Customer lifetime value
Customers want much more than a good product. Do not fool yourself. Never fall for the idea that it’s enough that your legal advice is top notch, that your engineering solutions are custom-made, or that the car you sell makes them look like a million bucks.
You know it, everyone knows it. A customer’s real money is on the second sale, the third sale, and so on. Getting a new client is exciting, hard and expensive work. Keeping a client is much cheaper, and…
much more valuable.
However, very few companies really focus their marketing activities on keeping customers. All the attention is on getting new customers. When I look at marketing blogs, read marketing books, I get the same impression, that I need to keep working to get new clients all the time.
Ask yourself this. Is your marketing budget entirely dedicated to getting new customers? Your efforts to keep your current customers happy, how do you budget for those costs?
I suggest you reconsider this position. First of all, remember that every interaction of someone in your company with the outside world is a form of marketing. Your customer service person on the phone, she or he is a marketer for your company.
So far nothing new for you, right?
What else can you do to keep your customers engaged and interested in buying from you?
Social media is all the rage these days. First, what are social networks? Here is a good definition from Wikipedia:
“A social networking service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.”
Marketers often talk about social media tools as a way to get new customers, to get people talking about you, to go viral. Some new marketers suggest you use Twitter and magically your short messages will be retweeted and thousands of new people will hear about your brand.
You can create LinkedIn profiles and Facebook fan pages. And you’ve heard all about email marketing.
The basic idea is the same. You go where your customers are. And if you focus on getting new customers, it’s a great idea.
keep customers
But to keep your customers, there are other strategies you can consider. Here you really want to focus on interacting with your existing customers. How do you treat them when they call you? How quickly do you offer a solution to their problems? Are they delighted to interact with you or are they scared in some way?
Do your customers feel special? Do you treat your customers as if they were a special class of citizens? They are, you know.
This is where social media makes a difference.
Your customers want to feel that they are special. Not only do they pay you for your products and services, they want to be recognized and pampered.
The Exclusive Club
What would it be like for your customers if you invited them to join a special group of people who meet online in a space just for them? There they can share their experience with your product, with like-minded people. There they have the shortest route to customer support of anyone in the world. There you can hear from others about the next version, version 2.0 of your product, which you must have.
This online space is full of information that is immediately relevant to their lives. Maybe even relevant advertising, as long as the products you’re advertising are really important to your customers.
What are some examples?
You have a gym and you need to have a place where you can host relevant discussions. Recently, an article in Time magazine suggested that exercise is not so good for you. Can you imagine the confusion of your customers, when an article like this appears? Wouldn’t you like to talk to them about it and rekindle your passion for working out at their club?
You are an attorney helping people with serious injuries and trauma. This can be a place where your clients can get updates and resources on healing. You can help them find groups of survivors.
You are a luxury car salesman. You know how motorcyclists greet each other on the road. Your clients may not be as ostentatious, but they have that same recognition among them. There is another who knows what car to drive. Can you bring them together and learn what interests they really have in common? Now there is a market research tool for you. Free!
The trick is to drive your customers to a social networking site that you own. Don’t chase your customers all over the Internet. Instead, create a site that’s so compelling that your customers will want to keep coming back. So you can sell over and over again. And your customer will love you for it.