Marketing Strategies Need To Go Beyond The First Sale
For a lot of business owners, much of your energy and attention will go towards getting customers to the point of conversion. When you finally get them to click on that purchase button on your website, for instance, it can feel like a big victory. However, when it comes to maximizing profits, retaining your customers is just as, if not more, important.
The higher the lifetime value of your customer, the more money each and every conversion is worth. As such, it’s important to look at the marketing strategies designed to keep your customers coming back, too.
Offering the support they need
First of all, you should anticipate that many of your customers will need some kind of customer support or service after they have already made their purchase. Few things can be more frustrating to your customers than to find they are having trouble with their purchase, but they can’t do anything about it because they don’t have any means to get in touch with your support team. Connect with your customers online with technology like on-site live chat windows. The smoother you make the process of requesting and receiving the help that they need, the less frustration your customers deal with, making it more likely they have an overall positive experience with your brand.
Staying in touch over time
Of course, you don’t have to leave it entirely in the hands of your customers for them to form their own impressions of the business. The more consistent your communication with them, the better your chances of influencing those impressions. Staying active on social media and engaging with those who get in touch can not only help you influence the brand perception of that individual but also creates a better public brand image, too. Click here to see how social media marketing can benefit your business. It not only drives new sales but also creates a positive rapport with existing customers that a) shows positive social proof of your brand loyalty to newcomers and b) fosters stronger connections with existing customers.
Incentivizing their return
You can always make a repeat purchase much more exciting if you sweeten the pot a little. Customers love good value deals and there are plenty of ways to make it happen. You can click here, for instance, to see how loyalty systems work, utilizing the points that customers earn in making purchases with you to help them get discounts and exclusive offers that see them becoming repeat customers. You can also incentivize them to utilize positive word-of-mouth. By setting up a referral program, not only can you use existing customers to help you convert new customers, but you get them engaged with the brand in a positive way, and those positive perceptions are likely to linger on even after the referral offer is over.
With the tips above, hopefully, you can recalibrate your focus to ensure that you’re not always looking for what’s new and exciting too. With a lot less investment, you can ensure customer retention that is truly key to business growth.
This is a contributed post