Customer rewards and direct mail = recession-proof marketing

Your marketing efforts have been ridden hard and put up wet. You've bought and produced that eye-popping 30-second TV spot and run it on local cable and on the broadcast affiliates. It ripped a chunk from your budget and left it bleeding with little or no measurable results. Then, the advertising rep from the local paper convinced you to buy three weeks of full-color quarter page ads that looked great and bolstered your brand --and your ego, but you got very few new customers from it... at what price? Remember it is much, much more expensive to buy new customers than it is to keep your old ones.
Although it is important to keep reloading your customer base, think about this. Who is responsible for your continued success? The masses? Or the loyal few.
If we follow the 80 - 20 rule of business... i.e. the Pareto Principal, we know that it is the loyal few. Remember that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers. In most cases, that 20 percent is made up of the same group of consumers from month to month.
Crack open your customer and sales histories and figure out who these people are. If you aren't capturing this information in a comprehensive, easy to manipulate data base, you should be.
Once you have that list, make a plan. Host an exclusive, after-hours, 10-percent-off sale. Invite them to a parking lot barbecue, send them a gift card with a letter of thanks, or a logo ceramic mug (about $2 each from your area promotional items vendor).
Start a rewards program. Giveaway a hot new item like a Nintendo Wii. Have drawings for dinner at the local steakhouse. Buy four season tickets to your home town's pro or semi-pro team and hook up your best customers to seats at a home game.
Set up a direct mailing list for these people and correspond with them. Send them newsletters, thank you notes, "we miss you" notes, birthday cards, anything. Keep your brand on their mind with offers, rewards and reminders that you are still here. Don't try and sell them something with each mailing. Sometimes a simple thank you has more affect than an exclusive offer.
This all sounds expensive, but think about how much that last print ad campaign cost you. Granted, you may have reached 100,000 sets of eyeballs every week or month, but you're just throwing money at the masses and hoping something sticks. Throw your money a little closer to the bottom line. The targets are easier to hit and these people are like promotional Velcro. Whatever you throw at them is going to stick. Just remember that whatever you offer, make sure they have to come in the store to get it. Once you get these proven spenders inside the "killzone" they'll spend their money.