Retention marketing is the marketing strategy which focuses on the existing customer base. The strategy aims to make them repeat customers by nurturing the relationship and keeping them happy, engaged and loyal.

Retention marketing is essential for increasing your long term profitability.

The more customers you retain, the higher your conversion rate, ROI and customer lifetime value are.

There are numerous strategies and tactics to retaining more customers. They mostly revolve around the idea of continuous, personalized communication and keeping customers satisfied and loyal.

In this article, we share tactics and tools you can implement right now to increase your retention abilities.

1. Reviews

Customer input is extremely important for creating social proof for your company. Shoppers care about other shoppers’ actions and opinions as, unlike the company, shoppers’ advocacy is perceived as unbiased and objective.

Therefore, you should allow and encourage customer reviews for your products and the company as a whole.

Pay attention to negative reviews. Reply to the negative reviews, asking what is wrong or showing your intent of correcting the wrongdoing. If it is possible to fix the issue for the individual and to fix it in general – do so and thank the reviewer for their help in improving your site.

Your customers will see that you are – about their opinions and their experience – and that you are proactive in creating the best experience for them.

2. Surveys and Questionnaires

Similarly to reviews, surveys and questionnaires are there for you to improve your services and at the same time to engage with the shoppers and show them how much you care.

Use surveys and questionnaires to receive more in-depth individual feedback than reviews from shoppers.

This can help you find out:

• What your strong and weak points are in the customers’ eyes.
• Any issues you need to fix.
• How you are performing compared to the shoppers’ expectations. Reaching (or even better- exceeding) expectations is crucial.

Track your feedback so you can see changes and improvements over time.

3. Social Media

Social media is another channel of communication where you can engage with your customers. Use this space to connect with your customers and create personal, unique relationships.

So what exactly should you do?

First, create a social media profile on media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and Pinterest.

Include links to all of these profiles each time you communicate with a customer (on-site, in emails, etc.) and include a link to your website in each of your social media profiles.

Be active on social media. Post related photos, share articles about your company (blog posts, case studies, your products or services), share related articles to your industry and engage with consumers who engage with you (consumers who comment, retweet, etc.).

Social media is a place where shoppers browse in their free time, therefore you should be fun, engaging and interesting on these channels rather than sales-oriented.

Additionally, encourage your shoppers to use social media to share their experiences with the company, making them brand advocates, such as: posting on your wall, sharing products on their wall, etc.

4. Post-Purchase Email

If you want your customers to be one-timers then after the customer made a purchase you needn’t interact with them. However, if you want loyal, retained customers, your nurturing continues way past the purchase.

The first step of engaging with the customer post-purchase is with a post-purchase email. This is usually a transaction confirmation email that confirms the purchase details and ensures the customer the transaction is done and the order is on its way.

Beyond this information, you could include aspects of the email that nurtures the relationship.

Include a “thank you” somewhere in the email to show the shopper you are grateful and to ensure them that they made the right choice.

Provide them post-purchase care to show them they are not alone and have support if anything goes wrong. Provide them with contact information (email address, phone number, social media profiles, live chat, etc.) and encourage them to use it.

Let your excellent customer service shine to create a great customer experience and therefore satisfaction and retention.

These 4 retention tactics are great to implement quickly to kickstart your retention work. After these 4 simple, yet big, changes are implemented, continue to implementing more complex, long-term strategies.