…The funnel out

Getting a new customer is hard and takes a lot of work and effort.  If you only focus on getting new customers then you will always be rolling a boulder up a hill.  Keeping a customer and getting them to buy again takes only a fraction of the effort of finding a new one.  They are already aware of you, you convinced them to buy a first time and hopefully they loved your product, so it’s far easier to get them to buy again.  This is your ideal customer right in the palm of your hand so don’t lose them just because you are chasing new customers all the time!  So many businesses just focus on new customers when they could halve their marketing budget by instead spending more time with the customers they already have.  This comes in part from sales cultures which have become standard in many businesses.  Salespeople get paid commission on signing up a new customer, and they don’t lose any money if that customer leaves.  So having a strategy where a customer’s first purchase is only the start of their journey with your company will help you grow far quicker.  You need to have a retention strategy to make that first purchase into a repeat customer.

But if you have someone who is a repeat customer then they must love your product right?  And by buying from you they are contributing towards a vegan world.  They believe in your mission and they want to help you succeed.  When you have a vegan business it’s easy to turn a repeat customer into an advocate for your business.  If you love them, then make them feel part of your journey and your tribe – then they will help you by finding new customers for you with only the slightest bit of prompting.  This is the point where your business starts to grow without your effort.  It’s when others start sharing your message on your behalf and it’s where you need to get to if you are going to be wildly successful.