A Bird in Hand
Why Your Current Customers are the Key to New Customers
Let’s review this famous idiom, and what it can tell you about how to spend your marketing time and attention: “A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush”. Essentially, this means the customers you already have ‘in hand’ may be more valuable than the ‘new customers’ you are seeking. If your goal is to increase sales, leaning into current customers to buy more frequently is 16x more cost effective than the time and money spent trying to acquire new customers.
We regularly hear Farmers talk about ‘new customers’, but 9 times out of 10 their goal is ‘more sales.’ The great news is most Farmers already have more sales potential ‘in hand’. It is simply a marketing exercise to reach out to existing customers, so they spend more and more often. There is great potential to increase sales by effectively marketing to current customers!
The irony is that by upping your marketing game --- to regularly engage and stay top of mind with your customers across channels (web, email, social) --- is the right activity to also attract new customers!
A focus on the ‘bird in hand’ aka current customers, --- is exactly the right approach for attracting new customers.
Let us explain.
Most Farmers think attracting new customers is key to increasing sales.
However, as mentioned above, it takes 16x more money to get new customers than it does to lean into current customers to increase sales.
So, what does it look like to spend 1x energy on your existing customers?
Improve your customer experience
If you want to attract new customers while also taking care of current customers, you will need to create a modern, farm-branded customer experience.
Start with your website. Your website should reflect your business while also being easy to use for your clients.
Your website should be:
Engaging
Simple To Use
Up-to-date
Informative about your product
Include the ability to place a complete order on their own (no phone call or form required)
Customer Engagement
Your current customers want to hear from you! They're buying your products, eating your food and talking about your Farm with their friends. If you go quiet on them, they'll move on to someone who engages them regularly (and stays top of mind). There are a few ways to ensure this doesn't happen.
You can engage your customers through:
Newsletters
Make sure that you are always interacting with your buyers. Even when you aren't actively selling product, continued engagement is necessary to maintain customer loyalty. The off-season is a great time to focus on these efforts, and you can start with our recent eBook, here.
Marketing
Proper marketing can attract new customers while helping you stay top of mind with your current buyers. Marketing allows customers to associate you and your product with your Farm brand. All marketing efforts are to ensure ongoing sales. Everywhere people interact with your Farm, they should see a powerful representation of your brand.
Make sure you have brand consistency on all channels, including:
Website
Social media
Newsletters
Emails
Facebook Ads
Invoices
Conclusion
Once all that is humming, if Farmers still need or want new customers or more sales, we are happy to coach you on tactics for growth! Getting new customers also means ongoing marketing and effort but ‘more of it’ including more time, money or both!