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Best customer retention strategies : Part I

Customer retention is termed as a process of inculcating those techniques by the companies that help in the exemption of customer defections. The sole purpose of customer retention programs is to help companies retain as many customers as possible through customer loyalty and brand loyalty initiatives.

As a matter of fact, customer retention begins with the first contact a customer has with a company and continues throughout the entire lifetime of the relationship.

According to a research an average business loses around 20 percent of its customers annually due to customer dissatisfaction. In some industries, this leakage is astoundingly 80 percent. However, following some preventive measures can help curb this loss.

Here we have mentioned some of the best customer retention techniques that will enhance your customer retention significantly once implemented and will have a gigantic impact on your business.

1. Build relationships online and develop trust:

In today’s era majority of people are glued to their computer screens for hours due to those enticing social media platforms. so, connecting with your clients through these mediums can benefit you to a large extent. Majority of your clients will have active profiles on websites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. So, it makes sense to connect with your potential customers through such sites. Moreover, trust is crucial in business, and building relationships with clients will cumulate that trust for you.

A study by the African Journal of Business Management found that commitment tends to grow along with trust. So you should take an interest in your clients and their business. Simply providing a service is not long enough. You further need to start building shared values with clients and showing you take an interest in them and their success.

2. Let your interest in the leads be consistent:

Though every business loses some customers virtually, not all of them measure or recognize how many of their customers become inactive. Ironically, many businesses spend lavishly on building that initial customer relationship. Then they leave that relationship unattended, in some cases even losing interest as soon as the sale is made. The easiest way to grow your business is to avoid losing your customers. Once you stop the emanation, it’s often possible to increase your growth rate quite efficaciously.

3. Identify customer expectations:

Set expectations early and lower than you can provide, so that you can eradicate uncertainty as to the level of service you need to offer to ensure your clients’ satisfaction. This technique enables your company to ensure you are always over delivering.

Since clients tend to remember negative experiences, so, your client will no doubt cite a negative experience as a reason to cancel his or her contract with you.

4. Use a rolling calendar of communication:

Building relationships with your customers are not enough! You need to be in touch using a rolling calendar of communications. This is a programmed series of emails, events, phone calls, “thank you’s”, special offers, follow-ups, magic moments, and cards or notes with a personal touch etc. that ensure constantly and automatically at pre-decided points in the pre-sales, sales, and post-sales process.

People not only respond to this in a positive manner, they really appreciate it because they feel valued. It acknowledges them, keeps them updated, offsets customer remorse, augments the reason they’re doing business with you and makes them feel part of your business and that too an important one!

5. Implement a monthly email marketing campaign and start a blog:

Email your existing customers once every month. Touch base with them, keep them updated with your services and share a couple of great articles you believe will help them profit from their business. You should also link to your articles as a way to drive your customers to your blog.

Write a weekly article on something interesting, say, an accomplishment you feel your customers would value. However, you need to be consistent with your blog. You need to start using it as a medium to build relationships with your customers.

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Lead generation strategies: Part V

1. Corporate literature:

You should know how to create efficacious professional brochures and fliers that effortlessly sell for you by educating your prospects about the benefits you offer. These brochures and fliers should be capable of addressing their questions and their needs for your product or service. Basically, your brochures and fliers should help boost lead generation and bring in as much profit as possible.

2. Podcasting:

Podcasting is a concoction of ‘broadcasting’ and ‘i-pod’. It is a form of audio broadcasting on the Internet. The reason it became linked with the iPod in the name was that people download the broadcasts (audio shows) to listen to mostly on their iPods.

It is a medium for businesses to globally distribute their ideas and create a following of like-minded fans. It is beneficial for industries such as journalism, education, and entertainment allowing anyone to freely create and distribute news and media as it helps in an enormous lead generation in the long run.

3. Premiums, gifts and offers:

The Lead generation offers, gifts and premiums are irresistible bribes that give a piece of valuable information to the sales prospects in exchange for their contact information. These are positioned on the landing pages of websites.

4. Profits on the back end:

If most of your sales and profits occur when customers repeat purchase from you again and again, you should make it a point that you are doing everything possible to motivate as many customers as you can to make their initial buying decision as quickly and easily as possible. Making it easy and enticing for the customer to start doing business with you by adding extra incentives or by making your initial sale at break-even or a small loss, means that you will benefit sooner rather than later from all the repeat business.

5. Experiential marketing:

This is a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and encourages them to participate in brand development. Experiential marketers believe that consumers should be actively involved in the production and co-creation of marketing programs.

These are the major lead generation strategies that will boost up your sales in the long run.

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Lead generation strategies : Part IV

1. Display and sell your wares at trade shows:

Trade shows, exhibitions, and fairs are such events where many serious prospects will be present. Such events are great opportunitues to strengthen you lead generation efforts. But there is an art to successful exhibiting which, if learned, generates immense rewards. There are few other sales forums where prospects and clients come to you. Also, you can use this opportunity to get valuable opinions on your products and services.

Besides attracting new business, exhibitions can be used to introduce existing customers to additional products.

Trade shows

2. Database marketing:

Database marketing is a systematic approach to the gathering, fortification, and processing of consumer data (both for customers and potential customers) that is maintained in a company’s databases. With the aid of database marketing, much more consumer data is maintained, and that the data is processed and used in more sophisticated ways.

Among other things, marketers utilize the data to:

i) learn more about customers

ii) identify and focus on target markets for specific campaigns (through customer segmentation process)

iii) compare customers’ value to the company and

iv) provide more dedicated offerings for customers to live up to their expectations.

Since database marketing provides an extended access to potential customers so lead generation becomes much efficient.

3. Target marketing:

Sweepstakes and contests with large grand prizes tend to attract more entries regardless of the odds of winning. Therefore, the value of smaller prizes usually totals much less than that of the top prize. Firms that incorporate target marketing such as Publishers Clearing House and Reader’s Digest, have also found that the more involved the entry process, the more entrants. Businesses often obtain marketing information about a customer from sweepstakes entries which leads to an active participation further leading to a boost in sales.

4. Card deck offers and inserts:

A card deck offer is a product description on an individual card. The card is about the size of a postcard generally placed within a pack along with 50 or more other cards. It’s a quick and enticing way for many busy people to “shop” through a variety of product offers. You can normally target and send your offer to a large number of carefully selected prospective customers.

This method is less costly as compared to other marketing techniques. On the other hand, inserts give you a direct approach to both homes and businesses in the desired geographical area, giving you the flexibility to drop any number at any time.

5. Social media visibility / Viral marketing:

Social media makes the process even easier because of all of the information that people readily share, and also because of the large number of users on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more! 40% of people spend more time socializing on social media than face to face in today’s era. So needless to say, social media makes for the perfect place to identify your target audience and turn them into new sales leads benefiting your business.

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Lead generation strategies: Part III

1. Effective advertising through advertorials and news stories: 

Advertising is a great help when working with lead generation.  If you approach advertising in a scientific manner, following proven principles and facts, it no longer has to be a hit and trial sort of a mechanism. There are many proven ways of using advertising in a highly targeted manner that can help you grow your business. This includes:

i) advertising only in media that reaches a sufficiently large number of your target audience

ii) focusing the entire thrust of your communication on your prospect’s interests rather than your own

iii) giving your prospects enough information and education regarding your products and services

iv) offering them something appealing that’ll compel them to end up purchasing your goods.

2. Bookalogs and Catalogues:

A bookalog is a unique marketing tool that is quite beneficial when trying to make the most out of your lead generation efforts. The bookalog is a positioning instrument for a firm and contains valuable information, generally knowledgeable in nature. Creating a definite product differentiation, there is a connotation that the product is unique enough to be written about in a book. Bookalogs abide by all the proper direct response rules.

On the other hand, catalogs are lists of goods and services on sale with their descriptions and prices published in the form of a printed or electronic document. Inculcating these two marketing tools also act as a boon for lead generation.

3. Networking and publicity:

Effective networking is vital to your success. Virtually anyone you might want to contact or meet is only four to five people away from you, such that anyone you contact can further provide you some more contacts. Basically, the idea is to make new contacts, develop quality business relationships based on trust and contentment, educate the people you meet about what you do and the benefits offered by your products or services. Gradually build your network, use your contacts database effectively, and grow your business further.

You can also leverage the power of media for public recognition as media are insatiably hungry for factual, interesting, and newsworthy information they can share with their customers, members, employees, listeners, viewers or readers. PR approached correctly, will give you free coverage on radio, television, in magazines, newspapers, trade journals, newsletters and through websites who serve the marketplace you wish to be a part of.

4. Consignment selling:

Selling goods on consignment is explained as a situation whereby goods are shipped to a dealer who pays you, the consignor, only for the merchandise which sells. The dealer, referred to as the consignee, has the right to return to you the merchandise which does not sell and without obligation. Consignment selling allows a seller (manufacturer) to place merchandise in wholesale and retail outlets. This is done so as to provide an additional exposure to the buying market. It can help the retailers stock goods in inventory because no capital of theirs is stocked up in inventory.

5. E-Commerce:

These days when people want information, they surf the web to find what they need. Moreover, they prefer shopping with an ease of sitting back and purchasing online. Therefore, you need a good website that maximizes your exposure. It’s obvious you don’t want to look old-fashioned, isn’t it?

Your website needs to be appealing, informative, and easy to navigate. So that you obtain a constant stream of new prospects. You also need to establish a system that deftly converts them into customers that peaks up your sales.

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Lead generation strategies: Part II

1. Special events and promotion:

Events are a very powerful way of boosting your lead generation efforts and offering prospects a chance to be educated about the benefits and results of your products. Make doing business with you a memorable experience for the people. The more enjoyable, fascinating, informative, and knowledgeable you can make the experience, the more business you will do. Also, the stronger and more meaningful bond you will form with your customers.

2. Leverage your competitors’ resources:

Making use of the relationships that your competitors do not properly or fully develop or appreciate, is quite a clever thing to do! You can simply make arrangements to obtain details from them of all their unconverted leads, unsold prospects and unconverted inquiries are like them handing you the keys to their own customer list.

3. Franchising:

It is an arrangement for the lead generation where the franchiser (one firm) allows the franchisee ( another firm) to use its business model along with its trademark. This helps produce and market a good or service according to certain specifications. The franchisee has to pay one-time franchise fee plus a percentage of its sales revenue and gains in return:

i) immediate name recognition

ii) detailed and guaranteed techniques of running a full-fledged business.

iii) training of employees

iv) ongoing help in promoting and upgrading of products that are tied and tested.

4. Telemarketing and direct mailing:

Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or web conference appointment. It can also include recorded sales pitches programmed to be played over the phone through automatic dialing. Telemarketing is flexible in scope, message, and the things it can achieve.

It works especially well in collaboration with direct mail because it allows you to identify prospects and reach them directly through two media.

Telemarketing

5. Blogs:

Blogs are yet another effective means for lead generation. Blog posts that educate your customers on your products or services help your customers in a much better manner.

As a matter of fact, the more exciting and fascinating pages you publish, the more favorably search engines like Google look at your website. As a result, you’ll attract more visitors via search which in turn leads to increased sales.

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Lead generation strategies: Part I

Wondering what “Lead generation” actually means?

Well, in the simplest language, lead generation is the most important aspect of marketing which means initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. It is basically a process of collecting names and contact information about qualified prospects which will be contacted by the salespeople for generating orders. It involves direct response advertising and telemarketing.

Leads may come from various sources or activities, for example, digitally via the internet, through personal referrals, through telephone calls either by the company or telemarketers, through advertisements, and events. A study from 2014 stated that direct traffic, search engines, and web referrals were the three most popular online channels for lead generation, accounting for 93% of leads.

We know that a steady stream of leads is an essential component of keeping a business afloat – but coming up with original and efficient ideas to attract and convert qualified leads is easier said than done. Here are some of the proven and actionable ideas to energize your lead generation efforts:

1. Write exceptional ads:

Stepping into the shoes of a searcher you will realize that most ads just suck. They’re boring, they’re indifferent, and one isn’t any more enticing than another. Betwixt such a chaos where everything looks the same, there’s a huge opportunity to come in with something exceptional and blow the competition away! Writing better ads can raise your CTR above the expected average, giving your quality score a hike.

2. Create a product video:

Researchers have proved that 65% of us are visual learners. As a matter of fact, product explainer videos can generate leads at a rate of up to 33%. When done correctly, videos can keep us engaged and can inspire us to take an action. So, videos do not need to be long and complex.

3. Give better offers and fewer choices:

The top 10% of landing pages have conversion rate 3x to 5x average the average. As an answer to “How do they make it possible?” – by giving better offers and fewer choices. Moreover, as per Hick’s Law – fewer choices mean less confusion, resulting in more leads. As an inspiration – “MySiteAuditor” decreased the options on a free trial sign up a page from six to one and saw 25% jump in their conversion rate.

4. Offer a lot of compelling opt-in opportunities:

You can present numerous opt-ins by turning every blog post into an opt-in page.  You can give away PDFs of your blog posts, worksheets, webinars, free reports, live demos, resource guides and what not! Instead of placing the opt-in in a sidebar, make a pop-up. You can’t make the visitors say yes, but there is no point making it easy for them to say no. According to a research, this tactic increased leads by 32 %!

5. Avoid mentioning SPAM :

Privacy is a major concern for all the visitors landing on your page. It is absolutely fine to reassure privacy but you should prefer doing it in a fun manner. In other words, assure privacy without using the word “SPAM”. In case of any doubts, you may run A/B tests to be sure your sign up forms are optimized for conversions.

6. Remarketing:

Remarketing is an efficient way to connect those visitors to your website who may not have made an immediate purchase or inquiry. It allows you to present targeted ads in front of a defined audience that had previously visited your website – as they browse elsewhere around the internet using YouTube, Google or even Facebook. Remarketing using the Google Display Network gives you 92% reach in the U.S., across millions of websites, videos, and devices.