When you’re running a business online, you have to work just as hard at keeping your customers as you do at winning them over. Competitors are actively trying to lure your customers away from your business to theirs, so it’s important that you don’t become too preoccupied with generating new business and you allocate a good amount of your marketing efforts to customer retention. Here are some tips on what you can do to enhance your online business’ customer retention rates.
Stay Connected on Social Media
Invite your customers to add your business’ account on social media. Staying near the top of their feeds with attention-grabbing posts will help to keep your business on their radar.
Send Follow Up Emails After Customers Make a Purchase
After customers make a purchase from you, it’s a good practice to send a follow up email. The substance of the email can be to thank a person for his or her purchase, request a review, or let someone know about other products that may be of interest based on what was previously purchased.
Promote Sales and Special Offers to Your Existing Customer Base
Your customers may be interested in hearing about limited-time sales or promotions. Send out marketing emails that give customers a heads up about when they can purchase specific items at a discount or take a percentage off of an order’s total. If possible, try to target people based on their interests. Use business metrics about customers’ purchase history so you can alert them about specials on particular product categories.
Don’t Exclude Existing Customers From Your Best Promotions
People tend to get somewhat disheartened when they see that an online business’ best offers are available only to new customers. If people see that they’re being excluded from savings, they may be inclined to search for another business with a similar offer so that they can reap the benefits of being somebody else’s new customer. Instead of penalizing people for already having made a purchase from you, it’s a good idea to reward people for their loyalty. For example, you can create a rewards program with tiers of savings based on the length of time that someone has been a regular customer or the total value of customers’ purchases within a given time frame.
Create a Newsletter
Let people know about what’s happening at your company with an informative newsletter. It’s a great way to show your customers that your business is active and healthy. In addition to providing updates about what’s happening within your company, you can also provide more general information about the field in which your business operates. Include articles about new business trends or news stories that bear on your business’ products or services. A newsletter can help to shape people’s perception of your company as an industry leader and an authoritative source of newsworthy information.
Send Personal Greetings
A special note or email to wish customers happy holidays or a happy birthday is a personalized and thoughtful way to maintain communication with your customers. You can also commemorate an “anniversary” with customers by sending them an email each year after they originally started making orders from your business. Simply receiving a greeting can prompt people to visit your website.
Give Your Best Customers Promotional Items
Show your best customers that you value their business by sending them a free gift or promotional item. Some swag featuring your company’s logo is a great way to pleasantly surprise customers while also working in some free advertising. Reusable water bottles or bags, hats, pens, and other items that people tend to carry around with them will help to get your company logo seen by more potential customers.
Staying in touch and supporting a positive relationship will boost your customer loyalty and boost your online business’ overall profitability. Use technology to make staying connected easier; analyze your customers’ interests and use data-driven marketing efforts to foster consistent customer retention.
