Daniel Faggella had hit a ceiling. He needed to increase revenue from his small martial arts studio, but there wasn’t much room for growth in a town of only 8,000 people.

“I realized I need to do different things in this small town martial arts academy to make the kind of bucks to be able to pay off [my student loans],” says Dan, founder of Science of Skill and CLV Boost. Specifically, he had to make sure that prospects came in for a free intro class “because there was no chance to sell them unless that happened,” he says.

So Dan used an automated marketing system to get more prospects to book appointments, and revenue shot up to $18,000 a month. Dan then used the same marketing tactics to sell online martial arts courses, a business that now brings in $30,000 per month.

In his Mixergy course, Dan shows you how to use database marketing to increase sales. Here are three highlights from the course.

1. Make Them Feel Like a Beautiful and Unique Snowflake

If you’re too focused on getting new customers, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

“Most folks think it’s all about that new traffic,” says Dan. “Sure, I focus on that, but I [also] tailor and customize messages to my existing customers and prospects.”

But that could become very time consuming. So if you have hundreds of customers, how can you customize every message?

Copy your own work

Write once, then customize for each customer type.

To do this, Dan first segments his customers by their interests. For instance, people interested in competing versus people interested in teaching. Then, he creates an email sequence of six emails selling an initial offer. Finally, he makes small changes to the emails to tailor them to each type of customer.

“It’s remarkably simple to just change the subject line, change a little bit in some of your paragraphs,” he says. “And it boosts sales. I mean a little bit on sales matters, especially when it’s an email sequence that goes out to everybody.”

2. Take Another Swing

Some prospects won’t bite, even after you send your initial email sequence.

When that happens, most companies just put them on the monthly newsletter list. But Dan says that’s a huge mistake.

“You should not go home with your tail between your legs,” he says. “You should continue to educate them, continue to present them with testimonials and other things that are going to be entertaining. But then, at the same time, you should take another swing, and that could be from a slightly different angle.”

So how do you sell to a customer who didn’t want to buy what you’re selling?

Lower the barrier

Pitch a less expensive product.

When a prospect reaches the end of the initial email sequence, Dan funnels them into another email sequence that promotes a less expensive product. “I’ll bring up a smaller, specialized, cool course,” he says.

That’s because the amount of the initial sale doesn’t really matter. Dan’s number one goal is to turn prospects into customers. “When someone gets in with us enough to become a customer, their response rates to future email offers are going to go up,” he says. “They’re going to be able to build a little bit of trust and decide if they like my stuff or not.”

3. Find a Good Partner

Your best customers will go through every email sequence and buy a lot of products along the way.

But what happens when you’re out of offers? “[Again,] a lot of folks…just end up on the list, which means X number of people just get a monthly broadcast [newsletter],” says Dan.

In other words, you’re no longer offering something valuable to your best customers.

So how can you keep providing value?

Let others provide value

Find partners who can offer something valuable to your customers.

For example, Dan has a lot of older men on his email list, but he doesn’t have any Brazilian Jiu Jitsu courses specifically for the 40-plus crowd. “So what I’ll do is I’ll write some blogs and send out a couple emails to an offer on 40 Plus BJJ Success, [because founder] Steven Whittier appeals specifically to 40-plus folks,” says Dan.

In exchange, Steven will promote one of Dan’s offers to the 40 Plus BJJ Success audience. “I have plenty of areas of technique that he doesn’t cover,” Dan says.

Written by April Dykman.