While everyone’s focused on generating new leads, the money’s in existing relationships. This is why generating customer loyalty is vital to your success. Current customers are way more valuable to your company than prospective ones.
On average, repeat customers spend 67% more than new ones.
Sure, it’s important to grow your business by reaching out to new prospects, but it’s equally, if not more important, to strengthen the relationships with your current customers.
Many SaaS neglect their existing customers in favor of new ones and lose potential revenue in the process. However, by continuing to nurture a relationship with your current customers, you can extend their lifetime engagement (and value) with your business.
Not only is it more profitable to keep your current customers, but it’s also cheaper. Research shows that it is six times more expensive to acquire a customer than it is to keep one loyal to you. But how exactly do you do that?
In this post, we’ll share strategies to increase loyalty amongst your customer base. Let’s get started.
Use Social Media to Connect With Your Customer
Social media is all about connecting with your audience. Instead of using social media as a microphone, you can use it as a telephone. Think of social media as a tool to interact with your customers instead of a platform to announce your news and company updates. When you engage your customers on social media, you sow the seeds for customer loyalty. Customers gravitate towards businesses that take the time to connect with them on a consistent and meaningful basis.
Here are a few ways that you can use social media to deepen your relationships with your customers:
- Encourage them to follow you on social media. They won’t always seek you out unless you invite them to do it.
- Set up a group on Facebook or LinkedIn where you frequently answer questions.
- Discuss ideas or trending topics related to your industry over Twitter. Segment your customers into groups and then invite them (via email) to a scheduled Twitter chat.
Invest in a Customer Success Team
Focus on helping your customers succeed and you’ll build richer connections. When your customers believe that your business is invested in them, they will be more loyal to you.
The best way to help customers succeed is by creating a customer success team. Unlike a customer support team which responds reactively to problems, the customer success team searches proactively for opportunities to help the customer get the most out of your product. The goal of this team is to extend the lifetime value of your customers by offering this proactive service.
To learn more about customer success and see examples of it in action, check out these posts:
- Defining Customer Success For Your SaaS
- The Important Qualities Every Customer Success Manager Needs
Invest in Content Marketing, Too
Do you have any content (blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.) for the customers who’ve purchased from you before? If not, put it on the top of your to-do list.
Your blog speaks to your customers more than you do. A carefully planned out content marketing strategy is crucial for continuing to stay top of mind with your current customers.
But blog posts aren’t the only resources you should prepare for your current customers. You need content in different forms because not everyone wants to read your blog. Some of your customers may enjoy watching your videos or listening to your weekly podcasts. Be sure to have content for every customer persona at every stage of their lifecycle with your SaaS.
This won’t happen overnight which is why you need to develop out a content marketing strategy. In your strategy, plan to write content that reaches current and past customers.
Use Email
Email marketing isn’t just for nurturing leads, it’s also for staying top of mind with your current customers. If your customers have disengaged and forgotten about you, there’s no need to cry into your pillow about it— Not when you have their email addresses! If your customers have given you permission to market to them over email (which they probably did when signing up), you now have a golden opportunity to nurture a relationship with them.
Email can be used in three ways to extend the lifetime and loyalty of your customers:
- For education – Teach customers how to use your product (you don’t actually need permission for this one because it’s not marketing). Use email to introduce your customers to your service. This is crucial because your new customer won’t know how to use your service. After teaching the basics, show your customers different ways to succeed with your brand. This will increase their level of engagement with your brand. Carefully time these emails so that you keep them returning to your app, especially in the beginning.
- For marketing – Cross-sell related products/ services. And you can also upsell or invite customers to upgrade their purchase.
- For re-engagement – When customers go dormant, send an email to check in on them. One of the top drivers of churn is lack of use. When a customer stops using your product, churn is on the horizon. Don’t let them forget about you. When a customer’s activity in your app declines, send an email to remind them to return.
To be successful through your email efforts, you must personalize your approach as much as possible. Instead of blasting your entire email list with the same type of content, it’s best to segment your list into smaller groups and then prepare different email content for each of these smaller groups. Customizing your message for specific groups on your email list will result in a higher open and a higher click-through rate.
Don’t Let Expired or Cancelled Credit Cards Go Unnoticed
Did you know that most credit cards expire every three years? On any given month, you’re likely to have customers with expired credit cards on file. If you rely on recurring billing, you must take every step possible to prevent the churn that results from failed payments.
Preventing churn is a technical way to ensure customer retention.
You absolutely cannot wait for your customers to update their information on their own. Most people are so busy that they never think about their credit card’s expiration date until a payment fails.
But you can’t afford to take a reactive stance on expired credit cards. You need to inform your customers about an impending expiration date before it happens. In the weeks (or even months) prior to the expiration, send out automatic reminders to encourage the customer to update their information.
Your automatic reminder should come in the form of a separate email that’s focused entirely on one message: Click here to update your credit card information. Don’t just add it as part of your newsletter where it can be easily overlooked.
But keeping on top of expiring credit cards can be a full-time job on its own. Instead of sending out reminders on your own, use our service. We’ve helped our customers prevent churn, increase loyalty, and recover over two billion dollars that would’ve otherwise been lost forever.
When you use Stunning, you don’t need to chase down customers for failed payments. We send out emails automatically when your customers’ credit cards are getting ready to expire to encourage them to update their information.
Have you signed up for Stunning yet?
Our methods will help you improve customer retention and loyalty. Go here to try our dunning services free for 15 days— no restrictions.