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What to do when it’s bye-bye best customers
Is your customer base dwindling? If so, you need to have a smart marketing person who understands how to attract new buyers, Ellen Fruchtman writes.
Ellen Fruchtman is founder and president of Fruchtman Marketing, a full-service agency headquartered in Toledo, Ohio representing independent jewelers, jewelry manufacturers and trade organizations. Reach her by email at ellen@fruchtman.com
“My best customers aren’t spending what they used to spend.”
“My customer base didn’t show up this holiday season.”
Sound familiar? If it does, perhaps you’re also asking, “Why?”
Here’s the honest truth: Your best and oldest customers are, well, getting old. And when you’re getting old a few things happen:
1) You actually have enough fine jewelry.
2) You actually don’t care as much as you once did about fine jewelry.
3) You have other needs and wants.
4) You spend the holiday season (or more) at your second home.
5) You retire and move.
When you’re in the home stretch, your priorities change. It’s not realistic to ever think your best customers will always want to buy fine jewelry each and every year or more than once a year. You’re actually lucky if they buy every few years.
You can’t rely on those best customers today, tomorrow and certainly in the future. Remember the 80/20 rule? It might still be true, but this 20 percent is representing less and less of your overall gross sales, and it’s time you do something about it.
Retention marketing will always be important and should have a place in your current marketing budget. But today, you need to take a hard look at how much money you’re pouring into these customers.
You have no control over item numbers one through five above. So, what’s a retailer to do? You need to look at what needs to be done to acquire new customers. Because if you don’t, simply put, your business won’t survive.
Here comes what none of you want to hear: You have to advertise.
“Business is tough.” Thinking that too? Of course it is.
In years gone by, it was easy to get your message to your target audience. Today? There’s a plethora of avenues and not enough money to cover it all.
Make no mistake about it, marketing is serious business with very little margin for error. You can certainly test (with ample time), but you have to shift on a dime if it isn’t working.
If you’re doing your own marketing without qualified internal personnel, you’re being penny-wise and pound-foolish. It’s far too complex and getting more difficult every year.
Trust me, this is not a self-serving article. You don’t have to engage Fruchtman Marketing (although we welcome the opportunity.) However, make sure you engage
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someone, anyone, who is smart, professional and understands your customer and your business.
Here’s what you’re currently facing:
-- Your best customers are aging.
-- Your best customers no longer need or care as much as they once did about fine jewelry.
-- The bridal audience is not as easily influenced by the way you used to advertise.
-- Online researching and purchasing is a way of life.
So, what are you going to do about it?
In January 2016 you likely will continue to say, “My best customers aren’t spending what they used to spend,” or, “My customer base didn’t show up this holiday season.”
Hopefully you will follow it up with, “We saw the largest amount of new customers we have ever seen.”
It can and needs to happen. The proverbial ball is in your court.
Ellen Fruchtman is founder and president of Fruchtman Marketing, a full-service agency specializing in the jewelry industry. Fruchtman Marketing, represents independent jewelers across the county along with jewelry manufacturers, jewelry designers and trade organizations throughout the U.S and Canada. Contact Ellen Fruchtman at 1-800-481-3520 or at ellen@fruchtman.com. You can sign up for a free weekly marketing newsletter at fruchtman.com. Fruchtman Marketing will be at the upcoming Centurion jewelry show, booth 950.
Here’s what you’re currently facing:
-- Your best customers are aging.
-- Your best customers no longer need or care as much as they once did about fine jewelry.
-- The bridal audience is not as easily influenced by the way you used to advertise.
-- Online researching and purchasing is a way of life.
So, what are you going to do about it?
In January 2016 you likely will continue to say, “My best customers aren’t spending what they used to spend,” or, “My customer base didn’t show up this holiday season.”
Hopefully you will follow it up with, “We saw the largest amount of new customers we have ever seen.”
It can and needs to happen. The proverbial ball is in your court.
Ellen Fruchtman is founder and president of Fruchtman Marketing, a full-service agency specializing in the jewelry industry. Fruchtman Marketing, represents independent jewelers across the county along with jewelry manufacturers, jewelry designers and trade organizations throughout the U.S and Canada. Contact Ellen Fruchtman at 1-800-481-3520 or at ellen@fruchtman.com. You can sign up for a free weekly marketing newsletter at fruchtman.com. Fruchtman Marketing will be at the upcoming Centurion jewelry show, booth 950.
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