List Building 101

Why do you even need a list?

You need a current customer list, because if it is implimented correctly, you will be able to identify exactly who is spending money with you, how often they buy, and how much they spend on average.  This part of the market research that you need to do in order to plan who to advertise to, when to advertise, and how much you should be spending on advertising.

One of the most valuable assets any business has, is it's customer list.  Sadly this is one of the most overlooked, under used, and mismanaged resources that small business owners have.  From my experience in meeting with small business owners, very few had an actual customer list, I totally understand why.  

Building a customer list can be time consuming, and tedious work.  It can be awkard asking people (especially complete strangers) to give you their phone number or email address. Then when you do get someone to share that info, most small business owners will write the info down on a sheet of paper with good intentions of "some day" gathering all the scraps, and sheets of paper and putting them into a file of some kind.  (Few ever get around to actually doing that part though).  List building can absolutly SUCK!!  However there is a better way.

I want to help you build your customer list the most effective and least painful way possible.  Thanks to current technology, any business, including yours, can use the same customer list building techniques that fortune 500 companies use, and it does not have to cost tens of thousands of dollars to do it.  In fact, depending on how much of the system you want to implement, the cost could start for less than $50 / month.   

The system that I would like to help you implement will entice people to sign themselves up to your customer list, and eagerly look forward to hearing from you on a regular basis.  If you follow my advice, and the tried true methods of other businesses that use this stragety, you NEVER have to ask strangers for their phone number or email address again.  Your list will grow on auto pilot.  The best part is that you won't even have to worry about managing the list because the system will do that for you. Users will be able to signup and if needed, they can remove themselves from the list without you ever having touch the system. 

So how does this magical system work?  

It's simple.  You are going to follow the leaders and do what they do to get customers on their customer list.  You are going to place a small sign near your checkout register that offers the customer an incentive to join your "Birthday Club, VIP Club, Loyalty Club, etc..", and as a reward they get a small discount or maybe a free gift.  The customer joins the club by texting the keyword that you chose, to a local phone number.  When the system receives the text, that number is added to the list, and in return they receive a coupon that they can redeem for the discount or free gift.  The number stays on your list until the customer removes themselves from the list by sending a "Stop" message to the system.  By the way, in addition to collecting the phone number, the system can also collect the customer's name and email address if you also wanted that info.

Now that you have a list that is starting to grow on auto pilot, it's time to start automating!