The main goal of business is to make more sales and more profits. You might then think that another key goal is to attract more customers, but is this always the right way of thinking about things? Sure, new customers can help you reach your marketing and sales goals, but there’s also the customers you’ve already sold to. So what’s more important, attracting new customers or retaining existing ones?
Customer retention vs acquisition
Customer acquisition refers to attracting a new customer to your business and converting them successfully, while customer retention refers to keeping an existing or past customer loyal to your brand and getting them to buy again or keep buying. While a combination of both these strategies is key to a successful and profitable business, statistics show that it costs up to five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain a current one.
So, while you shouldn’t ignore customer acquisition, you certainly shouldn’t neglect existing and past customers in favor of attracting new ones.
How to retain more customers
With this in mind, here are some tips and strategies to help you retain more customers.
Customer service is key to customer retention. If someone buys from you for the first time, regardless of whether or not they are happy with the product they purchased, they’re unlikely to return if they had a bad experience when buying from you and receiving their order. If a customer contacts you with a problem or complaint, or if they post a negative review online, then it’s important to respond as quickly as you can and offer them a helpful solution. Make sure you are easily contactable, whether that’s by phone, email, or a live chat tool on your website.
Being able to stay in touch with your customers can also boost customer retention, allowing you to contact them with new deals and sales, or simply to keep your brand front of mind with your customers so they’ll think of you next time they need to buy. Capturing your customers’ email addresses is the easiest way to achieve this, which you can do by having them create an account to place an order or by encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter.
Free gifts with an order can give customers a good incentive to buy from you again, which is where custom promotional products are a great option. And you can send promotional products as gifts to regular customers to show that they are valued, helping to keep them loyal to your brand.
If you’re planning a promotional product strategy to help you retain more customers, then contact Custom Advertising for a free quote or more advice, or check out our online store for the wide range of customizable advertising products we have available to buy.