You have probably heard the old marketing wives tale about how it can be five to six times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Whether or not this is true or not, the basic principle is that existing customers can increase profits more so than can new customers. In this post we look at ways you can increase your customer base so that more of the people that pay you stick around.
Implement Lead Capture Resources
Have you ever been to a website that asks users to provide their email addresses in exchange for content? Although subtle, this can be a great (and inexpensive) way to build an email list of people who you know already have an interest in your products or services. To generate this kind of list, you will need a few things:
- Great content like white papers, ebooks, email newsletter or promotional material
- A email client that allows you to automate the exchange (i.e. MailChimp or Constant Contact)
- An plan of what you’d like to do with these emails after you have them
Invest in Retargeting
Unless your website is selling MSG, it is unlikely that all of your customers will remember all the great content you have created on their behalf. Retargeting can help to solve this. Retargeting is like the pizza magnet on your refrigerator, always visible and serving as a reminder that a quick dinner can be just minutes away.
Retargeting advertisements are online ads that follow users around to all of the most popular sites on the web. Whether your website users are on Facebook, CNN, The Weather Channel or Amazon.com, there is a good chance your retargeting ad will follow them there to remind them how great your brand is and provide them with that unobtrusive ‘pizza magnet’ to attract them back when they are ready to make a purchase.
Social Media
This one is a bit more obvious than the others, but encouraging your website visitors to follow you on your social media accounts of their choosing allows you to stay in touch with them on a constant basis. To elicit social following place prominent social media buttons throughout your site and use call to actions like “Follow us to get promotions, specials and discounts.”
Make good on your promise and offer up great content throughout your social media channels that encourages your followers to click through to your website. Publish any materials that are consistent with your brand image while sporadically pushing your products or service between other great content designed to keep them engaged.
Convert!
All the above can be for not if you don’t have appropriate sales funnels through your site that guide your users to the sale. Spend some time on designing awesome landing pages and providing a user experience that is second to none! Instead of enjoying traffic as a general indication of your website’s success, enjoy traffic that returns to your site and watch your conversions increase.
Thanks for reading,
-Drew Larison
