Both winning new customers and keeping them are pivotal for the success of any business. Why? Well, about 20 percent of return customers generate about 80 percent of your company’s entire income, however, in order to turn into a return customer, one has to start by making their first purchase. Then again, there are some industries that operate on a one-time-sale basis. We’re talking about exercise equipment, chess sets, etc. For this reason, knowing how to reliably get new customers may be pivotal for the success of your business. So, here are the top five ways to win new customers and the top five ways to keep them.
Winning new customers
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Check your prices
The first thing you need to keep in mind is the fact that customers are mostly focused on the price of your products. If the price is right, they might be willing to wait for 7-8 days for the delivery. So, instead of believing that the delivery might be your unique selling point, try focusing on the price instead and give it your best in order to become as competitive as possible. Sure, this will reduce your profit but if you can find a way to reduce the overhead, as well, this shouldn’t be that much of an issue.
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Get customer reviews
The next thing you want to do is make sure that some of your current customers become brand ambassadors. They can do this by promoting your brand online, sharing your content or (most importantly) by making customer reviews in your favor. These customer reviews are a digital equivalent of WOM (word of mouth) promotions, which is a major advantage, to begin with.
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Have a greater offer
Another way to attract your audience is to have a superior offer to that of your competitors. Why is this so important? Well, for the sake of convenience, people love to purchase a plethora of items from the same place. This means that they have to enter their contact info just once or register a single account instead of doing so several times. This means that even if the price of one or several of your articles is slightly more expensive than expected they might still proceed with the purchase.
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Go through different marketing channels
The next idea you might want to consider is increasing the number of marketing channels that you’re selling through. This way, you will grow your reach and put yourself in a spot where you get to reach out to a bigger audience. Needless to say, this will provide you with a massive boost to your sales and put you in a spot where your sales growth becomes far more reliable.
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Invest in SEO
The simplest way to grow an audience is to improve the visibility of your brand. In 2020, the best way to do so is to increase your digital footprint, thus substantially growing the reach of your business. Another perk of this method is the fact that it allows your audience to passively discover you. This makes them much more susceptible to your suggestions. Needless to say, this does wonders for your conversion rate.
Keeping old customers
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Establish face-to-face contact
One of the best ways to nurture customer loyalty is to establish face-to-face contact with them. This can be done by hosting an event or by attending seminars, tradeshows or similar industry-relevant events. In order to organize a successful event, you will have to make an initial investment, as well as consider hiring professionals to help you out with the organization. Fortunately, finding an agency that specializes in event production services is not that hard in 2020.
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Quick response
The truth is that everyone wants preferential treatment and your customers are definitely not an exception. So, the quicker you respond, the better impression you will make. This is also why more and more brands are quickly turning towards the use of chatbots for their brand. Keep in mind that this kind of immediate response also displays a great level of professionalism when it comes to your business.
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Post-sale follow-up
Another thing you need to understand is the importance of post-sale follow-up. After you close the sale, your job at staying in touch has actually just begun. What you need to do is send your audience a thank-you email, an additional offer or merely a digital receipt. For this to work, nonetheless, you need to first collect their email. This is why you need to make this into an integral part of your checkout process, even if you don’t require them to register in order to make a purchase.
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Start a loyalty program
Sometimes, the right thing to do, in order to make people come back, is to incentivize them to do so. The way this works is fairly simple. You start by awarding them a certain number of points for each purchase. These points can later be redeemed in your store for a reward or a discount. This way, your audience will have to come back in order to cash in on this point reward, seeing as how, otherwise, they would have to forfeit them. This also helps by playing strongly on the FOMO phenomenon.
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Listen to your audience
The last piece of advice that you need to hear speaks of the importance of listening to your audience and giving them what they want and expect. Keep in mind that the way in which this works is actually quite simple. Consider seriously every piece of feedback and, instead of arguing when the feedback is negative, either show appreciation to your audience for their insight or fix the issue right away.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, they say that it costs you five times less to make the old customer return than to make the new customer. Still, every old customer was once a newcomer to the brand community. The better your first interaction with them is, the more effective your customer retention efforts will be. This is why the above-listed ten methods are the most effective when properly combined.
