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Want to know how to gain more repeat business? It’s a well-known fact that it is easier to get someone who has bought from your business once to buy again (given they had a good experience) versus someone who has never bought before. And given how much money it can cost you to acquire that client or customer in the first place it makes sense to ensure you are doing everything you can to get repeat business. Keep on reading to find out how to gain more repeat business.
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4 WAYS TO GAIN MORE REPEAT BUSINESS
1. Have an offer suite that is designed to enable repeat purchases
If you want to gain more repeat business the first thing you should do is review your offer suite (the range of services and / or products your business offers). Does your offer suite make it easy for someone to buy multiple times?
If you sell just one thing you need to consider whether someone would need to buy that same offer again. For example, if you are a web designer then once someone has bought a website they shouldn’t need one for at least a few years so it would be usual for repeat business to be low. This would mean you’d need to expand from one service to an offer suite and think about what would make sense for your web design clients to also buy.
Having just one offer doesn’t mean that repeat purchases aren’t possible though. Some can still be bought multiple times. For example, in my business, I run annual planning strategy days and it makes absolute sense for a business owner to book one with me every year.
Maybe you aren’t selling one offer, but have a whole range of offers. This would normally make it easier for repeat business, but you can still review your offer suite and optimise it for repeat business. Look at your offers as a whole and map out the journeys where it would be natural if someone has bought X that then in the future they could buy Y.
For example, if you are a money coach who offers 1:1 coaching you might also have a membership where people can join afterwards for ongoing support that is more light touch.
Or you could be a web designer who creates websites and then offers hosting which clients then pay for on a monthly or annual subscription basis.
If right now you just have a signature offer and know that to gain more repeat business you need to expand and have an offer suite then have a read of this blog post – How to build an offer suite around a signature offer.
2. Set up automated emails
If you are serious about gaining more repeat business then you’ll want to automate the process of selling to previous buyers and the best way to do this is through automated emails. Let’s say in the last step you mapped out some purchase journeys you now want to make sure that they get told what is the next thing they should buy from you. And if you are relying on your remembering and doing something manual that is going to be time-consuming, hard to scale and easy to not happen. Which is why you should automate the process.
A great way to do this is through triggered emails. For example, if you use software like Kartra, when someone buys they can automatically be tagged. You can then have an automated email that goes out after a certain period of time (when you expect them to be ready for something else).
| WANT TO DRASTICALLY INCREASE REPEAT BUSINESS OVER THE NEXT YEAR? BOOK A STRATEGY DAY
The beauty about gaining more repeat business is once you’ve got the strategy it is fairly easy to implement. It mainly comes down to how you package, price and promote your offers – and I cover all 3 of these in my annual planning strategy days.
In just one day we’ll map out exactly how to achieve your business goals for the next 12 months and ensure that their is a clear strategy for attracting new business as well as generating more repeat business. |
3. Use upsells and bundles
This doesn’t technically encourage repeat purchases since they are buying at the same time, but will encourage more purchases in the first instance and push up your average client or customer spend.
When someone is buying something you can offer them the option of an upsell or for a bundle. For example, if you are selling a group coaching programme you might have a nupsell where someone can buy the VIP package and that comes with some 1:1 support. Or if you are a web designer you could have the option for people to just buy their website or they could have a bundle which includes a month of hosting and a checklist for what they should be reviewing on an ongoing basis to ensure their website is still performing well.
There are so many options with this. Not only with what you offer, but also how you deliver it. It might be that they get everything instantly or you can even have the other things are delivered till later, but by buying all of them at the same time they will get a discount/special offer.
4. Loyalty discounts (Incentive a further purchase)
In some industries, such as insurance, it doesn’t pay to be loyal. If after a year you go on to their automatically renewal the likelihood is you’ll pay more and it is better to shop around.
However, if you want people to buy again they why not incentive them to do so. Let them know at the end of their original purchase that if they buy something else they’ll get a set discount (you can do this via an automated email).
Another way I’ve seen this done very cleverly is where if you have two offers that lead nicely on to each other you say that if they buy the second within the certain amount of time you’ll reduce the value of the first service.
In some ways this acts as a guarantee. Rather than jumping straight for the higher offer they can do the lower one and then progress up, but without it costing them more.
This will usually mean better results for them, which in the long run is good for your business.
That’s it. You now know 4 ways to gain more repeat business.
It is easy to just focus on getting new clients and customers, but by doing so you are missing out. By taking the time to set your business up to maximise repeat business you’ll make your able to increase revenue without increasing your marketing budget or spending more time creating new content. And people who buy repeatedly are more likely to become raving fans who actively recommend and refer you. It’s a win-win really!
What has your biggest takeaway been? Share in the comments.
| SET YOUR BUSINESS UP FOR SUCCESS OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS
Gaining more repeat business might not happen overnight and that’s OK because the changes you make will help bring more income and improve the sustainability of your business in the future. Smart business owners know that for long-term success they need to start looking and planning further ahead, which is why I run annual planning strategy days. Together we’ll look at your goals for the next 12 months and then ensure you have the right offers, pricing, marketing and operation setup to get there. And I’ve got a tried-and-tested process that means we can get a whole year planned for in just 1 day! To find out more, and to book a 2024/25 Strategy Day click here. |
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