More than 40% of companies admit to being more focused on customer acquisition than they are on retention.

And really, to many business owners this makes sense. You should be trying to grow your business…right? Of course, growing your business with new customers through customer acquisition would naturally sit in the top 3 priorities of any business. But those companies whose main goal is to build their business through finding new customers might be missing the profits that can be had from re-engaging existing customers.

How valuable are existing customers?

One of the most astounding stats show that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase profits by 25% – 85% (Bain & Co). While that seems incredible, stats also show that re-engaging and retaining past customers is less work and more value than trying to find new ones, who then need to be educated about your products, your brand and your purchasing system. In fact, attracting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping an existing one (Lee Resources 2010). Not only that, the probability of selling to an existing customer is sitting between 60 and 70%, while the probability of selling to a new one is between 5 and 20% (Marketing Metrics).

How can we re-engage our existing customers?

Keeping a customer for life is a huge part of ensuring that business grow and are successful. As we can see from the stats above, acquiring a customer is alot of work and expense, one that you don’t want to have to repeat just to cover the customer who went to a competitor because they don’t feel connected or engaged with your business.

There are some simple ways that you can engage your customers and get them buying from you again:

Post purchase emails: Make the first purchase from your business a special one. If a customer has just made their first purchase, why not welcome them to the club with a welcome email and some suggestions for other products they might like.

Reminder emails: If a customer hasn’t purchased in a while, send them a reminder email about who you are and why you love doing business with them. Send them some suggestions for products for the upcoming holiday season (Christmas present ideas or Valentine’s Day products) to help get them engaged with your business.

Rewards for your most valuable customers: Reward your most valuable customers with an incentive for next time they shop with you, one that is valid only for a small number of your most valued customers. One of the most effective strategies I have seen is sending a customer a gift voucher to spend instore two weeks after a particularly big purchase. It gives them a great surprise, as well as a reason to come back.

Refer a friend rewards: Retaining customers is not just about keeping a valuable customers purchasing from your business. It’s about creating brand advocates. Reward your customers and create a ‘refer a friend’ rewards program. You’ll find people won’t refer people just for the gift, but if they love your business, they will be actively thinking about who they can refer you to.

Event discount emails: Is your 5th business birthday coming up? Send out a small discount to all your customers to celebrate, and thank them for their support. For those customers who haven’t thought about your service / product for a while, it might be just what they need to purchase again.

Regular newsletters: Don’t forget the power of the simple newsletter to stay top of mind with your customers. A valuable news article about changes in the industry, a new product launch or spotlight of your existing products will prompt those customers who require your product to order.

Points or loyalty system: The points system works really well for a lot of businesses and encourage frequent and repeat purchases. Cafes, retailers, beauty therapists and more can use points based systems to keep customers coming back, via key tags or loyalty cards.

VIP events: VIP events can be a great way for people to refer friends to your business. If you’re a bricks and mortar shopfront, have an exclusive shopping event, or a launch of a new product. And for those of you exclusively online – don’t think that events are valid just for retailers with a street presence. Email out an exclusive online discount code to be used at a specific time on your website and treat it like your own online launch party!

Create a customer journey process

One of the best ways to figure out how you want to engage your customers regularly and effectively with your business is to create your ideal Customer Journey Process. Sit down with your team and brainstorm; what’s the perfect journey for a customer to make through your business? How often would they want to hear from you? What are the best times throughout the year to communicate? Write it down, make a plan and revisit often. It should be flexible and fine tuned on feedback from your customers and your team.

Let us help you

Redegroup are experts at creating products to help your customers coming back to your business, and feel like a VIP. Our gift cards help them to share their love for your business with their family and friends. And our loyalty cards are custom branded and can carry a range of different information about your customer, from key tag to wallet cards.

We don’t just print the order and leave you to deal with the coding, we help you choose the right coding to fit with your system. Redegroup  even provide a live sample from your order for you to check with your system, to give you peace of mind that it works correctly.

Contact us today, or order your free sample pack.