Submitted by webmaster on November 19, 2015

Once that sale is final, you may be tempted to close the file and start looking for your next sale.  However, if you do that you would lose out on the future possible sales from this customer.  You now have got the customer right where you want them.  They are giving you their attention and now is the time to make the most out of it.

Always Be Closing

There is a great slogan from the sales world "Always Be Closing," basically meaning always continue the sales process even when the customer has paid for the product.  Continue to provide new ways that you can give your customer more value, either by offering something that enhances what they purchased or identifying another area where you could make improvements.

Part of the closing is checking the metrics to learn how you found this customer so that you can learn where to find more like this one.  What activities on your site reached this customer and how did they progress from just a visitor to a lead, and finally making that decision to purchase.  

If you can identify this flow, you can use it to create funnels and segment your traffic on your website.  You can see where people are at in that flow and help them move to the next stage.  It is also a chance to see where people are dropping out in this flow and find a way to address and redirect those visitors.

By The Numbers

With the funnels, metrics, and visitors all categorized you can now go back to your contact list and learn about your customers.  You can further segment these customers and build emails that are targeted at getting them to purchase from you again.  

With your contacts' emails and the buying cycle, all you have left to do is set up an automated marketing system to help drive them forward.  In the past, this was referred to a drip campaign, but with automated marketing, you can do so much more.  

Hold the Spam, Please

Automated marketing's ugly step-sister is Spam.  This form of mass-mailing has been the bane of many internet users and is somewhat effective for its ROI.  Which is why it is used so often, but the downside of it is a negative image from your customers and driving them away instead of towards your site. Instead, we suggest using automated marketing in a more structured and guided method that is based on your statistics, traffic patterns, and customer buying activities.

Automated marketing allows you to plan out the interactions you have with your customers and continue providing them with things that will get them to purchase again.  This is not just email marketing, but also includes things like timed social media posts, blog post suggestions, and ebooks sent to your customers.  Your statistics will let you know when is the best time to send these communications and what to send to them for the best possible results.

Learn more about how a structured automated marketing system can help your email marketing campaign, and get more answers regarding online marketing by calling us today.  You can also reach out to us on our Facebook page regarding this and the other steps for inbound marketing success.