When you’re thinking about how to best use your dollars for marketing, here are the three ways I approach this:
1) It is always easiest to sell more to those who are already buying your product or service;
2) You are more likely to sell to new customers who are much like the customers you already have; and
3) It is hardest to sell to new people about whom you have little information.
Item 1 assumes that you do everything to keep your customers happy so they’ll want to keep coming back to you.
Item 2 is based on the idea that the kinds of people who really appreciate you, what you sell, and how you do business are likely to want to do business with you….once they know who you are.
Item 3 means it can be very expensive to simply place an advertisement without knowing details about the audience that will see the advertisement.
So, two wise ways to use your advertising dollars are to promote your business to current satisfied customers and to ask your customers for referrals to others they think will want to do business with you.