Without a strong customer base, you won’t have much of a business, however, getting your customers is only half of the battle. Although it’s all well and good having a ton of customers, it’s not fantastic if you can’t retain these customers and have them coming back for more.
This is where a lot of companies fail. Most companies make the huge mistake of keeping all of their focus on acquiring customers and don’t know how to keep them when they get them. This is something which can harm a company’s scalability, provide fantastic customer service and have them coming back for more.
Whilst customer acquisition is great, keeping them with a good retention strategy through your marketing is better. A high customer retention rate will help boost your company’s profitability and growth, plus it is cost-effective and efficient.
Research has shown that it is six times more expensive to attract new customers through your marketing than it is to retain an existing one. With that in mind, let’s look at a few effective marketing strategies you can use to retain your existing customers.
1. Offer a Free Trial
If you offer a virtual service or piece of software, offering a free trial is a great way to get a new customer and retain them. Although you do not make any money from the free trial, if the customer likes your product they will likely keep their subscription active and thus become a monthly recurring customer.
Whilst the customer discovers the value of your product through a free trial, they will become more inclined to become a full-time customer. Lots of software solutions offer this, including Dropbox, DocuSign and Adobe.
2. Get Personal with Your Customers
Customers love to feel valued and that they are more than just a number. It is important that you get personal with and talk to your customers to learn more about them and collect data which can be used to offer personalised products, services and information.
By conducting surveys and monitoring your social media pages, you can collect insights and data about what your customers problems are, what they want and how you can cater to this. The more you can help a customer and personalise their experience with you, the more likely they are to be retained.
3. Don’t Just Sell, Sell, Sell
Merely offering a product or service is no longer good enough in the eyes of the consumer. With all the competition throughout the marketplace, companies must be unique and differentiate themselves through other means.
Customer loyalty is key, and this can be built through many different ways including personalised email marketing, blogging and engaging with customers on social media.
4. Reward Customers Who Return
Customers love being rewarded for their loyalty – it makes them feel appreciated and valued by the company. Whether you are offering a special offer, a discount code or perhaps a free product, your customers will be more inclined to return in the future if you are known for loyalty rewards.
Your loyalty rewards don’t need to be overly outlandish or generous; a simple discount code or rewards points which can be exchanged for gift cards are more than enough. The number of repeat customers will increase when they realise that they get a little bit extra back for their loyalty and repeat custom… it’s simple.
5. Utilise Social Media
Most of your social media following will be from previous customers, and followers of brands and services often engage with companies through their social media pages. Social media has changed how companies foster relationships with customers and it’s not something you can ignore.
Through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you have a unique opportunity to interact with your customers or clients 24/7, giving you the opportunity to create a one-to-one bond with customers who reach out to you. Providing good customer care and engaging through social media is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to encourage repeat custom, especially if you are dealing with a disgruntled person.
If getting customers in the first place is hard, retaining them is even harder. By practicing a few simple strategies, you can turn one-off customers into dedicated repeat customers quite easily.
