Retention Marketing: The Key to Strategic Planning and Keeping Your Customers

Retaining existing customers is just as important, and less expensive, as acquiring new ones. You’re welcome to re-read that sentence but it’s true! Research has shown that it costs up to five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. That’s where retention marketing comes in!

What is retention marketing?

Retention marketing is a strategy that focuses on keeping customers interested and engaged with your business, products, and services over the long term. It builds relationships with your customers and creates loyal brand advocates who will promote your company to others. It encourages repeat business through techniques such as personalized offers, exclusive discounts, targeted email campaigns, and loyalty programs. In short, its goal is to increase the ‘lifetime value’ of your customer by nurturing the relationship they have with your business.

How can you apply retention marketing to your overall marketing strategy?

Let’s start with the basic foundation that you understand your customer’s needs and motivation. If you’re not sure, go back and make sure! From there, you can tailor your marketing efforts to meet those needs in a way that is meaningful to your customer, whether that’s through creating personalized offers, sending relevant email campaigns, or building a strong social media presence. Next, focus on the customer experience itself. In what ways can it be made more positive: Exceptional customer service? Flexible payment options? Perhaps consider investing in a loyalty program that rewards your customers for their continued business! You know your customer and what options will work best for them.

What are the benefits of retention marketing?

The benefits associated with retention marketing are numerous:

builds a strong long term relationship and connection with your customers
increases customer loyalty, repeat business and referrals
cost-effective
generates a higher ROI than acquiring new customers

Ultimately, retaining customers and building a loyal following can be a significant competitive advantage. Really! After all, when satisfied customers share their positive experience with others, it’s no surprise that it can lead to increased brand awareness and growth for your business!

What are the key metrics to track in retention marketing?

Tracking the correct metrics is key to measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. These metrics are Customer Retention Rate, Customer Lifetime Value, Purchase Frequency and Customer Satisfaction. Monitoring this information is particularly valuable in identifying areas of improvement or as rationale for segmenting customer data into opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling or creating client-tailored programs. Plus, you’ll have the data you need to adjust your strategy to reach new goals!