5 Ways To Make More Money (Without Raising Prices Or Finding New Clients)

If you're ready to make more money and better serve your clients and customers in the process, then this video is for you. Today I'm going to share with you five strategies that can help you maximize your profits by as much as 95%. Keep watching. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex coming at you this week with a video to help all my freelancers and business owners out there who are looking to sell scale without raising your prices or taking on a single new client or customer. If there is one topic that has been top of mind for me and a lot of other creators and entrepreneurs lately, it is burnout. Look, running a business is hard work. That is a fact. But what if there was a way to ensure the long term success of your business without having to be in constant hustle mode? Well, there is. And before I share it, I want to really break down the the simplest ways that you can grow your business. And this basically applies to any business out there. There are three things you can do. You can 1 get more customers 2 raise your prices or 3 get your current customers to buy more products and or services from you. And even better, you can do a combo of like all three of those. But in my opinion the easiest way to grow your business is to focus on number three. And I'm always surprised how few people focus on this. Despite the fact that it is way easier to turn a customer into a repeat custom than it is to turn a stranger on the Internet into a first time buyer. And on average over 65% of small businesses revenue comes from repeat customers. In fact, the vast majority of my revenue comes from my existing customers. And if your business doesn't reflect the same ratio, I promise you, you are working way too hard and you need to start looking at something called your customer Lifetime value or clv. Now if you're not familiar with what customer lifetime value is, it's basically the total amount of money that a customer is expected to spend spend on your products and services over their lifetime. And by increasing your customer lifetime value, you're increasing the total amount of money that the average customer is spending with your brand. So this basically means that your customers are buying from you again and again and again. Which is awesome. Now of course acquiring new customers is an essential part of growing your business. So I'm not saying that you should completely ignore that it is in fact important. But the truth is that it is much more expensive to convert a first time buyer than it is to retain existing customers. Especially now that it's getting more and More expensive, expensive to actually buy people's attention online. And it actually costs up to five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Now if you're a freelancer who doesn't pay for traffic to gain new leads and customers, and you're thinking this doesn't apply to me, I promise you it does. Because think about how much time and energy and effort that you spend working with a new client versus working with a client that you've worked with in the past. It is so much easier to do ongoing work or add on work for an existing client than it is to onboard a new client. And, and if you've done any sort of freelancing or coaching work, you know that to be true. So think about it this way. Whether it's a $200 one off project or a $20,000 a year retainer client, you still need to do a discovery call, map out the project scope, sign a contract, and take the time to learn their workflow processes, team and brand voice. See what I mean? So when you focus on getting repeat clients and customers, therefore increasing your customer lifetime value, you're not only generating more revenue from each customer, but you're also reducing your customers acquisition costs and and your opportunity costs. In fact, according to research done by Frederick Reicheld of Bain and Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5%, just 5% increase profits by 25 to up to 95%. And with numbers like that, why in the world would you not focus on converting the people whose attention and trust you already have? So you might be wondering, okay, I get it Alex, but how do you increase your customer lifetime value? Well, I've got five tips for you, so let's dive right in. Starting with number five and ending with the number one way to increase your content customer lifetime value. And this one tip alone added an additional $1 million to my bottom line in the past two years. So you will definitely not want to miss that. Stick around to the end. So starting off with number five, personalization, Personalized marketing will help you get way more bang for your buck because you are sending out highly personalized offers and promotions to segments of your customers based on their behavior, preferences or interests. And this will boost your clv. Because when you're sending targeted offers to your customers rather than mass advertising or marketing, you're speaking to them directly and what they're actually interested in. Now this makes them way more likely to A pay attention and B buy from you. And you do not have to look very far to see personalization in action. So here are a couple of examples and how you can implement them to increase customer lifetime value in your business. So the first is relevant product recommendations. So this is something you see all of the time when you're on sites like Amazon or Netflix, right? They provide personalized product recommendations to their customers based on their past purchase behavior. In fact, according to a study by McKinsey, 35% of what consumers purchase on Amazon and 75% of what people watch on Netflix come from product recommendations. So by recommending relevant products to your customers based on something you already know that they like, you have a higher likelihood of them making a repeat purchase. Or to keep watching if it's Netflix. Here is another example. Personalized promotions. So this is a similar concept, except instead of making a suggestion, you're actually giving them a personalized offer offer. So for example, a pet store might send a promotion for dog food to customers who have previously purchased dog food or other dog related items. And they might send a cat food promotion to people who have a cat. So in this case you're not just showing them a product that they're likely to be interested in, but you're also incentivizing them to make a purchase by offering a promotion, a discount or a special offer. And according to a study done by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. So this is can really be huge in your business. Now, as a freelancer, coach or consultant, you may want to think, how can I offer my client a personalized offer based on what I know they need support with? All right, moving on to number four on the list, upsells and cross sells. All right, so this one isn't only about retaining your current customers for longer. It's also about increasing the average customer order value with each transaction. And you can do that in a couple of different ways. One way you might want to do this is through selling add on products or services to your existing customers. So one example of this might be when you purchase a new laptop and as you're in the process of checking out, you see maybe a pop up offer for a laptop case specifically made for the model of laptop that you're purchasing. Or maybe you see an offer for some sort of software package or an upgrade of memory on the laptop you're buying. Right? These are offers designed to be add ons or upsells to the purchase you're already making. And of course it would add to the overall purchase amount. Now another example of this is when you order say a burger at your favorite fast food restaurant and they ask you would you like to make that a combo meal? By getting you to add fries and a drink to your meal, they are in fact increasing the amount of money that you would spend on that purchase and therefore boosting their customer lifetime value. So another example of upselling might be when you register for a workshop and there's the option to upgrade to a VIP experience which would include extra perks or materials or more intimate experience. Now here's a distinction. While upsells are supplementary offers, cross sells are complementary offers. Like when you purchase a face cream and then you're immediately offered the eye cream or you've purchased my brand new brand voice guide program to learn how to write a magnetic and captivating brand voice. And then later I offer you my only inbox program to help you put your brand voice into action and write compelling and persuasive email campaigns. See what I did there? Now those are just a few examples of how you can utilize cross selling and upselling in your business. So as a freelancer, coach or consultant, you might think, hmm, what can I offer my client that sells supplements or compliments? What I've already given them? All right, number three on my list is top notch customer service. Yep. One of the most important things that you can do to increase your customer lifetime value is to provide top notch customer service. Because here's the thing, if you want your customers to keep coming back, then you got to give them a really good reason to keep doing that. And if you're not a very pleasant brand to do business with, then chances are pretty low that anyone will come back even if your product or service is amazing. On the other hand, when you're friendly and helpful and reply in a timely manner, you will build trust and long term loyalty with your customers, which then leads to happy customers. And happy customers means more repeat business, positive reviews and referrals of course, all which can increase your customer lifetime value and also just generate more first time revenue for your business. And while being friendly and helpful and responsive is by far the most important factor that goes into good customer service, you you could also use customer service as a more direct way to boost your customer lifetime value by offering a loyalty program which rewards customers for their loyalty and repeat purchases. So 71% of customers say that loyalty programs are actually a meaningful part of their brand relationships and 79% of consumers say loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with a brand. I know I love my loyalty programs. My favorite Coffee shop does this. Every time I go buy a coffee, I get a stamp on my little loyalty card and once I have five stamps, I get a free coffee. So. So it's kind of a no brainer, right? It's good customer service that makes me feel valued and appreciated, but it's also just smart business because the promise of receiving a free coffee really gets me coming back for more coffee. Said coffee a lot right there. Which obviously then increases customer lifetime value. So as a freelancer, coach or consultant think, how can I go above and beyond and make my clients feel valued and appreciated so that they stay loyal? All right, number two, frequent communication. Yes, great customer service is really, really important. But just because you're friendly and helpful and responsive doesn't necessarily mean that you really have a great relationship with your customers. You need to be actively engaging and connecting with your clients and customers on an ongoing basis, even if they're not currently paying you for anything right now. Right? You don't just want to send them a quick email saying, how can I help? But really take the time to really listen and understand them, ask them what they need help with, ask them questions, right? Go out of your way to really support them and put pop into their inbox regularly to check in. You really want to stay top of mind and keep your customers engaged with you and your brand, even in between the times they buy. So a study by Harvard Business Review found that customers who are fully engaged with a brand spend 23% more than the average customer. So simply by taking a bit of time to engage and chat with your audience on a more regular basis, you could be significantly boosting your customer lifetime value. Awesome, right? So as a freelancer, coach or consultant, think, when's the last time I sent an email to a past client just to check in and say hi and see how they're doing? I bet you if you do that, you will end up getting more business. All right, now onto the juiciest tip on my list. Number one, grow with your customers. One of the best ways, and my personal favorite, to increase your customer lifetime value is to actually create new products for the same audience. Yes, by keeping in touch and serving your best customers. Right? Asking them what their needs are and how you can better serve them. You can develop new products that they actually need and want to buy, but don't just create products for the sake of creating products. Create the product or service that will help them get to the next level so they don't outgrow you and then leave. Right? So here's the thing if you're serious about retaining your customers for the long haul, then your business is going to have to grow with your audience. So I'm going to give you an example based on my own brand, the Copy Posse. So of course, as you probably know, I started the Copy posse and this YouTube channel with one target audience in mind, brand new aspiring copywriters. This means that in the beginning days of my brand and my channel, almost all of my content was focused solely on helping new copywriters learn the skills they needed to start successful copywriting businesses from scratch. And eventually I created my very first program, the Copy Posse Launchpad, which helps new and aspiring copywriters learn how to write all the copywriting assets needed in a marketing funnel, create a portfolio of their work, and kickstart their copywriting business. But as my Launchpad customers graduate from that program and their copywriting businesses start to grow, they no longer need this beginner educational content. This means if I want to retain them as a customer, then I need to produce the content that's relevant to where they are on their journey and help them get to the next step. So over the years my content and offers have naturally grown and expanded to serve that higher level audience. So now I teach more in depth marketing strategies along with beginner content. So I'm still getting the new customers in who want to learn the basics of copywriting. And that is awesome. But I also have an entire podcast possiverse of other programs and offers to help more experienced copywriters, marketers and business owners at all different levels from email marketing to branding to my high level membership program reign. And I am currently working on a high level marketing program that will actually be released later this year, specifically for existing copywriters and business owners looking to take the world by storm with their marketing. So you can see how my brand is really growing and expanding with my customers. And this strategy alone is how I added an additional $1 million to my bottom line in the last two years without spending a single dollar on acquiring a new customer. So as a freelancer, coach or consultant, you might want to think what is a future challenge that I can support my client with? How can I help them get to the next level and how can I grow with my clients? All right, what was your number one takeaway from this video? I would love to hear it. Comment below and let me know and like this video if you want to see more like it. I will see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now. Alright guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here. And you can click right here to get a free gift. When it comes to the world of digital marketing, one thing will always be true. Trends will change and fads will fade. So how can you tell if a marketing trend is something you can't ignore or if it's on its way out the door? You know, I love to keep it real so you can stay relevant. So in this video, I'm going to share with you my five marketing predictions for this year. Keep watching.