Customer retention begins with valuing customer relationships. Under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies’ budgets are tight, but buyers are keen to support businesses—particularly local ones.
By nurturing connections, you encourage your audience to see the value you offer and to buy more from you, more often, ultimately increasing your revenue. Customer retention costs you 5 to 25 times less than acquisition in the long run and results in a greater return on investment.
In this blog post, we’ll explore 3 ways to keep your customers coming back through content marketing.
1. Consistently create and share valuable content via your marketing channels
Frequently publishing original content that helps your audience navigate a problem or learn something useful has a powerful impact on your business by building trust and credibility. Content that illustrates what your company stands for creates an authentic and transparent connection with your customers. Show them you care about more than a sale, and that you’re invested in their personal lives and businesses.
Don’t be intimidated by the effort of building your marketing strategy and producing original subject matter. Although the bar is high, with nearly 85% of consumers expecting brands to produce content, 60% of people are motivated to seek out a product after reading content about it. Focus on putting out quality content, and reap the benefits.
2. Ask your customers for feedback on your products and services
How can you improve if you don’t know how your customers feel about your business? Make a plan to gather customer feedback and share it with your team. This customer feedback loop provides a system to collect, analyze and distribute customer reviews and surveys.
Surveys, user testing, and focus groups are the most common way to collect information, which you can then analyze for trends and ways to enhance the customer experience. Simply sharing positive reviews with your audience can lead to sales, considering that 89% of customers won’t make a purchase until after they read a review.
Don’t forget to ask for feedback on social media. With polls and Q&A options on Instagram and Facebook, the ability to collect data is right at your fingertips. Customers are also keen to get involved with your business by posting photos of your product or reflecting on their experience with your company. Their posts are an easy way for you to engage with them by liking, commenting, and sharing the post, which doubles as content creation.
3. Create a customer loyalty program
Buyers love customer loyalty programs. Research shows that a customer who registers for a loyalty program is 47% more likely to buy from that business again. A program allows you to tap into incentivization and customers’ emotions—and the good news is you can easily keep your loyalty program simple.
Punch cards are straightforward and motivate shoppers to work towards a goal, which helps keep them devoted to your business. If you prefer a digital approach, you can use an exclusive e-newsletter to send deals to your most loyal customers. This is a great way to distinguish your brand with a personalized experience. Building a bond encourages customers to see you as more than just an operation, and in turn, stimulates repeat customers to make frequent purchases.
Are you ready to use content marketing to strengthen your customer relationships?
If you’re looking for content marketing guidance to further your customer retention efforts, Scribe National can help. They can help you create impeccable content that not only captures but keeps, your audience’s attention, setting you apart from your competitors. Schedule a free consultation.
About the author: Afton Brazzoni
Afton Brazzoni started Scribe National to help B2B companies serve their audiences with captivating, refreshing, effective clarity. With 10+ years of experience in marketing and communications and a background in journalism, her mission is to deliver you excellent content that drives your business forward. Afton has extensive experience developing strategies and content for growth-oriented organizations such as technology companies, higher education institutions, and the tourism industry, as well as for entrepreneurs.
When she’s not working, Afton enjoys spending time with her husband, hiking with her two French bulldogs in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies (yes, they can hike!) or honing her oil painting skills.
Scribe National is a B2B copywriting studio. They ignite connections between brands and audiences through content strategy and writing services tailored to amplify your voice. They are dedicated to creating purposeful content that is authentic, aligned with your mission and that helps you achieve your goals.