B2B marketing is competitive. Coupled with the lengthy sales cycle, the investment you need to make in acquiring a new customer can be quite high. In fact, it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an existing one. Yet nearly half of companies spend more on customer acquisition than they do on keeping the customers they already have. Retention marketing focuses on increasing the likelihood a customer will purchase again while concentrating on increasing the profitability of each repeat purchase.

Calculate your churn rate

Your company’s customer churn rate refers to the rate at which customers stop doing business with you. If your annual churn rate is greater than 5-7 percent, it’s time to evaluate the happiness of your customers. A higher churn rate generally indicates your product or service is failing to meet the needs or expectations of your customers.

To calculate your annual churn rate, determine the number of customers you started with and the number left at the end of the year. Divide the change in number by the customers you started with to determine your percentage of customer churn:

(customers at beginning of year – customers at end of year) ÷ customers at beginning of year

Customer retention strategies

Companies that consistently implement customer retention marketing enjoy the following benefits:

• Increased sales opportunities through more frequent and larger purchases
• Enhanced brand loyalty
• More customer referrals
• Decreased costs of customer acquisition.

Here are five simple yet effective customer retention strategies you can use to improve customer retention:

1. Develop a customer onboarding process. A customer onboarding program and effective post-sale support nurtures the client-customer relationship. Also, it helps your customers experience and maximize all the benefits of your products and services. This improves ROI, which increases the likelihood customers will keep purchasing from you. A strong onboarding program involves multiple tactics and touchpoints, such as video training or tutorials, personal outreach, phone support, webinars and customized follow-up emails.
2. Offer a knowledge base. A comprehensive collection of resources gives customers a place to find relevant and helpful information about your product or service. Be sure customers have access to this information 24/7 so they can find answers to their questions when they need them. Make certain your knowledge base is easy to find, accessible and provides the most current information available.
3. Feature customers in your content. Enhance engagement and loyalty by featuring your high-value customers in testimonials, white papers, case studies, social media posts and other marketing content. Your customers will gain marketplace visibility while you showcase the effectiveness of your products and services. Ask featured customers to share content with their community to broaden the reach of your efforts.
4. Develop exclusive benefits for high-value customers. Reward long-standing and valuable customers with exclusive perks, early access, or special discounts on new products, services, bundles or events. This will show your appreciation and encourage these customers to continue buying from you so they can maintain their VIP status.
5. Re-engage inactive customers. While still focusing on keeping the customers you have, identify those customers that have gone inactive over time. They may range from “needs a little attention” to “lost causes.” Determine which clients are viable and reconnect, offering personalized service, communication and support. Sometimes a simple phone call or email can be the nudge they need to make another purchase from you.

A formula for success

While it’s almost impossible to hold onto every single customer, companies need to do everything possible to keep as many as they can. This comes in the form of a solid customer-retention strategy. Talk with customers, learn what they want and need, and develop approaches to meet and exceed their expectations. To learn more about how to leverage the power of content to keep the customers you have and attract new ones, contact Trade Press Services today.