Supernatural Agency: Online business tales

“We could have put those resources into advertising. Instead, we wanted to work on getting people back,” Hsieh says. “We believe that the way to build a long-term, growing business is to focus on how to get repeat customers back to your site and purchase more often.”

That’s Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, the online shoe retailer, explaining one of the ways they grew their business from $1.6 million to $800 million is seven years, in a current Marketing Sherpa article (the article expires as a free version on August 14th- I recommend you sign up for a free sub to get more of these great pieces on lead gen, CS, direct and other marketing issues).

As you monetize, you must retain and resell or all your efforts are doomed to endless repetition with slow growth. Repeat customers tell others and spread viral referrals. Keeping them happy is critical yet many affiliate sites and ad-supported sites do little more than place a ‘Join Our Email List’ form on their pages to capture return business.

Here are a few things you must consider to build a happy and growing database of repeat customers:

• Provide compelling, current content that is frequently refreshed. Include email and RSS update options.
• Do the Amazon thing: Create lists of ‘Customers Who Bought This Also Liked This’
• Have an application on the site that solves a time-related problem for your users so they give you permission to contact them on a predictable basis
• Amazing customer service. Affiliates may say: ‘we don’t do customer service’ but the fact is they are your customers. Find ways to get them to return to you rather than the merchant site.
• Reward referrals. Offer points, giveaways, free shipping, etc., for legit referrals.
• Don’t work with marginal merchants or advertisers who are not very specific to your site subject. Having a high quality central resource on a subject including great merchants and advertising that directly addresses my interests will encourage me to come back- it’s all content and should be vetted by the same standards used for your editorial content (if you have any!). Those Hormel Spam recipe ads I get in my Gmail account really don’t help the Gmail cause…

How valuable is a repeat customer? You don’t have to constantly market to replenish the one-timers, they will refer, they will buy again and again. $$$ and they represent a major business asset which greatly increases your value should you want to sell.

If your site doesn’t lend itself to encouraging repeat visitors and a loyal fan base I’d suggest you’re doomed to small time status. It’s time to change your plan.