We all want more customers. But there’s something better, more valuable than new customers: creating value for existing customers. It’s very expensive to acquire new customers, but people who will come back and spend money with you again? That’s gold, Jerry.
Customers who return tend to spend more. In fact, our recent Consumer Trends Index revealed that 57% of consumers are prepared to pay more to purchase from a trusted brand. So, become that trusted brand. Nurture your customers. Deliver personalized experiences that make them feel noticed and appreciated. Invite them to come back.
Customers who come back share their experiences with others, effectively helping you acquire those new customers we all want. Think about the restaurant you frequent, the brands you use, or the airline you fly. When a friend asks where they should eat, what they should buy, or how they should travel, you have a recommendation at the ready. And if it reminds you to buy more of said product, well, that makes us all a little happier.
Customers who shop again are more apt to stick around. The more positive experiences a customer has with your brand, the greater the potential of them becoming a loyal, and reliable, customer.
So how do we cultivate these repeat customers? There are a ton of customer retention strategies out there. But we have some suggestions based on what we’ve seen actually work in real life.
Journey Orchestration
Design, test, and automate customer journeys that reward active customers and encourage re-engagement from detached customers. Real-time results reveal the proven pathways to conversion and journeys can be adjusted accordingly.
Smart Activation and Real-Time Engagement
Capture real-time data and put it to use through site targeting/retargeting, segmentation, and cross-channel messaging via email, SMS, push, in-app, web, and mobile wallet—hitting customers at the right time, in the right place.
Advanced Decisioning and Machine Learning
Use machine learning to identify your best customers as well as those most likely to churn. ML models can rank, score, and prioritize offers and audiences through clustering, propensity modeling, and send-time-optimization.
Retention Tools
Track customer progress through the use of punch cards and celebrate return business with points, coupons, and other rewards. Align creative content with campaigns that support offers, challenges, rewards, contests, and messages that encourage repeat business.
Single Customer View
Create a single, actionable view of the customer for the most efficient and effective relationship. Whether the customer engages in-store, on the website, through the mobile app, or from their inbox, all that data should funnel into a single customer profile that can be analyzed, acted upon, and progressively enriched in real-time, all the time.
Retention Marketing is Relationship Marketing. Just as you’re more likely to remember someone who invited you in than someone who waved at the door, customers who feel they’re a part of a two-way relationship are more likely to engage with you. And return. And return again.
So, yes, find new customers, increase your list. But the real value is in the long game. It’s not about the first purchase. It’s about the second purchase, the third purchase, and so on. That’s real value. That’s lifetime value.
Dive into the world of Relationship Marketing:
• What is Relationship Marketing?
• Retention Marketing Use Case