Strategy #1. - You Must Understand The Lifetime Value Of Your Clients

Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers.

This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer.

The following example will explain why it's important to know this number: Let's pretend you own a book store. If your customer spends $50 every time they walk into your store, and they visit once a month for 4 years, a customer is worth $2400.00. The math would look like this: $50 (average bill) x 12 (number of visits) x 4 (number of years).

Think of how much money you're missing out on if you were thinking of only one transaction?

Let's take a look at another example: John Smith sells a cd plus manual kit on how to self-publish a book. The initial manual set is worth $500. John knows that over the lifetime of a customer, a significant number will spend somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 with additional products!

By knowing his numbers he can afford to allocate a significant amount of money towards his advertising budget to bring in more customers. Why? Because he is equipped with information that he'll make it up on average over the lifetime of the customer.

Strategy #2. - Build Up Your Customer List

Always collect their names, emails, and other contact information from your customers.

How will you stay in contact with your customers if you don't collect your information? And if you do ask for their contact details on your sales slips and invoices, be sure you are using them!

And if you are wondering how you collect them it is as simple as asking them for it. This is best done during your customers' purchasing process by asking them to fill out a form with their details. There are many successful companies who did this for years and would mail you catalogs in the mail.

Don't you remember getting them? And when you received these catalogs you would find a comfortable place to relax with pen in hand checking off or earmarking the items you would later order. This enabled these companies to make more money from their customers.

Another way to get your customers to give you their contact information is by having a monthly drawing in which a prize will be given. It will amaze you how many names you could collect by doing this.

Let's say you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert to everyone who drops their business card into a fish bowl. It's not impossible to collect over 1000 names over the course of a month. How much will a dessert cost? $2 - $3, if that much. If all business owners were to implement this marketing strategy alone, they would be protecting their businesses in the face of stiff competition. They could send out snail mail to their customers with special offers on slow nights and watch them come flocking in.

This can also be done with emails and faxes. You want to generate more business? No problem. Send out a special promotion.

Strategy #3. - Develop A Strong Relationship With Your Prospects And Clients

It's not unusual to hear cases in which a business will send out newsletters to their customers for years before they buy. You want to position yourself in such a way that when they're ready to buy -- you'll get the sale.

The lesson here: keep communicating and following up with your customers until they're ready to place an order with you.

About the Author: Yves Marie Danie Baptiste is an expert in small business marketing. To learn how to increase profits in your small business, visit: http://tinyurl.com/5nkul3.