It costs eight times as much to introduce a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. This highlights how important it is to maintain a certain amount of brand loyalty within your business. So how do you maintain your customer base and keep your existing customers coming back?
Ask yourself this, have you ever run a campaign purely for your existing customer base? Not many people have, remaining focused on attracting new customers instead. However, existing customers are at the forefront of your business, without them, your business would struggle to survive. This means you need to put a plan in place to show your customers they are appreciated and that their custom is important to you.
First of all, consider the customers you want to attract. Perhaps you have different groups of customers you want to target, for example, high spenders or those which have spent more time purchasing from the company. You should decide on the group you want to target and tailor a campaign around them. One of the most important things in business is to understand your customer base. You should have a clear idea about the demographics of the group you are targeting and understand what would 'work' for them.
Once you understand your target audience then it's much easier to arrange your campaign around them. Researchers have found that three in ten people have purposely changed their loyalty to a brand in order to receive a free item. Depending on your target audience, maybe this is just the thing you need to do. If you are selling services or products, you can give away a promotional product with your items to encourage people to purchase from you. Whilst the basis of this will be to attract existing customers, you can also attract new customers as well, as they may change their loyalties.
Another way to increase brand loyalty is to offer a specific product/service only to existing customers. This could be a sales promotion of some kind - for example, 10% off your next order – or it could be a Christmas gift giveaway. If you already have all your most loyal customers details, then you could send them a little something in the post to thank them for their loyalty.
Have a look at the products on our website for ideas of promotional products which can help to increase brand loyalty.