You can keep putting out the deals in expensive advertising, but when that fails does that mean you go broke? Absolutely not!

Not if you have already built up a customer base, and have provided those customers with good auto repair service and good products. What you have built up by doing this is your company's number one asset.

Do you know how much that asset is worth? Do you know the lifetime value of your customers? That is how much a customer spends a year on average with you, times the number of years they stay a customer, times the number of customers you have.

It can add up to a lot, if you are doing things in the right way.

Do you have marketing geared toward your current customers?
Do you take the trouble to find out things they specifically and generally like and dislike? Do you ask what you might do to serve them better? Do you publicize a solid guarantee and honor it?

With the right customer service you can keep your customers for LIFE!

Find out information about your customers. Keep a list of their names and addresses so you can keep in constant communication with them by sending a heads-up on deals, new stock, and anything that would make them feel special. Postcards are perfect for doing that. Even get their month and day of birth so you can send them birthday cards giving them their own special discount on anything they want.

Give away things to your customers. Make promotional items freely available like pens, pencils, pocket planners, calendars, calculators, key-chains, mugs, you name it. All those things will have your business name, address, and phone number on them. Sending something like that to them in the mail would even give it more value in your customer's eyes. The more useful the item, the more you will be in the customers sight and mind. That is a good thing!

If you have a clothing store, get to know your customer's sizes. As soon as they walk in the door, greet them by name and say you have saved something for them that you know will look great on them. Then pick the newest most expensive piece of clothing to show them. Say that they simply must try it on, and while they will be in the changing room anyway, fix them up with everything to go with it for trying on as well. You will collect sales for more items once they see how good they look in them. Throw them over the edge by giving them a break in price if they get the entire outfit with accessories.

If you do not have a clothing store, find a way to get samples of what you do have to your customers that they can try. Get them to use something on a trial basis. Once you do that, their ownership of it is practically assured! Once someone is in possession of something, giving it up creates the painful emotion of loss.

A happy customer is a loyal customer. Loyalty comes by your customers knowing you care about them, are actively educating them in the things they are interested in, and knowing you will continuously be able to meet their needs in the best way for them.

The customer is always right in that they know what they want. You are always on top of it by presenting what you have as not only something they want, but something they've got to have. And not just something they themselves got to have. Maybe they have a husband, wife, or children. Compel your customer to treat the family too.

Here is something to jump on. Perhaps your customer is a business owner. Get that person to send the customers for their business over to your business. Beyond word of mouth referral, they can do that by giving coupons good for things in your store, or maybe you can get permission to put a raffle box in their store that gives prizes given by your store. You can either pay them to do it or return the favor. There can be many ways to help each other in cooperation, even paying each other commissions, and also bundling your two company's products and services together at favorable prices for customers. You will find that such arrangements, called Joint Venture Partnering, can be very lucrative as it quickly builds your customer base.

It pays to know your customer, and to know how to supplement and expand your products and services with things like go-along additions, deluxe automatic maintenance service, special package deals, premium upgrades, complimentary products, etc. Think of anything you can.

Give your customer something to put in their purse or wallet, something that equals money to them. A discount card that gives discounts on purchases, or a buyers card that gives rewards after a determined amount of purchases accumulated from multiple visits are two examples. The surest way to get your customer to spend more with you is getting them a charge card. Your own store credit card in your customer's possession is guaranteed to spike sales.

You will have a solid relationship with the customers you have already gotten, and through that relationship, your business will evolve!

This gives lifetime value of a customer a whole other meaning. You are finding ways to improve yourself and your business. Take periodic customer surveys. That way the customer is giving intellectual input as well as money into your business, and if you are innovative enough to make use of them, the customer will more than likely also be giving you new customers by recommending you to their friends.

Other things you can do: offer your customers incentives for making referrals & collect testimonial stories from them to use in your ads because the best advertising comes from satisfied customers. Not only that, a customer that gives a testimonial for you will become even more loyal by doing it. Imagine that! It just goes to show how things get solidified when written down. Do you write down the goals you have for your business? How about the goals of your business?

Write a Service Pledge to your customers. Post it up where you do business so your customers know what great service they can expect. Find the greatest benefit that solves the most major concern to your customers, perhaps something unique that no other business in the area offers. Make a catchy slogan out of it. Use it wherever the name of your business is displayed so that your business will be known by the slogan. When employees eagerly answer the phone, have them not only say the name of the business, but the slogan as well, followed by giving their name and asking "how may I help you?"

If you spruce up your business enough to make it an interesting topic of conversation, your customers will even talk you up to strangers they meet. Your reputation will travel by work of mouth.

Instead of you looking to find new customers, they will be finding you. And on top of that, their lifetime value will be much greater by your building the greater value into your business. This happens just by catering to your current customers rather than doing the usual routine of chasing after new ones.

That is why you will never lack if you keep your auto repair customers coming back.

So one of the key questions marketers have always ask is, "How do I increase the response to my mailings?" In this first part of a two part article, you'll learn 25 of the 55 excellent techniques for making sure your mailings pull a stronger response.

Not all of these techniques will work for every mailing you create. The key is to review the techniques whenever you're planning a mailing. Pick the ones that apply to your situation and put them to work. Your bank account will be glad you did!

1. Carefully target your audience.

Sales volume can be directly connected to your ability to accurately identify your most likely customers. If necessary, create different versions of your package tailored to each specifically targeted audience.

2. Solve your customer's most irritating problems.

Most customers don't buy products, but they do buy solutions to problems that plague them. If your product solves a critical problem, pull out all stops to let your customers know.

3. Help your customers achieve significant goals.

This is the complement of the prior point. If you can clearly show that your product or service will make your customer's lives easier or better, your sales volume should shoot straight up.

4. Focus on your customer's needs, not your product.

Customers have limited interest in your product or company. But they have unlimited interest in their needs, solutions to their problems, and making their lives better. Concentrate on fulfilling their needs through the use of your product or service.

5. ALWAYS stress benefits.

Always concentrate on how your product will benefit your customers-both logically and emotionally. Hit the right hot buttons and your sales will skyrocket.

6. Repeat your key benefits in the beginning, middle, and end of your email, letter or brochure.

Tell your readers once, tell them again, and then tell them one more time. Remember, people buy benefits, not products.

7. Use the "4 to 1" rule.

Your sales copy should contain four "you's" to every one "I." Customers want to hear about their number one priority-themselves. One of the best ways to convey that you understand your customer's needs is to use plenty of "you" language.

8. Use a stop-them-in-their-tracks headline or first sentence.

Some letters and emails benefit from a headline while others don't. Either the headline or first sentence must be very powerful in order to convince your prospects that your letter is worth reading.

9. Use sub-headings liberally.

Subheads help break up long blocks of copy. They also act as a "hot point" outline to pull the reader through the key ideas of your email or ad.

10. Seize the reader's attention immediately.

Don't waster space building up to your blockbuster points. Start with them. You have only a paragraph or two to convince your prospects to keep reading your letter. Give them what they need to make sure they continue.

11. Flatter your reader.

These days people are much more sophisticated when it comes to advertising. They know that you got their name from a mailing list. You can turn this fact to your advantage by suing this kind of copy.

12. Share some "inside" information.

Direct mail offers a perfect opportunity to appeal to a person's need to feel special. An ideal way to do this is to share some exclusive information. Make it clear that this offer is being made only to them.

13. Issue a personal letter from the President.

People like to deal with the person in charge. Using this type of personal message builds confidence.

14. Never end a sentence at the bottom of a page in a sales letter.

Always use a broken sentence to carry your reader forward onto the next page of your letter or email.

15. Feature the offer.

Everyone loves a good deal. Your job is to design an irresistible offer and make it a key focal point of your letter or email. A strong offer can often be the extra incentive that will convert your "maybes" to real live orders.

16. Give something away for FREE.

Free samples, trials, demonstrations, consultations, or information are all exceptional ways of getting customers to give your product or service a hands-on try. Sometimes that is all it takes to close the sale.

17. Run a contest.

Give away a free enrollment in your seminar, a free subscription to your newsletter, or anything else that appeals to your buyers.

18. Use a special "before the price increases" offer.

If you plan to raise your prices, make your regular customers a special offer at the old price for a limited time.

19. Repeat your offer.

An irresistible offer can overcome customers reluctance. State it at least twice in your email or letter, and again on your order form.

20. Make a time-limited offer.

Offer a special deal for a limited period of time. And do just that-legally you can't continue a time-limited offer indefinitely.

21. Base your offer on a limited supply.

A close-out of your inventory can create strong demand. A limited supply offer can be used to designate exclusivity and prestige.

22. Offer a special deal to the first 100 people who order.

Or the first 25, 50, 250 and so on. But remember, the key here is to keep it to a meaningful limit as an incentive for customers to act quickly.

23. Make a charter offer.

This approach is ideal for new products, subscriptions,and service agreements. If your product isn't new, consider starting a membership club and offering charter members special benefits.

24. Make a "last chance" offer.

Last chance at this price, inventory close-outs, and last chance before a model change can all be used to successfully win more orders.

25. "Buy 1 get 1 FREE" always outpulls "2 for the price of 1."

Although the savings are precisely the same, the first format sounds like the customer is getting a better bargain.

As mentioned in the beginning, not all of these techniques will work for every mailing you create. The key is to review the techniques whenever you're planning a mailing. Pick the ones that apply to your situation and put them to work.

In part two you'll learn about boosting the pulling power of your mailings.

In the meantime you have plenty of ideas to apply in your marketing. So go to work and try them out!