On this blog we have talked about how important customer retention marketing is many times, especially in 2017. The reason we do this because it is true. Focus on retention is the reason why big names like Amazon and Netflix are always on their customer’s minds. However, not everyone has the budgets of someone like Amazon for their customer retention strategies.
For smaller business and newer start-ups, customer retention is just as important (if not more so), but they don’t always have the money for certain strategies. Due to this fact, we have put together 5 customer retention strategies that focus on giving you the best ROI (eturn on investment).
Hopefully, once you see these strategies come to fruition you will be able to turn towards other ideas. But for now, let’s take a look at how we can retain customers while saving you money.
Five Customer Retention Techqunies to Improve ROI
1. Create content for post-purchase engagement
After someone makes a purchase from your business, there are two scenarios that can play out. The first is that they were not satisfied or otherwise decide not to purchase from you again. This is known as churn. The second is that they found value in your offering and decide to return again for something else.
Content marketing is one of the tried and true customer retention techniques that does a great job to reduce churn rate and keep your customers engaged after that initial purchase. Use content to remind your customers of the value they received (or expected to receive) from their purchase.
Creating content can also be a way for you to explain the different uses of your product or offering. For instance, if you are selling an app and users aren’t sure of all of the features, create content that you can send them on where they might be going wrong. Make it so easy for your customers to understand and use your service that they never go looking for someone else.
2. Send marketing messages people actually want to read
Jumping off of our last customer retention strategy, once you create the content, you need a good way to get that content into the hands of your customers. This is where marketing messaging and engagement comes into play. This can be an email, social media post, SMS marketing, or whatever you have decided for your strategy.
However, the first rule of sending any marketing message is that you should only send messages people actually care about enough to read. If the first few emails or messages sent to a customer are not what they are looking for, by the time you actually do send something catered to them, they might have already unsubscribed or stopped reading.
In order to make sure that you are getting the right messaging to the right people, segment your audience into different lists and characteristics to avoid this problem. As an example, if you were running a fitness club and sent a weight-lifting email to a group of pregnant mothers, you wouldn’t get a good response. Not saying that pregnant mothers can’t lift weights, they just might be more interested in a prenatal yoga class instead. This is a problem that segmenting your audience will solve.
3. Build a community to get customers involved
The most important part of having a community customers will get involved in is trust, which can be established through providing relevant content to your customers (as we just mentioned). Once you have laid this groundwork, provide a space for your customers to interact with your business, but also with other customers.
There are many ways you can do this, such as a forum on your website, Facebook group, or many other online options. Not only will this make it easier for your customers to find information on your company, but you won’t always have to be the one providing it.
No matter how much trust your customers have in your business, they will most likely trust other customers more. This is fine. By giving them a place to talk together, you are incentivizing them to stick around and creating a community of customers that will stay involved.
4. Facilitate a customer loyalty program
By now, you should have a good idea of what it means to provide value and meet your customers where they are. This is the key to any customer retention strategy. However, providing these opportunities for your customers isn’t always enough. Sometimes they need an extra push.
Customer loyalty programs and user engagement platforms are a fantastic way to give customers an extra little boost to keep them around. Customer loyalty programs can offer rewards for repeat visits or purchases, while user engagement platforms allow you to send targeted messages to customers wherever they are.
Consider creating a customer loyalty program, especially if you work in an industry that relies on repeat uses or purchases.
5. Build a companion app
Our final cost-effective customer retention strategy is by far the most expensive, but it also can have the largest return. Building a companion app for your business is a fantastic way to keep your customers engaged and remind them of your business. Apps can host all of your content, how-tos on product usage, and even videos with demonstrations on how everything works.
You can even utilize your app for re-engaging customers and prompting them to make additional purchases. If you have a selection of products, include an easy way for your customers to select and purchase them right within the app.
For example, EA Gaming studios found success with this when they released a companion app for their latest Sims game. Not only did a large amount of customers download the app, but according to their report, 32% of people went on to make further in-game purchases.
Having your own app also opens up additional channels by which you can get in touch with your customers. For example, sending push notifications can be the difference between someone making a buying decision over not. Look into what a push notification service can do for you and see if it works with your customer retention strategy.
Summing Up:
These were some of the best customer retention plans that you should follow in order to improve your ROI. If followed properly they can really help you in retaining your customer in the best effective ways, which in turn will give you much better ROI results.