44 Digital’s Alan Coates explores some real examples of how investing time and energy in your existing customers may pay better dividends than chasing new ones.      

At 44 Digital, we firmly believe that companies are spending a lot of their marketing budget on paid ads through Facebook and Google as part of their customer acquisition act. But not enough is being spent on retaining and caring for their existing customers. 

And that’s despite the fact that these can historically yield a better customer-lifetime value.Here are five strategies for customer retention that we’ve deployed for our clients, which have helped them engage with and satisfy their customers. 

1. Make your best customers feel even more special

The strategy

We created loyalty clubs, aimed at our clients’ most-frequent shoppers, where they receive special offers and exclusive content.

The return

We’ve seen total customer lifetime value increases by around 15% over a three-month period.

2. Win back customers who’ve stopped shopping with you

The strategy

Sometimes people stop shopping with you even when they like you. That’s why we set up an automated email systemthat tracks a customer’s buying pattern. If someone hasn’t bought anything for more than 30 days, we send them respectful emails encouraging them to stop by and see what’s new and what’s on offer.

The return

On average, 43% of people open our ‘win back’ emails and around 5% place a new order there and then. 

3. Don’t give up on an abandoned browser…

The strategy

Customers love your products. So, when someone views a product but doesn’t add it to the basket, we strongly suspect they’re still interested. We send these customers a series of personalised, automated emails reminding them about the product they viewed.

The return

On average, 64% of people open our browser-abandonment emails, 11% click through and 3% place an order – all through an automated email that’s simple to set up and costs little to maintain.

4 …Or on an abandoned basket

The strategy

The same principle applies to customers who added a product to their basket but didn’t check out and buy it.

The return

We’ve seen that around 50% of customers opened our email, 10% of them clicked through and 6% placed an order.

5. Make sure your user experience is winning you more orders

The strategy

When we decided to increase the conversion rate of some of our key sales pages, we looked at what the analytics were telling us and also screen recordings of customer shopping sessions. We then developed new pages based on the findings. The difference has been huge in terms of conversion rate.

The return

A new page for a timely offer can increase conversion rate of 5% compared to a rate of 2% for less timely ones.

Can we help you win more orders from your existing customers? 

We’re an award-winning digital marketplace agency. Drop us a line to see how we can help you engage your customers and grow your business. Get in touch