What’s a “back end” now? Back end definition.
Definition: Back-end n. Back end is where you wildly increase your per-lead productivity.
How do you outspend the other guy on your ads? Become obscenely profitable: Back end marketing increases your “lifetime value” metric.
For example: Keep a client in your Rolodex instead of throwing him out. When something comes up that he’d love to buy from you, you got his number.
Super easy, super cheap but almost nobody does it. I don’t care who you are. You Gotta build that list. Capiche?
Sweet.
My compadre, you don’t have to be a sophisticated internet marketer to make this work. Frankly, internet marketing is not all that wildly profitable …not like you think it is, anyway. But it’s been mastered by people with easy access to information. And boy, they use it. Why?
They desperately want to work from home in their boxer shorts so they don’t have to deal with a boss, don’t have to work with people… ever again. They’re sick of getting flack from their boss, from the guy on the other end of the phone, and from an endless stream of demeaning inter-office memos. It’s enough to make me wish I had a shotgun to erase my brains.
Some days in that cubicle I’d rather swallow sweet double-barrel release than ever get on that damn cubicle phone again.
Let’s just say they’re highly motivated to make this work out because the alternative is cubicle hell. When you’re breaking your back shoveling horse crap on a farm, a cubicle might seem like a nice change of pace. But anybody who’s sat in that cattle pen being fattened up for the slaughter has sat there watched their dreams die.
So they kinda want a way out. No matter what it takes! They figured out what you didn’t: What every business should be doing. What you should be doing:
And that’s maximizing your profits.
The battle cry “it’s all in the list!” is like a road sign that points you to the holy grail. You don’t gotta picture me standing atop that ridge, hair blowing in the breeze, sun glinting off my armor, holding out an outstretched, well-muscled arm toward the paradise just over this hill …except that’s kinda what’s happening. [Cut me some slack. There’s no cure for narcissism.]
“This way, men!”
So anyway that’s kinda what I’m actually doing here:
Because gentlemen, we’ve been trudging through the mud while our competitors in every industry roll past us in their Rolls Royce.
The way toward freedom is called “back end marketing.” To a list, usually.
A List, what??
Yup. Instead of crossing your fingers hoping your clients, patients, and customers will EVER come back to see you again, all you gotta do is make one simple change. Like taking candy from a baby.
Just before that sugar-daddy customer rides off into the sunset, taking your profits with them forever, never to be seen again, you’re gonna grab a sheet of paper or a computer screen or any human invention that records information. A business-card is perfect. A pen will do.
But let’s say they hadn’t invented a pencil.
If it meant you had to learn how to go out with a chainsaw and cut down a tree to make a pencil it would be worth the effort, my friend. Hey, it’s notmy profits walking out your front friggin door, pal.
Because you’re letting a whole heap of future business walk out the door if you’re too slow to grab their contact info with both hands and…
HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE!
Do you think they’re going to think of you… remember you… come knocking on your door every time they need you? Oh, hell no. They aren’t exactly braiding your hair and remembering your birthday right now, are they princess?
No.
Whazzat? I can’t hear ya.
Hell no!
Damn right. No. They happened to pull in to your parking lot the first time out of sheer convenience. Or because you got lucky. Or because you dropped big bucks on your sign. Your location. A newspaper ad. They saw your ratty old rusty sign or your yellow pages ad you forked out thousands of dollars for.
If you paid a thousand dollars and only got ten customers, then each customer cost you a hundred bucks. It sure must be nice being that kind of rich, but I’m not. And I’m betting you’re not. And this is WHY you’re not:
If you break it down, it might have cost you five dollars, fifty dollars, or five hundred dollars PER buyer. Maybe more.
That’s why you need your back end, brother. That’s why.
If you gotta ask, beg, offer a bag of doggie treats… it’s gonna be cheaper to keep this one than dropping $60 bucks of advertising to ever get another customer like that one.
Not that I’m even asking you to beg. I’m just begging you to ask.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
Did you ever wonder what that means? It means the customer in your store is worth more than crossing your fingers and making the finest, prettiest wish that they’ll come back to you one pretty day. With sugar on top.
Reality check.
See how they whipped out that wallet full of money? Yeah. Let’s rewind that back. In slow motion this time. Put a spotlight on that action. Let’s watch that athlete in motion. A sight to behold, like watching Babe Ruth aiming that solid wooden baseball bat at the cheap seats.
Just look at that wallet leather flopping around. Fingers diggin in for your money. It’s like watching Bruce Lee. One beautiful, smooth, single motion. There’s stacks of cash in there. And when that stack dwindles, he’s gonna just drive through the ATM next month and fill it right back up.
And you know what? If you ever see that beautiful wallet… I mean customer! Customer. If you ever see that customer again, you’ll get to watch that wallet in slow motion again. Maybe five or ten or fifty more times. Who knows?
Rewind it again so you can get this point. You see the practiced way they whip out that pretty leather wallet?
They do that a lot. They’re just spending it with everybody else. Everybody except you. And there’s a hundred other customers doing the same thing. Those poor bastards might even end up whipping out your money at your competitor’s shop. And you happen to know for a fact (through the grapevine) they’re getting bent over and screwed on a regular basis over there.
But you’re the one letting it happen.
Unless! Unless you do something about it.
Because you and I know your service is much better. Way better. You go the extra mile to take care of those folks. You smile and make sure the front desk people smile. Make sure people get value for their money.
Hell you’ve even been to church a few times. Not like that scum sucker across town does them. If it was up to him, he’d gleefully turn your church into some condos.
If you really believe your service is better, you have a moral obligation to do your level best to help as many customers as you can. But the way you’re running things now, you can’t afford more advertising. To make that happen.
That’s where I come in. No, no. Put away your money. This one’s on the house.
If you knew your customers were coming back… maybe not every time, but a little more often than they do now. Maybe just ten percent more often, then you could afford to spend ten percent more on little more on your ads.
How about that? Ten percent is all it takes. You don’t even have to be very good at getting people to come back. You just have to figure out a way that it happens sometimes.
Now they’re bringing in some good and cheap “repeat business.” What do you know?
And given enough time, that turns out to be an upward spiral of growth.
In fact, that’s how the fastest-growing companies in the county …in the state… in the country … how they operate. From the 12th fastest growing business in my state to Inc. Magazine’s 59th fastest growing company in the country…
Do you think they’re not letting profits walk out their door? Do you think they’re letting their customers down that way? How about the internet marketer escaping from Cubicle Nation. Do you think he’s gonna let his little virtual customers down just because that Google Ad is too expensive? Hell, no.
Being a cubicle slave is too expensive. Letting your competition bulldoze down your childhood church is too expensive. Letting your competitor get his slimy, dirty hands on your own customers shoulders is too expensive.
But a little know-how and will fix you up. That’s why I learned from the best. You know, those hotshot internet marketers who made it big while Google advertisment costs skyrocketed as high as fifty dollars a click in some markets. Then after spending millions with Google, they pulled the plug a lot of those businesses and jacked up the prices even higher.
But our little cubicle nerd hero succeeded anyway. He adapted. And they figured out something for you. For all of us, if we’ll only listen.
What’s more, these type of fast-growing entrepreneurs really care about their customers …enough to optimize their operation. They know why God put them on the earth. They give a damn.
It turns out optimizing your business is actually kind of fun when you do it right.
And if you want to grow like they do, you need a way of getting in touch with your own customers in the future.
Part Double Duece - How to Get Them Back
Once you grab their info what do you do with it? And what’s this “lifetime value?” stuff. What’s a metric. Shouldn’t my accountant be doing this kind of stuff?
Well to me it’s all completely obvious. And easy. But so was “back end marketing.” And trust me, if you don’t know how, you’re gonna need to know. I don’t care who you are.
Joe Girard, the World Record Holder best car salesman in the world suggested you contact them at least 10 times a year. Gary Halbert suggests you send them a letter. Frank Kern would send them an email. Dan Kennedy might send them a fax. Chet Holmes would send them a greeting card with an invitation inside. Heck, if a customer was worth anything to me, I’d send them a bag of cookies or drive a limo up to their house. Whatever it takes.
And it doesn’t take much.
But that’s a story for another time.
Adios, compadre!
Roger Abramson
P.S. My pleasure to serve.
P.P.S. I call this the “60 Second Rule” because Gary Halbert said he could use it to double the profitability of nearly any business in 60 seconds.
