Harnessing the Power of Current Customers
We live in a world of inbound marketing: Where the goal is developing meaningful content strategy and the metric is new lead generation. But where does marketing to current customers fit in this world, and how are you creating spaces for those customers to grow your business?
Instinctively, we all understand that current customers are important, but let’s take a look at just how essential they can be for continued business growth, especially when compared to new customers.
· It costs 6X more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.*
· The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.**
· Increasing your customer retention rate by 5% can increase your profits by 25-95%.*
Those measurable numbers present a real opportunity to dig into how we, living in a competitive, multi-platform, ROI-driven world with finite resources, can find ways to continue our marketing efforts to customers once they choose us. That level of follow-through calls for a formalized customer engagement plan.
The first step of the customer engagement plan is to determine what percentage of marketing effort you want to put toward retaining and upselling current customers. Once that percentage is established, there are several key tools that can be utilized to optimize the life-time value of your current customer base:
Advocate Marketing/Testimonials/Referral Programs
The B2B market is very relationship-driven, and peer recommendations play a huge role in the path-to-purchase. High-performing companies are smart to leverage customer references as a content source both current and potential customers rate as trustworthy.
Customer Events/User Groups/Online Customer Community Interaction
Meeting face-to-face with customers helps establish a receptive attitude toward their needs and wants. Creating interactive online communities also allows brands to have ongoing dialog with their customers. Both options are growing ways marketers can ensure they keep their finger on the pulse of customer needs, wants and ideas.
Customer Satisfaction Systems
Customer satisfaction is a leading indicator of repurchase and loyalty. Companies that formalize customer satisfaction measurement and use those findings to adjust services based on what their customers most want are more likely to capitalize on the benefits happy customers can generate.
Cross Selling & Upselling
The process of suggesting related products and services to current customers is something that can provide value to the customer while also increasing revenue. Ideally, an established CRM process is in place to help determine which complementary or higher-end products make the most sense for your current customer groups.
Lead generation is an important goal for growing business, but as you can see, leveraging current customers can be just as important. Using the resources you have or the communities you create to cultivate your established customer base is a low-risk, high-reward way to increase your profits and deepen loyalty. Contact Creativore if you need a partner to help guide your current customer efforts.
Whitney Rutkowski [email protected]
Sources: *Harvard Business Review **Invesp