Customer Experience Marketing Strategies to Boost Loyalty and Prevent Churn

brought to you by WBR Insights

Fostering customer loyalty is more challenging today than it ever has been before. The nature of both the B2C and B2B ecommerce market is that it's a matter of simplicity to switch to another brand. Expanded choice, price comparison sites, and more have made the need to go the extra mile to retain your customers more crucial than ever before.

It's common knowledge in marketing circles that it costs significantly more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Therefore, there is also a bottom-line motivation for maintaining customer loyalty, beyond the revenue earned from repeat purchases.

With that in mind, here are a few simple strategies to slot into your marketing to help boost customer loyalty.

#1 Gifting

With Christmas 2018 on the horizon (or having just passed depending on when you're reading this), gifts are at the forefront of most people's minds.

However, while many brands are sending out special discount codes and free gifts as holiday specials, the sheer volume of them being sent at this time of year can mean yours gets lost in the maelstrom.

Instead, you can get great results by being more creative with your schedule of gift giving. Events such as the anniversary of a customer's first purchase, birthdays, and other more obscure holidays can all help your gifts appear more thoughtful and make your brand more memorable.

#2 Featured Content

A fantastic way of making your customers feel valued is to incorporate them into your content marketing strategy. Everyone enjoys having their ego stroked a little, so having an article written about them is a great method of achieving this.

You can create articles on a topic at which the customer is excelling, and use them as an example. Write testimonials or case studies, social media posts, or any number of other types of content. Articles naming the top X influencers in a field, or X companies doing something amazing, can all provide elegant ways of writing about customers in a way that will make them feel good.

When sharing the content, make sure to send it to the customers in question and tag them in social media posts. Hopefully, they will not only enjoy the article but also be willing to share it themselves, giving you some bonus free promotion in return.

#3 Transparency

If you think about your personal relationships, the people you are most likely to be loyal to are the ones you trust. And the character traits that are most likely to foster trust are openness and transparency.

Data transparency has become a hot topic thanks to a new regulatory environment, such as that created by the EU's GDPR, and high-profile breaches such as in the case of the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook scandal. The net result of this upheaval is that the general public is now far more aware of how private companies gather and use their data. They're also more aware of what their rights are regarding control over information held on them.

Those companies which are most upfront and transparent about their use of data will be most likely to build long-lasting relationships with their customers and boost their retention rates.

#4 Mobile Apps

A powerful method of offering a great customer experience is to create a mobile app that allows customers to manage their account from their smartphone.

Give them the ability to manage their account wherever they want and make referrals. Offering incentives to existing customers for recommending your products or services will not only bring in new customers but also make existing ones feel more invested in your brand.

#5 Customer Onboarding

Effective post-sale support can help your customers maximize the value they get out of your products or services, which will help keep them invested in your brand.

Customer onboarding will ensure your customers are well-versed in all the features of your offering. Many customers switch product because they find the current one complicated and unwieldy, so by keeping in contact and helping them through any onboarding problems they might be having, you'll be more likely to keep them.

B2B Online 2019

Customer loyalty is set to be a hot topic at B2B Online 2019, taking place in April and May at the Chicago Marriott Downtown.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.