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    Three secrets on making more money per customer

    Synopsis

    The secrets lie in creating a product with more value than your basic products or services, bundling more value in this product and giving more tools, services or one to one service.

    ThinkstockPhotos-128933776ThinkStock Photos
    Create a subscription based product for your business which can generate recurring income for your business - it can be monthly, weekly, quarterly or annually.
    By Rohit Mahajan

    Before we start this article and reveal the secrets of making more money per customer, I would like to ask you a couple of questions. How many of you have experienced these situations? Imagine-You tried to advertise your business may be offline, online or some other channels, you did sell some products as well, made some money out of it but overall the campaign was a loss for you. The money you made was less than the money you put into the campaign.

    Now someone suggested to you that it's a part of the game some campaigns do fail, so it's fine you should try once again with some changes in your campaign, make some changes in your creative or maybe try to change the strategy and it will work. As per the suggestions, you make some changes in your campaign, but it still doesn't work out the way you wanted.

    And if you are sitting in your office with the campaign reports, looking at the numbers and thinking 'why my campaigns are not profitable and why am I losing money in my campaigns', you are not alone. If you are going through such situations, then don't worry, the secrets I am going to reveal will take away your anxiety of running a successful campaign.

    Secret #1: Use upselling, downselling, cross-selling
    It's a no brainer to offer some more products to the same customer who has purchased something from you in the past because they already know you and they already trust you, which means they are more likely to buy more products from you. There are three different ways to it.

    Upsell: Offer an upsell, which is in case they have bought a product from you, they might buy a higher value product from you as well or maybe they will buy accessories that go along with your product.

    Downsell: In case they do not buy an upsell, you can offer them lower value options. Downsell doesn't mean discounting the original upsell in any way. It means offering the upsell with less features and a lower price or offering some other lesser value product.

    Crosselling: As the name implies cross sell means offering other products that are not your niche products, but your customers buy those products as well. Like travel companies offer credit cards to their customers or shampoo companies offer face wash.

    So be creative, create your own way of upsells, downsells and cross sell products.

    Secret #2: Create a recurring income product around your niche
    Create a subscription based product for your business which can generate recurring income for your business - it can be monthly, weekly, quarterly or annually. Ideally, it should be monthly or annually. Create a product or a service which can be consumed by the user for long and you can charge for that service or product on a recurring basis.

    We also call that continuity programme. Now the question arises, how should you find out a product for continuity programme? Use the data you have about your target audience, find out how you can help them more, what value can you provide them. What else do they need which complements your product or your service. Create a product around it and sell it.

    It can be membership, software, tools, services or just information like newsletters. Businesses like Radisson, Taj and other hotels also sell membership services and they bundle it with free room with their annual membership. Hotels, restaurants, food delivery services, apparel, everyone tries to fit in subscription model in their business.

    Secret #3: Create a value ladder for your business
    Do you remember your first phone? How many times have you upgraded your phone after that? Have you ever thought why you keep upgrading your phone? Because every time you upgrade, you get a brand new phone with more features and better specifications. In short you get more value in your phone, each time you upgrade your phone. And most end up spending a little more money each time they buy a new and better phone.

    Apply the same theory in your business. People like to be indulged, they like to get immersed. Once they are comfortable in a space they want to stay in that place and keep themselves immersed in that space. They prepare themselves to shell out more money to get themselves immersed if they are getting enough value. Perfect example of this is expensive bikes. Once you buy an expensive bike from Harley, Ducati or other such similar brands, you get so immersed that you keep on upgrading your bike every one or two years.

    Create a product with more value than your basic products or services. The selling price of this product can be 20 to 1000 times more than your basic product. This is a kind of upselling, but at a very high level with a whole new product. Bundle more value in this product. Make sure the product is worth it.

    Once you have these three kinds of products, you would, in all probability, not go wrong with your marketing plans. Even if your cost per acquisition of customer goes up, you will still be profitable.


    The writer is Founder of CloudMay India Pvt. Ltd. He helps companies in developing marketing automation processes & growth hacking strategies. For more information about him, visit https://www.rohitmahajan.org
    (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
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