By nurturing your customers, you will begin to form strong relationships with them. This will allow you to make available increasing levels of value as the relationship grows. Your back-end marketing strategies can be viewed as a funnel of trust layers of additional value you make available to your customers as they begin to trust you more.
Starting from a customer who has just bought from you for the first time and working down to your perfect customer who has implicit trust and buys high value products and services from you, you can determine between 4 and 7 distinct layers of your trust funnel.
Build trust layers and create products and services around them…
For each trust layer, build and shape specific products and services tailored to the customer type and the level of value they will appreciate. Give, share and serve at each layer everything you are able in order to educate and improve your relationship with them. Their trust will increase and will eventually become more interested in the products and services in the next trust layer, and will buy higher value services from you.
Follow up all customer enquiries…
When your customers ask questions, they are reflecting the changes in your marketplace. It is an opportunity for you to understand your marketplace and discover what products and services are being sought after.
You should relentlessly follow up all enquiries. When a customer has an enquiry, it will become part of your consultative process to help them find the solution. As part of this process, you should demonstrate impartiality and pursue with the genuine intention to help to the end even if they do not buy your product or service. The reason for this is that you can ask questions in return. It is not difficult to ask questions if it is not about money or sales.
Up-sell by offering higher value services…
As you work in your marketplace and develop products and services around your trust layers, you will be able to offer stepped value services and make available enhancements if the customer is ready to buy.
Create preferred customer lists…
With any list of customers, there will be a small percentage that will respond to higher value offerings and want it. These will be the customers that will get the most out of your services because they appreciate and value it most.
To help these customers, you can create privileged groups and even name them such as ‘premier customer’. You can create a range of products and services that will only be available to these limited set of customers. These will be the customers you invite to move to the next trust layer and offer higher value services.
Communicate regularly with your customers...
In order to build a good relationship, you need to communicate regularly and spontaneously. The reasons for communication could be any of the following:
- GIVE:
think of innovative ways as to how your products and services can help their business - SHARE:
highlight an interest in their business by sharing new information - SERVE:
what more can you do for them?
The method of communication can be:
- e-newsletter
- email auto-responder lists for specific offers
- personalised letter
- telephone
- booklets or reports
While your marketing messages are communicated automatically using regular newsletters and auto-responder emails, your customer is being carried along a value information path to educate them using impartial information. At the same time, you are providing solutions through your products or services. Any enquiries made as a result of this communication will be followed-up to encourage the customer to move down the trust funnel.