5 Post-Purchase Marketing Strategies to Create Loyal Customers
Your job as a marketer is not finished when a customer buys from your brand. In fact, some might argue your work is just starting. While acquiring a new customer is no longer five times more expensive than keeping existing customers, the importance of customer retention can’t be understated. Let’s take a look at five easy ways to create loyal, repeat customers with crafty digital marketing efforts!
Actively Post (And Encourage) Customer Reviews
How important are customer reviews?
More than one-third (38%) of customers agree they wouldn’t buy from a brand with less than 4-star aggregate reviews. But what is most important to customers? Believe it or not, it’s not functionality, quality, price, or availability. The most important part of the customer process is the overall customer experience.
That means brands with an overwhelmingly-positive, visible customer review presence will fare far better than their counterparts. People trust other people’s opinions when making decisions. When a close confidante isn’t available, we turn to online reviews.
It’s not enough to simply encourage and collect reviews. It’s imperative to both respond to them and optimize their visibility. That means responding to as many reviews as possible–both positive and negative. It also means it’s okay to post reviews on social media.
In fact, the latter is a great way to generate new leads. Show potential customers what existing customers are saying about your brand. Start conversations and encourage people to learn more, visit your site, and engage with your content.
Personalize As Much Communication as Possible
When it comes to communicating with your audience, you’re communicating with a complex, diverse group of people. That means a one-size-fits-all style of communication won’t cut it. Whenever possible, look to personalize every communication with your audience–from social media DMs to customer service chats to automated emails.
In fact, according to data from SalesForce, more than one-quarter of marketers saw an increase in revenue of over 20% from focused personalization efforts in 2020. Data from KO Marketing shows that over 70% of brands who ramped up their personalization marketing efforts over the past couple of years have seen a more than twofold increase in their ROI.
Personalization is not just knowing your customers’ names and where they live. It’s knowing their buying habits, their personality types, and so much more. The more you zoom in on each customer’s personal preferences, the more you’ll create a personalized experience.
Create an Experience to Create Loyal Customers
Digital marketing is a great way to augment sales efforts. At the same time, it shouldn’t be the sole focus of your marketing efforts. In other words, instead of creating sales content, create marketing content.
That means your marketing presence should create an immersive customer experience. Since you won’t be selling all the time, you can make good use of the rest of your content. For example, some content can entertain. Other content can engage and educate. As a whole, your content should move your customers through the sales cycle.
Create an experience and take customers behind the curtain. Show them the nuts and bolts of your operation, including the faces behind the brand. Create a wholesale customer experience with your content and they’ll keep coming back for more!
Build a Community
Here’s where social media is so valuable. You can leverage your pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc to build a passionate, loyal following of superfans!
Of course, it all starts with building a page and maintaining your content. But if you can encourage folks to follow, like, and engage, you’re building the foundations for long-term success.
The more you can get people involved with posting, responding, tagging, and otherwise engaging with your page, the more you’ll build up your community content. And when your customers see other customers happily engaging with your brand, they’ll know you’re doing something right. They’ll then want to experience it for themselves!
Appreciate (And Reinforce) Every Purchase
This one might be pretty simple, but it goes a long way. A sincere show of gratitude for every customer transaction can pay major dividends. You can also integrate your appreciation with a solicitation for feedback, comments, and advice.
“Thank you! We hope you enjoyed your experience! Please let us know how we can improve!”
Add it to a receipt, automate it in an email with every digital sale, or just post a variation on social media. Some brands even go as far as to weave their brand story into their show of thanks. For example, if a portion of proceeds go to a charity, let your customers know what their purchase is supporting.
If possible, show pictures and videos of the people directly impacted from your brand’s generosity. Some people are more than willing to spend an extra few bucks if they can see where the money is going.
Plus, it shows the human side of your brand. Supporting public causes can help people see what you stand for. That can help them better relate to your brand–building crucial loyalty.
Start Creating Loyal, Long-Term Customers Today!
The work of a marketing professional is never over. By using digital marketing content to create an immersive, personalized, appreciative, communicative brand experience, you can turn a one-time purchase into a lifetime of brand loyalty and create loyal customers!