There are a lot of business gurus out there who will tell you exactly how you should get set up to maximise the amount of customers you’re bringing in. However, not as many are willing to dive into the topic of keeping those customers around afterwards. Retention is a critical part of the marketing process, and if you’re in any kind of business and haven’t given it any thought before, here are a few key reasons to keep it in mind.
Retention vs Acquisition
If you ask any veteran of the business world, they will tell you that getting a new customer is significantly more expensive than keeping an old one. If marketing to 1,000 people brings in only 10 new customers, that may be considered a success for some companies, and between ads, emails or anything else, that cost adds up.
In contrast, retention marketing will cost less as you can target it more specifically and tailor it to appeal to customers you already know. For a perfect case of this, companies like Betfair are able to set up online casino bonuses for existing customers that are adjusted and refined based on customers they already know. That could be free spins, deposit bonuses, or perhaps more unique promotions based on a wealth of information already in hand, and allows online casinos to get maximum efficiency from their marketing spend.
Word of Mouth
There is no kind of marketing out there as cost-efficient as having your existing customers recommend you to someone else. Essentially, you’re spending nothing and getting a marketing pitch that inherently carries more weight than one coming directly from your company. However, what is less understood is the effort needed to bring a customer up to the level where they would actually recommend you without being prompted.
While having a great product can go a long way, what people often remember most in this regard is the customer service they receive from you. If you work at larger scale, you can emulate the practices of some of the largest companies, but if you’re working with a smaller business, just a personal, prompt response with a friendly voice can be a great start.
Retention and Reacquisition
As one last step in the retention process, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t just end when a customer stops appearing. While some customers may really be gone for good for a whole list of reasons, many are still very much in reach with a little effort, and in some opinions, reacquisition can have as much or more value than retention itself.
Depending on what kind of business you are running, reacquisition can mean different things. For retailers, this could be sending out special and amplified offers to a select number of existing customers with low activity. It’s just as targeted as retention efforts but at an even lower cost with a higher success rate if customers just dropped off instead of leaving for a competitor.
Retention strategies in full are more detailed than the above but hopefully, it all gives you a clearer picture of just how important it is to keep the customers you already have.
