The hardest thing to do as a business is to obtain new customers. It requires a huge financial investment, a great marketing strategy, time and effort. So why would you pour a majority or all of your money into this at the expense of ignoring those who already know you – and more importantly, like you?

Know what you want to accomplish
Once you have acquired a new customer you need to have a plan in place to deepen that relationship. After all, they’ve made an investment in you or your product and they should get your attention.

Consider the following:

• How do you plan to welcome/thank them?
• How can you add value to their purchase?
• What related products/services can you inform them about?
• Are there any added benefits to the product/service they bought that they might not know about?
• What can you learn from their experiences with your product/service?
• Do you plan to connect them with other customers?

The Holy Grail of marketing
Ultimately you need to figure out a plan to get them from a one-purchase customer to a loyal customer. If you can figure out that process, you will soon create a network of customers that will market your company for you.

What companies do you know that do this well? What can you learn from them?

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