Five 'Customer Marketing' Tactics to Boost Retention and Reduce Churn
B2B marketing is about
generating leads, fueling pipeline, and growing revenue. A prospective buyer
enters the funnel, learns about your business, and eventually becomes a lead
before being passed off to the sales team to be converted into a customer.
Prospect,
lead, sale; repeat. The cycle goes on.
Growing
new business is essential, but a well-rounded marketing strategy will also need
to engage customers after the deal has closed. That's especially true for B2B
software companies, many of which follow a subscription-based business model
that relies on customer relationships to maintain growth.
Acquiring
a new customer can be up to 5x more expensive than retaining one, the
data shows. That's why building a customer marketing strategy is vital to
fueling long-term relationships for retention growth. Plus, there's additional
revenue potential in cross-selling and upselling.
Let's
explore the benefits of that approach and dive into effective tactics you can
use to kickstart your efforts.
What is customer marketing?
Customer
marketing targets the post-purchase phase of the funnel with the goal
of increasing customer retention and growing loyalty.
The idea
is that it's much easier to keep a current customer happy than it is to
convince a new prospect to buy.
Customer
marketing programs help to grow customer advocacy and build long-lasting
relationships.
What are the benefits
of customer marketing?
From
customer success to implementation and sales, many areas of a business can
benefit from customer-centric marketing support.
Provide better
customer service
Not
all of your customers are going to be happy ones, which is why businesses have
customer service teams. As a marketer, you may not be personally fielding
service requests, but you can still play a big role in improving customer
service functions.
One
of the simplest ways you can do so is to regularly monitor your company's
social media channels and online presence. People frequently take to social
media to share both positive and negative experiences with companies. Engaging
directly with your customers online to address their concerns or to thank them
for their kindness is a quick way to show them that you value their feedback.
Enable your sales team
to upsell and cross-sell
Cross-selling
and upselling contain massive revenue potential. The two tactics are similar,
and the terms are often used interchangeably by mistake, so let's define them:
- Upselling refers to the practice of
selling an enhanced or upgraded version of the purchased product to a
customer, thus increasing the buyer's overall spend.
- Cross-selling is the sales technique of
selling a related product or service to a current customer.
Create
targeted marketing materials that highlight new product features or offerings
and educate customers on the added value of those features or products. That
could be as simple as filming an informational webinar or as complex as
building out a separate microsite to highlight the new offering.
Encourage
your sales team to use those materials during the renewal process to fuel both
upselling and cross-selling.
Reduce customer churn
A
high churn rate can be catastrophic for a business. Closing new deals is great,
but if you're not able to keep your customers long-term you're dealing a blow
to revenue and growth goals.
A
critical function of customer marketing is to foster engagement and loyalty
among your customer base. The more programs you have in place to regularly
interact with your customers, the better position you will be in to gauge their
overall satisfaction with your business and prevent churn.
Use these five
easy-to-implement customer marketing tactics
1. Create personalized
onboarding materials
The
period after a customer first signs on is critical to establishing a foundation
for a long-lasting relationship.
A
simple way to make your new customers feel appreciated is to personalize
onboarding materials that are easy to replicate for each new customer. It can
be as simple as a custom slide deck featuring the customer's logo or a small
welcome gift that shows your appreciation.
2. Feature customers
in case studies and testimonials
Your
happiest customers are your best advocates. Featuring testimonials alongside
long-form case studies on your website is a powerful way to both engage with
your customers and create content to help the sales team close more deals.
It
may feel daunting to ask your customers to participate in a case study or to
leave a testimonial, but as long as you plan ahead and respect everyone's time,
your customers should be more than willing to lend their voice.
3. Launch a referral
program
A referral
program is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that gives your customers an
incentive to share your offering with their peers. Referral programs are a
popular marketing tactic among B2C companies, but they can be just as effective
for a B2B audience if executed correctly.
For
B2B organizations, the buying process is typically much longer than it is for
consumers, so it's important to keep in mind that referrals aren't going to get
you hundreds of customers overnight. However, a referral program can generate
qualified leads, especially if you offer a free trial or discount for new
customers.
4. Create a
customer-focused webinar
Webinars
are a useful tool for creating customer-centric content. They can be
interactive or simply educational, depending on your intent.
You
can approach webinar creation in various ways:
- Product-based webinar: Educate customers on
updates to your product or service and share tips on how to use them.
- Case study webinar: Highlight a recent
customer success story.
- Q&A or round table
discussion: Take
a comarketing opportunity to partner with a customer and another business
to discuss a certain topic related to your industry.
5. Use third-party
review platforms
In
the same way consumers seek out reviews prior to booking a hotel reservation,
B2B buyers conduct online research and expect to see social proof before making
a purchasing decision. The research happens before the buyer even speaks to a
member of your sales team, so use the voice of your customers and put a proper
review strategy in place.
Encourage
your customers to leave reviews on third-party directories to share their
honest opinions. Buyers seek out reviews on third-party platforms because
they're considered less biased than the case studies and testimonials on your
own site.
Your
customers will be happy to know their feedback is valued, and their reviews
will help your business look better online.
Customer
retention doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of the marketing team: It's a
group effort that requires every team to work together to ensure all
customer-facing processes are streamlined to provide a world-class customer
experience.
That
said, it's critical for marketers in particular to look at the funnel through a
customer-centric lens and pay more attention to the post-purchase phase. Doing
so will ensure that your customers are armed with the resources they need to be
successful and to sign on the dotted line—year after year.
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