From First Purchase to Devoted Advocate: Mastering Customer Marketing

Most businesses spend the bulk of their marketing budgets on acquiring new customers. However, if a company doesn’t focus on retaining their hard-won new business and growing those accounts, they’re leaving money on the table. If you want to cultivate new customers into loyal brand advocates and buyers, your company may benefit from implementing a customer marketing strategy.

What is customer marketing, and how does it differ from other types of marketing?

Customer marketing is the process of building relationships with customers and prospects. Unlike other types of marketing, customer marketing is not about selling a product or service. It revolves around customer research, segmentation, targeting, and messaging. Customer marketing aims to create loyalty and advocacy, turning customers into promoters of the product or service.

Customer marketing strategies revolve around leveraging the experiences of existing customers to develop user and buyer personas. By delving into each customer segment and deeply investigating their pain points, and motivations, companies can then create customized outreach that effectively speaks to their concerns.

Such techniques improve retention rates because they help you understand what your customers want before investing resources into any product or service. Further developing their customer marketing strategy often involves using real-life examples like case studies or use cases.

From there, brands and companies should work to create and implement strategies that will build customer relationships and loyalty. This can include developing loyalty programs, creating customer communications, and organizing customer events.

What are some common goals of customer marketing campaigns, and how can they be achieved?

The goals of customer marketing campaigns can vary depending on the product or service being marketed, but some common objectives include:

Increasing customer loyalty

Recognizing and rewarding consumers who consistently buy from you is one of the most effective ways to keep them coming back. A loyalty program is an excellent way to show appreciation to your repeat clients and convince them to keep coming back.

Loyal customers spend 67% more than those who buy your products on occasion, indicating that focusing on repeat business is paramount. You can use customer marketing campaigns to increase customer loyalty by providing rewards for continued patronage or exclusive offers for loyalty program members.

Boosting customer retention rates

Improving your customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits up to 95%. Your repeat buyers might not be your biggest purchasers, but the money they spend will top those one-time buyers over time. What’s more, retaining customers is significantly cheaper than finding new ones. Repeat buyers generate consistent, often predictable income for your business.

But it doesn’t just affect your bottom line. Customer retention has all kinds of benefits, including:

• Advocacy: If customers like your company, they’ll do the marketing for you.
• Information: Engaged customers are more likely to leave feedback on how you can improve.
• Cross-selling: An existing customer is more likely to explore the rest of a company that they trust.

Generating customer referrals

One of the common goals of customer marketing campaigns is generating customer referrals. A referral, where a satisfied customer recommends your product or service to someone else, is one of the most effective forms of marketing because it comes from a trusted source. Leads from referrals convert 30% more than those produced by other marketing methods.

There are a few different ways to generate referrals, but one of the most powerful is to create a referral program. A referral program provides an incentive for customers to refer your product or service to others. It could be in the form of a discount, freebie, or other benefits.

What is the best way to manage customer accounts and ensure customer loyalty?

There are a few key ways to manage customer accounts and ensure customer loyalty, which include:

1. Listen to what your customers are saying to you – Use feedback mechanisms such as surveys, polls, and customer interviews to get a pulse on how they feel about your product or service and take action. Use their feedback to improve the user experience or make changes to your product/service.
2. Identify where you can bring value to your customers’ success across the board – If you want to be a true partner to your customers, you need to understand how they define success and help them achieve it. This could include providing training and support, offering exclusive deals or discounts, or simply being there when they need you.
3. Don’t be afraid to show them you have empathy for their situation – To build trust, show your customers that you understand their needs by being empathetic. This could involve going above and beyond to help them with a problem or addressing their concerns promptly. Provide an exceptional level of customer service so that they always remember the experience they had with your company.
4. Be transparent in all your dealings with them – customers appreciate honest companies. Being upfront is crucial. It includes being communicative about changes or updates to your product/service, being responsive to their inquiries and concerns, and living up to your promises.