Digital marketers today juggle a number of objectives. Increase retention rates and LTV. Navigating data privacy laws. Be more impactful with fewer resources. Find ways to catch customers’ attention despite flooded email inboxes and silenced app notifications. Just a few challenges marketers face these days.
Today, retention matters more than ever, and marketers are looking for new tools and strategies to keep customers continually engaging with their brand.
Marketing advice always sounds simple, but it’s easy to get lost when you’re executing at a relentless pace. That’s why we launched One to One: the Consumer Marketing Podcast, where we interview marketing leaders at global consumer brands.
Here are 3 essential customer retention takeaways from CRM leaders on the podcast in the last year.
1. Leverage CRM tools to collect information on your customer in one place.
Be open-minded to emerging communication channels, such as social media messaging, or WhatsApp.
Allow customers to choose their preferred channel and frequency of communication, contributing to a more personalized and effective marketing approach.
Not everyone prefers the same communication channel, so diversifying can lead to better customer engagement and understanding.
2. Leverage Loyalty Programs to Capture and Utilize First-Party Data for Personalized Engagement
Leverage your loyalty program to gather first-party data such as in-store purchases and geolocation.
By integrating this data into your CRM, you can create personalized experiences, tailor marketing campaigns and launch targeted promotions, enhancing the effectiveness of your customer engagement strategy.
3. Champion CRM's Cross-Functional Reach with Data-Driven Arguments
Assertively stand up for the importance of your role and your channel.
Understand and articulate the cross-functional nature of CRM, emphasizing its influence on various parts of the customer journey, from prospecting to conversion and retention.
This empowers you to strongly make your case and command the resources you need.
1. Focus on nailing your onboarding before anything else.
Before you look to improve retention, ensure you have an intuitive onboarding process, manage customer expectations effectively, and guide users to engage with all product features.
This will enhance user satisfaction and build a foundation to make all your retention efforts more efficient.
2. Look for ways to decrease the mental load of your customers.
To enhance customer experience and drive growth, actively seek ways to decrease the mental load for your customers.
Small improvements throughout the customer journey can significantly contribute to this aim.
Analyze your processes and interfaces, pinpoint sources of confusion or friction, and redesign them for simplicity and ease of use.
This can lead to improved conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, growth for your brand.
3. Futureproof your retention marketing efforts by focusing on entertaining your customers.
For future-proof retention marketing efforts, prioritize entertainment and meaningful storytelling in your strategies.
Engage your customers with content that makes them reflect, laugh, or view things differently.
Highlight the positive aspects of their purchase beyond the product itself, such as sustainable practices or charitable contributions associated with the brand.
This provides customers with a sense of purpose and satisfaction that their purchase is contributing to a greater good.
Effective marketing is all about responding to changing behaviors, channels, and trends. Taking action in your retention efforts by following these tips will keep your customers feeling like they’re being communicated with as a human and keep them coming back.
1. Stay Open to New Communication Channels for Adaptive and Customer-Centric Engagement
Be open-minded to emerging communication channels, such as social media messaging, or WhatsApp.
Allow customers to choose their preferred channel and frequency of communication, contributing to a more personalized and effective marketing approach.
Not everyone prefers the same communication channel, so diversifying can lead to better customer engagement and understanding.
2. Leverage Loyalty Programs to Capture and Utilize First-Party Data for Personalized Engagement
Leverage your loyalty program to gather first-party data such as in-store purchases and geolocation.
By integrating this data into your CRM, you can create personalized experiences, tailor marketing campaigns and launch targeted promotions, enhancing the effectiveness of your customer engagement strategy.
3. Champion CRM's Cross-Functional Reach with Data-Driven Arguments
Assertively stand up for the importance of your role and your channel.
Understand and articulate the cross-functional nature of CRM, emphasizing its influence on various parts of the customer journey, from prospecting to conversion and retention.
This empowers you to strongly make your case and command the resources you need.
Want more insights on customer retention? Subscribe to The One to One Consumer Marketing Podcast for the full episodes with these amazing guests and more!
