Winning a customer can be expensive and time-consuming. Hence, your business should strive to build long-term relationships and customer loyalty.
However, customer retention is a tricky area and has the chances of desertion. There are several thousands of businesses selling similar products and services as yours and they all have mastered the art of alluring their prospects. It is not surprising for a customer to wander among brands and enticing promises, picking one that subsequently meets their need and budget.
Increasingly, though, businesses are identifying ways not for customer acquisition, but rather, customer retention.
Simply increasing website traffic has become an outdated marketing strategy today. 2018 will see marketers giving more importance to customer retention, having a significant impact on businesses.
According to a marketing report, if a customer has made a purchase with you earlier, there is a 60% chance of him buying at least one more time.
On the other hand, a new website visitor has only 20% chance of becoming a customer. Another study reveals that service quality is an important factor affecting customer loyalty and retention. 34% of the times, customers switch to another brand because they are dissatisfied with the services or experience at the earlier company.
On the other hand, 31% of the times, they switch brands because they have got a new company with better prices.
The pie-chart below clearly indicates what makes customers switch brands to a competitor:
On the other hand, 70% of the businesses acknowledge it is cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one.
Customer retention is not only crucial to reduce the cost and time needed to acquire a new prospect, but also helps improve the bottom line.
Advertising is one of the simplest ways to acquire new prospects and nurture them for long-term customer loyalty. However, since advertising is a costly affair, it should be strategically done to entice, attract and retain the customers.
Discussed here are the most effective paid ad strategies which will help you retain your customers.
Every time you launch a new product or add to your list of services, you have to focus on several things – marketing the products or services, getting new customers and many others.
However, you forget to make your existing customers aware of the new products and services. When customers do not listen from you too often, they tend to lose interest on you.
Rather, they would switch to other brands that connect to them well. This badly hits customer retention. You tend to lose a good share of your business because your existing customers might have been interested in the new products or services.
Use product launches as a tool to connect to your existing customers who have not visited your site for some time now. Remarketing is a good tactic to display your ads to the existing customers and potential prospects.
The ads showing your new launch can be displayed on Google search engine (PPC advertising) or the websites that are a part of Google Display Network.
Dynamic ads are a great way to build customer loyalty and serve those who have shown interest in your website, app or business. These are often your existing customers who have been inactive for a while but come back to your site or app to check for new launches, discounts and special offers.
Facebook ads are a great example of dynamic ads that you can use for customer retention. One of the key advantages of this type of advertisement is that they are most relevant.
The ads are displayed to consumers who have interacted with your business recently. Another advantage is that ads are shown from device to device for better reach.
For instance, Mr. X has recently browsed your app on his mobile phone. The dynamic ads will now be shown when he accesses Facebook on his mobile phone, laptop or PC. So, the ads target the right time and to the right set of customers.
It is a great way to attract and retain customers because you are hitting their minds with your ads at the right time and at the right place.
Here’s how Facebook dynamic ads work:
Data analysis is an integral aspect of your customer retention plan. It is vital to identify your “sleeping” customers who have not visited your website or app for quite a while, but may soon be interested.
You have to use this opportunity to your advantage before they switch onto a competing brand. Give them something enticing that triggers their attention and loyalty for your brand.
Know who your dormant customers are and create an ad campaign for custom audience. The ads can be positioned on search engines, your website, apps, social media channels, or third-party websites that are a part of Google Display Network.
In the example below, Bloomingdales offered 25% discount on online purchase to all customers who haven’t visited their store in a while. Note that the ad has an emotional touch to it which is essential to retain customers and build loyalty.
Typically, businesses experience a boost in website traffic during holiday periods or festive seasons. During holidays or festivity, consumers are more likely to make purchases, and this includes your existing inactive customers as well.
So, figuring out some lucrative seasonal offers targeted for holidays and festivals is a great customer retention strategy.
Create advertisements that are customised for holiday seasons. It should highlight the seasonal offer enticingly to attract both existing and potential customers.
During the holiday season, businesses generally see higher traffic flow. And if you can utilise this opportunity with some great ads and offers, it will help build up brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Tailor your ads by creating a list of users who have visited your website during holiday seasons or festivals. This way, you can have the ad customised around specific user preferences. The list will also come handy to send the customers a reminder the next year.
Take the example of Gap. They strategically played with Facebook paid ads to reach out to their customers, targeting the holiday season. Their ad (shown below) is simple and direct, and they have combined two attractive offers to make the purchase even more compelling for the consumers.
Paid advertisements are expensive and therefore, proper targeting is important. Otherwise, your CPA will increase without having an impact on your sales & profits. Getting higher click-through rate is certainly what you are paying for, but you should also ensure that such clicks result into quality leads that you may nurture for better prospects.
The ad should be so designed as to deliver a value to your customer as well as to your business.
So, instead of having ads that advertise a single product or service, try to have an all-in-one effect to increase average order value. This means promoting products in bulk to your existing customers. This may include attractive offers and special discounts on bulk purchase.
On one hand, your customers will feel satiated having greater discounts; on the other hand, you will earn more revenues having a higher average order value.
For example, Paperstone, an office supplies company in London and an online store, advertised heavy discounts on bulk purchase. They garnered a growth in average order value by 18.94%!
Below is another great example of using ads to promote bulk purchase discounts and win the customers.
If you have ever viewed or bought products online, you might have already noticed this. Suppose you have browsed for or bought a product from XYZ.com. Now when you will visit other sites in the Google Display Network, search engines or Facebook, you will start seeing ads of XYZ.com, promoting products related to the ones you have viewed or bought.
This is called cross selling or up-selling using Google Ads.
To use cross-selling ads to your advantage, first you need to segment your prospects. Build a list of customers who have purchased your products already.
Once they are your customer, target them for the next 6 months to cross-sell or up-sell your products. Remember, being recent buyers, you are at the top of their minds. And this is the right time to hit them back again with more offerings.
In this highly competitive environment, the need for customer retention has never been more important. Catering to the immediate needs of your consumers is not enough. If you nurture your leads intelligently, it can go a long way in have customers who engage with your brand for a lifetime.
Strategically using the power of advertising can help build customer loyalty and long-term relationships that can improve the bottom line of your business.
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