Can I coax more business from current customers?
Martin Scholnick, Poway

Customers who bought from you within the past year — your “house” list — provide tremendous potential for building your bottom line. These people have experienced your products and services and generally know what to expect from your company.

Assuming you’ve created a mailing list by collecting customer e-mails and addresses, you should be able to build sales with the simplest of marketing tools: the postcard.
Think about it. Every six months you get a postcard from your dentist reminding you to get your teeth cleaned, right? And you dutifully make an appointment.

Postcards aren’t just for dentists, though. Any business that regularly repeats the same process can benefit from reminder postcards, including:

• Bug inspections

• Car washes

• Carpet cleaners

• Haircuts

• House painting

• Tax returns

• Window washers

You may even manufacture a reason for your outreach — an annual sales event, for example. Think Elfa. Think Ikea.

That’s why ice cream parlors and restaurants offer goodies on your birthday, offering a free sundae/drink and assuming you won’t arrive at their door alone. Naturally, friends and family pay full price for their purchases.

Now I won’t lie to you: Postcards do cost more than e-mail. You have to pay for postage and printing and then either hire someone to stamp and label the cards or do it yourself. UGH!
However, not all your customers will read their e-mail. Or they may not read it when you want them to.

Which means your best bet is sending both an e-mail and a postcard to ensure your customer learns about your promotion now.

What a concept — be there when they’re ready to read your message!

One other thing — postcards aren’t that expensive. It should cost you a mere $380 to remind 1,000 people to buy from you (printing, $90, overnightprints.com; postage, $280; address labels, $10). You can affix stamps while watching television.

You might generate a $50 sale by investing 38¢. Nice!

And since direct mail to strangers typically generates a 2 percent response rate, talking to a group that already knows you should do even better.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

Mr. Marketing is available at www.askmrmarketing.com to help you find the best ways for your business to communicate with customers.