Posted By: Sherrie Brindley
Why Building Loyalty with Your Customers Through Marketing Matters So Much
If you made a list of the most important assets that any business has, its customers would undoubtedly be right at the top.
Your customer base, as it continues to grow and expand, will allow your business to do the same.
These are more than just people who make one-time purchases - if you're able to offer them a legitimate experience that they can't find anywhere else, they will become brand advocates promoting your business for you. They keep coming back. They tell their friends and family members about you.
But you can only get this momentum if you're able to build that sense of loyalty from the beginning.
The Power of Brand Loyalty
According to a recent study, reducing the churn rate for your customers - those who make a purchase and then never return - by just 5% has the potential to increase profitability by between 25% and 95%.
If you needed a single statistic to outline the importance of instilling loyalty in your customers through any means necessary, let it be that one.
Customer Service is Key
Organizations take many different approaches towards accomplishing this goal. Sometimes they create literal loyalty programs, giving customers the opportunity to earn points or take advantage of certain promotions as they spend more money.
But arguably the best way to get started is to just make sure that the customer experience is every bit as important to you as your products and services are themselves.
Show - Don't Just Tell
Go out of your way to use personalization in your marketing materials to make people feel like you're speaking directly to them. Make it as easy as possible to make a purchase both online and in-store. Show people, don't just tell them, how much you appreciate them in ways both large and small.
Cheaper to Keep Them
According to another recent study, about 80% of all businesses agree that retaining one of your existing, satisfied customers is far cheaper than acquiring a new one. Not only that, 56% of consumers said that they were very willing to stay loyal to businesses that seemed to understand them, this according to the same source outlined above.
When taken together, these two statistics paint a very important picture of why loyalty matters to businesses of all types. Not only can it help you in terms of scaling up your efforts by continually expanding your base, but it's also an excellent way to differentiate yourself from your competitors as well. That in and of itself may be the most important advantage of all.