Adding A Back-End To Your Business
So how do you add a back-end to your business? Well, the first step is to start seeing your business as a back-end business. Think like HP, or like a mobile phone provider. Don’t think that once you have achieved the first sale, that’s it. A lot of businesses look at it this way: they try and get a customer to make a sale — that’s singular SALE. How you should be looking at it is; you make a sale to get a customer — where this customer will repeatedly come back to you and purchase more and more.
Have a look at your products or services to see how they can be used to create a back-end. This doesn’t necessarily mean adding something after your main products or services; you can add something before and make your main items the back end… It’s all about attracting people with one item and then leading them on to the next.
You should also investigate how you could add residual income to your business systems. Can you sign people up to a contract? Rent your product out? If your business is mowing lawns, perhaps you could sign people up to a program where you go back and give the lawn a quick tidy up once a month, and mow it every three months.
A good back-end offering will either be an essential requirement for what was originally purchased — such as the ink cartridges — or it will improve on or add to the item — such as the extra computer memory and the software. Here are a few questions that might help you find your back-end:
- What can you offer at a low price that will attract people to your business, secure a sale, and get people on to your mail list? We offered the certificates and small pieces of timber with the aim of finding people who might also buy the frames.
- What can you offer people that will help them with what they have already bought? For example, if you sell computers, can you also sell computer manuals? Or offer tutorials?
- Does your product require any consumables? For example, the ink in a printer, or bags for a vacuum cleaner.
- After people have bought your product or service, what else might they be interested in? If your business is mowing lawns, you can send your clients a brochure for your landscape gardening services when you send them the bill.
- Can you offer products to go with your services? For example, if you are an accountant, perhaps you can back-end people into buying accounting books or software.
- Can you offer upgrades for your product? People might not buy this at the time, but after owning the product for six months, they might then feel the need to make it bigger, faster, stronger, quieter …
- Can you offer customers a subscription to a magazine or newsletter? This can create a great back-end when people re-new each year.
Selling computer software is a great way to create a back-end, as people want the upgrades that usually come out every year or two — give them a 5% discount if they buy the upgrade from you. This should be enough to stop them going elsewhere.
HEY, did you know i’m running a contest while I am away…
Firstly, here is what is up for grabs…
There are two prize packs to be won. To Enter: 1. Post a ‘review’ of one of these book excert posts, on your blog, with a link back to the relevant post on my blog. Does that make sense ? I’ll see the link or the trackback. 2. Include an email address in your post unless your whois information is correct. 3. Promise to give a review of the entire book on your blog once you have received it and read it. 4. I’ll randonly draw the 2 winners when I get back after April 18 2008. It’s that easy!  |
Join The Preneur Marketing Inner Circle and recieve really cool & secret stuff.
Leave a Reply