Tips for how to gain repeat business, again and again.

Pat on the back. You sold a thing.

After the elation of a sale finally ceases (approximately 1 hour later) you’re left with a choice: Absorb the sweet dewy taste of success and move on to the next one OR start thinking about how you’ll get that same client to come back.

To illustrate the importance of customer retention let’s take e-commerce (online retail), a gargantuan industry that contributes to a huge chunk of digital revenue.

Here’s a stat:

Almost 15% doesn’t sound like a huge number but if you dig a little deeper you’ll find that this translates as 1/3 of all online shopping revenue.

Returning customers also spend 3x more on average than a one-time shopper.

This tells us that repeat customers, people coming back to a retailer or a brand, tend to spend more because they already have established trust with the retailer and feel more comfortable using them.

And getting customers to come back doesn’t have to be hard work.

No, you do not need to jump on a phone call every 3-6 months and pitch for business (although LOTS of industries do exactly this).

No, you do not need to spend thousands of pounds on elaborate promotions at annual or bi-annual intervals to drive revenue.

Want to know the most effective and easiest way to retain your customers?

Here it is:

Show them you give a shit.

But wait, Marco! You can’t just make generalised comments and use profanity to emphasise the point, that’s cheap and tacky.

Is it now?

Let me clarify. Having follow-up procedures like texts/emails/calls to check in on customers and get feedback is great. They show a level of thoughtfulness and that you as a business care about what your customer thinks.

Beyond those follow-up procedures, however, what are you doing to ensure they come back to you for another purchase?

There are many (and I mean many) strategies for engaging customers throughout their “aftercare cycle” — things like social media posts, blogs or regularly delivered content like newsletters that maintain engagement, and then there’s email marketing.

Cue another stat:

Email marketing is 56% more effective than any other marketing strategy (Semrush Blog 2021) in terms of customer retention.

This is then followed by social media at 37% and content marketing at 32%.

And when you think about your own buying habits this makes total sense doesn’t it?

Ever added items to your online basket and then logged out or closed the page? Of course you have. In fact, almost 70% of us do this on a regular basis.

Ever had an email from the retailer reminding you of said items in your basket, prompting you to purchase them?

These are referred to as “abandon cart” emails. It’s reported by Oberlo that abandon cart emails have a 41% open rate. So 41% of customers are clicking the email and potentially making a purchase.

That’s 41% more than another company that never sent the email in the first place.

The key word here is “effective“.

Yes, you can put all of these things down to salesy tactics but let’s not split hairs here; the key objective for any business is to generate revenue.

Implementing intelligent strategies helps to do this but the way in which you get there is by putting the customer first.

Blogs and newsletters are fantastic at keeping customers in the know.

A monthly or quarterly round-up of all your major accomplishments, planned events, promotions, stats, community engagements, charity balls; whatever you’re doing, tell your customers!

We “follow” people or brands on social media because we like what they do or say. It’s the exact same thing with where we shop.

A company that utilises most or all of these strategies will confidently outperform the contrary.

Of course, it takes a bit of dosh to get things going but you’ll find once these systems are in place, most of them can be automated and run in the background without any input from the business owner.

It also means you’re not just swimming. Waiting for some arbitrary holiday or seasonal event to come along where you end up blowing a bunch of cash to ramp up revenue.

Plan. Implement. Scale. Succeed.

Or as I say, it’s a piece of P.I.S.S.

I made that last part up, I don’t say that and it’s definitely not a thing.

Although, I kinda like it.

Thanks for reading and as usual if you’ve found some value then let me know with a Like, Comment and Share!

See you next week.