Retail Marketing: 10 Things That Can Help with Customer Acquisition & Retention

When you're running a business, there are a lot of things you need to keep in mind to keep it successful.

One of the most important things you need to do as a business owner, however, is to attract customers and retain the ones you already have. After all, it costs more time and resources to attract new customers than to keep existing ones. An established customer base also has a higher lifetime value and can be tapped for cross-selling or upselling.

But how do you do that? Well, to help you figure that out, we have 10 helpful tips to help improve customer acquisition and retention.

#1. First impressions are everything

The truth is, for a lot of customers, the first experience they have with your business will often be the most important determinant for them. If they had a bad first experience with your business, they are unlikely to ever consider shopping with you again. This is a more complicated process with many different solutions, and it’s not foolproof that customers satisfied. However, do everything you can to ensure that the customers want to stay.

One problem with customers starting is if it’s too complicated for them. For example, if your website is overcomplicated, they may be too frustrated to bother. This is also true concerning the products you sell. To make things easier, having an onboarding process to better understand how your product or website works will make them more willing to stay with your business.

#2. Encourage customer feedback

If customers have a negative experience with your business, you must understand exactly why that negative experience occurred. Rather than trying to put out a fire with every other problem that comes up, you should have a system that encourages customers to leave feedback on their purchases and customer service experiences.

Whenever a customer finishes a transaction or interacts with customer service, it’s valuable to provide a form for them to know about the quality of the transaction or service. It’s also valuable to have this after the item is marked as delivered. This gives them a convenient way to leave comments, whether positive or negative, that can be used to improve your business.

#3. Don’t lose sight of quality and value

In many cases, the thing that hurts a business the most is cutting corners for the quality of its products and service. Of course, at some point, businesses have to decide whether they cut quality or increase costs for their products. Neither is very palatable, but especially for smaller businesses, that’s sometimes the choice you need to make.

When it comes down to it, however, people tend to be turned off by a lower-quality product, even if it is the same price, and will lose their product loyalty. People like value, sure, but paying a little more for an item if the quality is still there is better than the reverse. And, of course, don’t look into cutting costs just because you want to make more money. Instead, invest in things that can help customer services, such as another customer support channel or an internal knowledge base for your CS team, to ensure that you provide excellent customer service.  

#4. Offer incentives to keep customers

Giving perks to customers is a great way to make them want to keep buying from you instead of being one of your competitors. For example, you can establish a rewards program that gives them cashback or points that can be used toward products and services.

#5. Offer unique services

This is going to be one of those problems you can’t solve overnight, but any business needs to have a selling point. For large businesses, being the number one choice in their industry is usually enough to get them enough success. However, a smaller business is going to have to find other ways to appeal to customers, both current and potential.

These services can come in many forms. For instance, if you can front it, offering your products or services at a lower price than the competition is certainly an advantage. Or maybe you’re a restaurant, and you have signature homemade-style dishes that the competition can’t replicate. Or maybe you just have excellent service that goes beyond par.

Whatever it may be, your customers should know about it.

#6. Send a newsletter

A newsletter is a great way to keep your customers kept up to date with the day-to-day operations of your company, as well as the products and services you offer. Just make sure that they are consistently valuable, and that you don’t send too many newsletters. Otherwise, it may come off as spam, even if they agreed to sign up for them.

#7. Provide discounts

Discounts are a great way to convince people to continue shopping with you, and they can be offered at various times. For example, you could give Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other holiday discounts. In addition, you can offer a discount code for first-time buyers and/or even birthday discounts.

#8. Offer them benefits to continue with your business

If your business has a subscription service, it’s worthwhile to provide a free trial. Some places offer a seven-day free trial, while others could go into the months (or more in rare circumstances). However, that subscription will eventually come to an end, and in a lot of cases, people either forget to cancel or don’t bother resubscribing.

Accidental resubscriptions are a source of profit, but it would be a lot more worthwhile to keep your customers shopping with you. To do this, you can give them incentives to continue, at least for a certain length of time. One way would be to offer them extra free months of the service or to offer free bonuses. For example, Audible has at times offered free trial customers an extra Audible audiobook for staying with them.

#9. Personalize customer experiences

One of the best ways to make customers want to come back time and time again is to make their experience unique to them. There is a lot more revenue potential when the site feels tailored to their wants and needs. This usually comes in the form of product recommendations based on browsing and purchase history.

#10. Let them return their products easily

At times, you’re going to find situations where, despite everything you’ve done, a return will be necessary. And when that happens, don’t make your customer feel like they’re fighting you. So long as they are within the return window or warranty, honor it – and even if it isn’t, consider making an exception.

 

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