Do you have a post-purchase strategy in place? Are you focusing your efforts not only on bringing in new customers but also nurturing existing customers?
If you have not begun to think about how you can target customers at every stage of their journey, from the moment they arrive on your site, to their initial purchase, and subsequent purchases, you are missing out on the chance to improve your average order size, value, and frequency.
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This year, it’s time to take a closer look at your post-purchase strategy to see how you can turn a one-time customer into a brand advocate.
Request feedback
Once customers have completed their first order, it can be very useful to request feedback from them to let you know whether there are any areas for improvement.
This can be done through a very simple automated email that arrives a few days after the purchase has been finalised. For best results, keep questions short, simple and focused on specifics.
For example, you could ask customers to rate their experience, with checkpoints for payment ease, customer service, order fulfilment speed, and overall satisfaction.
Reward loyal customers
Loyalty programmes can be incredibly effective as well.
Customers sometimes need incentive to return. Automatically signing customers up for loyalty rewards once they complete their first purchase is often more effective than inviting customers to sign up for loyalty rewards.
The fewer steps required for customers to earn points and claim rewards, the more likely they will be to embrace your loyalty programme.
Send regular updates
You’ve put plenty of thought into your initial sales funnel messages. But, as important as those initial lead nurturing email sequences may be, retention emails are equally important. In fact, it typically costs less to retain customers than to acquire new customers, and profits from existing customers can often be higher as well.
Regular newsletters, promotions, guides, tips, industry updates, featured product mailers, and personalised, targeted emails can make all the difference in your retention rates.
Surprise customers
Another way to encourage customers to return is to surprise them with unexpected gestures, gifts or rewards.
The best way to achieve this is to first identify your high value customers who have either made frequent purchases in a short space of time or made fewer high value purchases.
Handwritten thank you notes, limited time coupons or discounts, vouchers, small gifts on orders over a certain threshold, and other unexpected touches can all help to increase retention and drive loyalty.
Reach out and connect
Finally, it is always a good idea to think beyond email. How can you connect with customers on a deeper level?
Integrating your social media strategy with your email and mobile strategy is one of the most effective ways to reach out and connect with your customers.
This is why a holistic ecommerce marketing strategy will always offer further-reaching results than a strategy that limits your reach to just a single channel.
Once you begin to see customer retention as an ongoing strategy, it will become a lot simpler to align your efforts in a way that is designed to grow loyalty, retention, and engagement.
