed customer can become a live one again with a little coaxing and a dazzling array of benefits.

Here’s how you can get in touch with your lapsed customers?

• Make a list of them!
• What are the compelling reasons why each lapsed customer should come back to you? Have you made improvements to your offering? Have you launched new products and services? Make sure you have a robust list of benefits and you’re not just trotting out facts and features.
• You don’t have to make an offer to encourage a lapsed customer to come back to you but it can help especially if they’ve migrated to a competitor and it’s a straightforward process for them to leave. You won’t know if this is the case with every lapsed customer so use your judgement.
• Plan a campaign to bring them back into your fold. Write a lovely letter with an introduction along the lines of: “Dear Dee, as it’s been a little while since we have been in touch, I wanted to update you on the new/improved products and services we’re offering that I am confident will be of genuine interest and benefit to you.” In one lapsed client letter, I began with the headline “we’ve missed you!”

To grab attention. Make sure the letter shouts out quality so use120 GSM paper; attach your business card and if you’ve a decent quality promotional gift that can go inside the envelope pop it in! Consider handwriting the envelope to really grab attention. Follow up with a telephone call to emphasise the benefits of returning back to you but, spend more time on finding out why they left you in the first place and what their present arrangements are. Follow-with an email summarising your conversation.

Simple, powerful and proven tips that should bring some of your lapsed customers back to your business. What’s stopping you?!

About Dee Blick

Dee is a genuine number one Amazon bestselling author (The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book, The 15 Essential Marketing Masterclasses For Your Small Business) In her latest award winning new book: The Ultimate Guide to Writing and Marketing a Bestselling Book - on a Shoestring Budget she shares how you can become a genuine person of influence in your field by writing a book that becomes a bestseller.