Your customers fall into three categories. Bargain hunters visit your retail store, pick over last year's holiday inventory, then disappear for months. Casual shoppers chat up your sales staff and buy sometimes. But devoted customers, your loyal clientele, love your store, buy often, and refer their friends to you.

How do you get more devoted customers? One of the best ways is to host a special event that can persuade your mid-tier customers to become your best customers, according to experts. "Selling to existing customers is easier than spending money to acquire new ones," says Dan King, a retail industry consultant and Microsoft Certified Partner.
 

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Summary The scenario on the next few pages outlines five steps small retailers or business owners can take to run a top-notch retail marketing effort. In this example, you'll follow Julia, a small wine merchant, as she uses the five steps to plan and host a wine tasting event with a mission: To nudge her mid-tier customers into the fold of devoted shoppers. click on Step 1 to continue . . .

Step 1: Gather customer information

Step 2: Target the "right" customers

Step 3: Create effective communication

Step 4: Host an event

Step 5: Follow up with guests