We’ve all seen the small statuettes of the three wise monkeys, one covering his eyes who sees no evil, another his ears who hears no evil, and another his mouth who speaks no evil. But what has this to do with gaining testimonials?

The proverb has many associations with being of good mind, speech and action. Which is exactly what testimonials will do for your business. Testimonials prove that your business is reputable, that the good things people hear about your business are true and that you can do what you say you can do.

The three monkeys approach to gaining testimonials is simple and easy to remember - LOOK, LISTEN, ASK

You’ve succeeded in getting lots of leads, converting as many as possible into clients, and maximising the price of the initial sale. So far, so good! But there’s one more key step which is maximising the lifetime value of these customers.

The name of the game here is retention. Keeping your existing customers happy so they buy from you time and time again is critical for increasing profitable sales in any business. In fact, existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products and spend 31% more, on average, than new customers. Those are stats* that are hard to ignore!

So let’s get right into some easy ways to keep your customers happy and coming back for more. Here’s how with our top 7 tactics:

Marketing is all about making sure your business stands out from the rest. Over the holiday period, your mind will surely drift from thoughts about delicious food and keeping your tan even, to thoughts on how to promote your business and rise above the competition.

To help you and your business succeed, we have put together ten low-cost marketing tactics for you to consider over your break. They’ll help you connect with your customers and make the most of your marketing budget.

Your website not only needs to be attractive to your customer, but it also has to appeal to Google if you want it to rank highly in their search engines. You also can’t just “set and forget it” like an ad in the yellow pages. Content needs to be refreshed and updated on a semi-regular basis to keep your customers interested and Google’s algorithms happy.

Starting a new business is a bit like going on a first date. You have prior knowledge of the person you are meeting and an expectation of things in common. You choose a look that you feel comfortable in and think will be attractive to them. You look forward to sharing your ideas, skills and passions with them. But at the back of your mind is a nagging fear that it will all go wrong and you would be better off cancelling and staying home with a cup of cocoa and a good book instead.

What if there was a way to ensure it was the beginning of your happy-ever-after instead?

Good news! There is a lot you can do in the preparation stage of setting up a new venture that will help make that happen.