award winning web design & development

The formula for success for any business is to get your customers to make repeat purchases. There are a number of factors involved for getting repeat customers: pricing, quality of  products and services, excellent customer service etc. One of the best ways is to reward your customers for their repeat purchases. Here are three effective customer reward programs you could implement:

Number Of Purchases
This program is based on the number of purchases made by any customer. You could give away a free product or service to any customer that makes ten or more purchases. To make the program more effective you could require a set time period that all ten purchases must be made by. 

Dollar Amount 
You can require a certain dollar amount be spent before the customer receives a reward.  Tell customers if they spend over $50 in one month at your web site they get a 50% discount on their next purchase. You could also just reward one customer who spends the most every month with a bigger reward like a vacation. 

Points System 
Reward customers a point for every one-dollar they spend. Lets say customers can get a free computer for 300 points. That means customers will spend $300 dollars on your products and services to get enough points to get the free computer. To push slower selling products or services just offer more points per dollar spent for those particular items. 

The kind of rewards you give should depend on what your business can afford. Cheaper rewards could be gift certificates, coupons, clothes, or movie passes. Expensive rewards could be jewelry, vacations, bed and breakfast gift certificates, electronics or computer equipment.

You may want to invest in a good database program to keep track of your rewards program. I also recommend contacting a legal professional for advice, set-up and the structure of your rewards program. I hope these ideas I’ve given you help make your business more successful.

A joint venture is when two or more businesses join together to work on a project for a set period of time. Doing joint ventures with other businesses can increase your chances of beating your competition, increase your sales and increase your profits quickly. Plus:

-you can save money when businesses share operating costs

-you can get referrals from other businesses

-you can save valuable time when businesses share the workload

-you can offer your customers new products and services

-you can gain new business associates

-you can save money by sharing advertising and marketing costs

-you can get free advice and important information from other businesses

You can find businesses to joint venture with online or offline. I try to find businesses that have the same target audience, but are not direct competition with my business.

Here are a few ways to find joint ventures online:

-subscribe and participate in e-mail discussion groups, online forums and newsgroups that deal with your target audience

-subscribe to e-zines that deal with your targeted audience

-note on your Web site or e-zine that you are interested in doing joint ventures

-search in your favorite web directories and search engines to find businesses to joint venture with online

Once you find a business simply e-mail them your proposal. Tell the business owner the benefits of the joint venture. Explain to him or her why it would be a win/win situation for both of your businesses. Give them a lot of compliments about their business, Web site, products and services. Using all three methods above will greater your chance of constructing a profitable joint venture. Good Luck!

1. Make your potential customers forget about the competition. Just tell them to forget with a factual and believable reason why they should.

2. Joint venture with your competition if you can’t beat them. You could agree to work together and beat the other competition then share the profits.

3. Visit chat rooms were your potential customers would gather. You can lurk and do market research or mention your product to people.

4. Make your web site sticky by building a large directory of web sites your visitors would enjoy. It saves them precious time searching for them.

5. Start a free-to-join business association from your web site. Just ask all members to place your association logo and link on their web site.

6. Make extra revenue for your web site by selling advertising space on your web site, in your e-zine, in your free ebooks, on your classified ad site, etc.

7. Switch your marketing plan when your market dies for your product. Be flexible and redesign your product for a different market.

8. Make your web site worth revisiting. Give your visitors original content, free ebooks, information web site links, free useful software, etc.

9. Build your opt-in e-mail list using an FFA ( free-for-all links page). People can submit links to your links page and you can send them a thanks e-mail.

10. Reward your customers for giving you product feedback. It could be discounted products, useful software, information products, etc.

1. You don’t offer free original content.

2. You don’t use a signature file on your e-mails.

3. You don’t offer free software.

4. You don’t have your own domain name.

5. You don’t offer a free contest or sweepstakes.

6. You don’t test and improve your ad copy.

7. You don’t offer a free web site directory.

8. You don’t give people any urgency to buy now.

9. You don’t offer a free e-zine.

10. You don’t attract the target audience that would buy your product or service.

11. You don’t offer a free community.

12 You don’t let people read your ad before they get your freebie.

13. You don’t offer a free affiliate program.

14. You don’t make your web site look professional.

15. You don’t offer a free online service.

16. You don’t give people as many ordering options as possible.

17. You don’t offer free current information.

18. You don’t let people know anything about your business.

19. You don’t offer free samples of your product or service.

20. You don’t make people feel safe and secure when they order.