A common marketing tip is to capitalize on your existing customer base, because it is easier to sell more product to an existing customer than it is to find new potential customers and then have to convince them to buy. That’s a large part of why so many Internet Marketing “Gurus” stress the importance of building your list. (See List Building Glossary – Terms and Definitions if you are still fuzzy on the whole List Building concept.)

Keep in mind when I use the phrase, “customer base”, I am not merely referring to a group of people who have bought product from you. You may not sell products. You may be a blogger who monetizes a site via Adsense, for example. In that case, “customer base” might refer to the blog readers who have subscribed to your RSS feed, or anyone who has actively connected with you in some way. Purchasing products, joining your mailing list, subscribing to your RSS feed, etc. all qualify to fit into the general phrase “customer base”.

Ever been irritated because someone offered a free report, ebook, or whitepaper, only to find out that in order to get it, you had to supply a name and email address? And then, for the rest of your life, and that of all your children’s lives, grandchildren’s lives, and forever after, you received marketing offers via email from the guru who used your email address to help build his list! That guru knew that he stood a much better chance of making a sale to you because you were willing to give him your contact information in return for his freebie.

I hate getting that constant stream of marketing offers as much as you do, but I do understand the importance of marketing to your current customer base. I’ll never be one of those gurus I guess, and I suppose I’ll never show you a photo of me driving a Bugatti (or whatever the latest status symbol car is these days), because I refuse to market as aggressively as those gurus do. Yes, I have a mailing list. Yes, I try to send valuable information to that list once in a while (definitely not often). But I always give way more than I ask in return, because that’s just the way I do things. I don’t want to annoy the people who have kindly signed up to my list; I’d rather help them instead. Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t benefit from an existing customer base without annoying them in the process.

Here are some ideas to help you benefit from your existing customer base without becoming a major annoyance to them. I’ll try not to judge those who choose to market like the big “gurus”, but for those who prefer a less aggressive method, read on.

If you sell and ship products, include a little paper insert with each shipment. If you don’t ship products, include a “digital insert”, or simply a special marketing message, with whatever form of communication you have with your customer base. From here on out, any time I refer to an “insert”, you substitute either “paper” or “digital” in front of the word, depending upon your situation.

This insert doesn’t have to be fancy. Just a simple message printed right onto your normal inkjet printer paper works well, or a clearly marked message in an email is fine. Do include product pictures on this insert, however, as a picture is worth 1000 words, as they say.

What do you include on these inserts? Here are 5 creative ways you can market to your existing customer/user base without annoying them – all within a simple insert.

1) The Special Deal Just For Valued Customers/Users

Let your customers know that because they are valued customers, they can get special deals that aren’t offered to anyone else. Include links to special, SECRET, product pages on your site that only current customers know about. These special product pages might be specially-priced products, or might be specially-bundled groups of products. The point is that these pages aren’t shown to just anyone. Only your valued current customers know about them. And only they get the special price on those pages, or the special bundled group of products at a savings. Use your imagination when thinking about what YOU can offer THEM that will mean increased sales for YOU and special deals for THEM.

2) The Helpful Tip and Related Offer

Don’t just market to your customer base on these inserts. Offer tips and information as well. If you’ve sold them a product, you may want to include usage tips or ideas for creatively using the product. Whatever types of tips you include (whether they are geared towards a purchased product or not), be sure to include a special deal on a product (see #1 above) that would complement the tip in some way. If the tip is about using a purchased product in some way, then a special deal might be offered on an accessory product that would complement the main product (like the old idea of selling razor blades for razors). If you don’t sell products, but do promote affiliate products, then a tip on how to do something your customer base is interested in, followed by a marketing message about a related affiliate product would make sense.

3) Ask For A Favor

Don’t be shy. Ask for something from your customer base. Ask for a testimonial – either of your products, your services, or just your blog posts. Ask for a link! Ask for word-of-mouth recommendations. Ask your customer base to share your site with their social networks, by tweeting about it, or linking to it on Facebook. All of these kinds of things can easily be placed into an insert, without you having to put anyone on the spot. You’ve asked. They can take action or not, without anyone feeling pressured to do so. While you may not get a large response, ANY response is better than none – which is what you’ll likely get if you don’t ask!

4) Trade Favors

Ask for one thing in return for giving another. This is one of my favorites. A friend of mine often says, “You wouldn’t believe what some peoople will do for a free t-shirt”. And she’s absolutely right. Everyone loves to get a freebie, so give one away in return for your customers giving something of value to you. What kind of value can they give you? Here’s where you get to be creative. I’ll offer a possible suggestion, but you should take this as an idea-starter and come up with your own ideas geared towards your needs.

Ask your customer base to create a video that is relevant to your site in some way, and in return, you’ll give them a freebie (t-shirt, product, etc). If you sell widgets, then ask your customers to create a video showing how easy/fun it is to use your widget, or how they use your widget in a non-traditional, creative way. If you blog about climbing widgets, or cooking widgets, or making widgets, ask your customer base to create videos that show them climbing widgets, cooking widgets, or making widgets. The point is to get user-generated content that is difficult for you to always create. Let your users take the time to create videos, and you will have awesome content to share, and possibly convert lots more sales because you’re showing actual customers enjoying the product! Again, these are just generic ideas, but if you can get customers to create videos for your site, you’ll reap the benefits in many ways – which may include better search engine rankings (Google loves video) and more conversions on your site.

5) Point Out Important Sections Of Your Site

Finally, it’s always a good idea to include a link or two to some important sections of your site on your inserts, that your users might not be aware of. This might be a link to your FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, or a link to your community forum, etc. The key here is to keep the user engaged with your site, either by answering questions she may have, or by involving her in portions of the site she may not have noticed before. If you can remind users to return to your site for reasons beyond the purchasing act, you have a chance of converting them again when they do.

Summary

The key is to not make a nuisance of yourself. These “inserts” are only included as part of another correspondence that isn’t annoying. If you ship products, including a slip of paper with this kind of information on it isn’t annoying. The customer is happy to receive her order, and won’t mind the little insert in the box. If you send out informative newsletters, the user won’t mind a marketing message inserted at the bottom of the email, because you’ve just supplied her with engaging, interesting content that she asked for previously. Aggressive marketing gurus believe the marketing IS the message. That’s not the Insert way at all. With inserts, the product or the useful information is the message – the insert is merely supplemental, and therefore much less annoying.

I may never get the nearly $2,000,000 Bugatti shown below with the “insert” method, but I won’t be despised as a slick marketing “guru” either. That’s the way I prefer to do business.