How do you Build Customer Loyalty when your Retail sales dip?

How do you Build Customer Loyalty when your retail sales dip?

Being a founding member of the Digital Marketing Dubai group on Facebook, one of the members asked an interesting question- "Does email marketing still works or is it outdated"?

My article talks about how conversational marketing combined with CRMs & content marketing can build a billion-dollar business.

In times of cut-throat competition coupled with economic pressures, it is a daunting task for retailers to balance both operational efficiencies and sales.

Retailers need to move the business model from transactional to fostering digital relationships with their customers, irrespective of the fact where the spending occurs.

Customer acquisition is the rule of the game

The challenge today is not only to acquire new customers but also to make them shop again and again in the store or online.

According to?Harvard Business Review , acquiring new customers can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones.?

That same study also found that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by up to 95%.?

Brands that build a loyal customer base leverage their marketing dollars more efficiently, recognizing that repeat customers are precious to any retailer’s bottom line.

Ask any retailer, they have CRM systems but if you dig deeper, these CRMs are being used primarily to store Customer databases and for transactional purposes- Point based, tier-based CRM systems which have become more of discounting systems.

“What’s missing is the “Conversational marketing” using these CRMs.”

Case study:?Loeffler Randall

One brand that has mastered the art of building a loyal community of customers is the fashion label Loeffler Randall — which, since 2004, has expanded from shoes to handbags, ready-to-wear, and accessories.

They use unified customer platform systems for email and SMS, WhatsApp, and social media conversations.

Identifying?every touch point for developing?customer relationships

In order to build a deeper understanding of their customers, they use conversational strategy to a new level.

They constantly encourage their customers & sales associates to talk to their customers, get insights from the conversations and implement them in their brand.

The?brand?knows its customers are women leading busy lives who want to invest in high-quality products that can take them from school drop-off to a meeting to an evening event and everything in between. And while they have customers who have been with them for almost two decades, they also have acquired new customers who are just getting to know them, coming to them for some of their most significant life events, like a job interview or wedding.

The team Loeffler Randall has?partnered?with Klaviyo?(unified customer platform)?to tailor email and SMS strategies, ensuring they’re sharing the right message at the right time with the right people?across channels.

Loeffler Randall's conversations with its customers are not all about Products but about the Lifestyle that the brand believes its customers aspire to live and adopt.

This Conversational marketing with their customers?has?directly impacted Loeffler Randall’s business as a whole.?

Is customer acquisition a new name of retail, to learn more, click here.

For example, before launching its ready-to-wear collection earlier this year, the brand received countless emails asking about the clothing items styled with Loeffler Randall’s shoes in email communications. Hearing that repeated customer feedback helped spark inspiration to create a ready-to-wear line of their own, which the brand continues to expand each season.

Using Content marketing instead of conventional marketing

The brand is very deliberate about what the value of each email and SMS sent offers its customers and never sends purely transactional emails.?

On top of that, the brand works tirelessly to create a robust content calendar to showcase a variety of content each week.

They?create?small-scale, distinctive communications in batches with careful attention to detail.?

This approach also helps the Loeffler Randall team prioritize communication tactics driving sales.?This approach has resulted in over 60% engagement rates for their emails and SMS.

Advantages of conversational marketing

When brands form an authentic connection with their customers?by constantly talking & listening to them,?customers feel good about interacting with them, and it won’t take long for them to become loyal to the brand.?

My learning being a Retailer, writer, content creator and digital marketeer has been:

Transparency sells and sells itself.

Any retailer or Business owner, who needs a helping hand to scale their business or relook their business from fresh perspectives may reach out to me at?[email protected]

Grab a copy of my new book, “How to be a shark salesman”.

Now published across eCommerce platforms.

for purchase from Amazon. ae,?click here.