Customer Retention Strategies and Why You Need Them

Although a company should be focused on always bringing in new customers, the most support comes from repeat customers. Customers who keep coming back are worth a lot more than a customer that only buys your product or service once and never returns.

This is why customer retention is very important for any company and why you should put a lot of value on customer loyalty. 

Customer retention strategies — which should be part of all digital marketing strategies — can help you keep your satisfied customers and ensure that they’ll continue to support your company.

But as is the case with all B2B marketing efforts, customer retention is not as easy to pull off as you’d hope. There’s a lot of planning that goes into customer retention, and this article aims to guide you on this journey.

What Is a Customer Retention Strategy?

Customer retention is the result of hard work and dedication to keeping customers happy. It is the act of making customers want to stay loyal and deterring them from supporting your competition.

Customer retention is a lot more affordable in terms of B2B marketing, though it’s hard to say just how much cheaper this strategy is because of how different every company and every campaign is.

To achieve customer retention, you will implement strategies and come up with ideas to make your customers want to remain loyal, such as rewards and discounts. You’ll also measure customer loyalty to determine how successful your efforts are.

There are many different tactics you can use for B2B customer retention, all of them successful for their own reasons. It is a good idea to experiment with the different strategies to find what works best for your company and your customers.

B2B Customer Retention Strategy

Here are some of the best customer retention strategies for B2B businesses. Choose the ones you like best, or use them all!

1. Solve Multiple Customer Problems

One of the best ways to get customers to come back is by continuously solving their problems. Offer your customers ways to make their lives better or get rid of their pain points, and they’ll support you again.

A VPN subscription is an example of solving multiple customer problems continuously. Subscribers are protected while they’re online, and they get to watch content that would otherwise be unavailable in their regions. These problems are solved continuously, and customers keep returning because they’re satisfied.

2. Bundle New Products With Your Existing Offerings

Another way to get your customers to return is by giving them more than they expected at first. Give your loyal customers access to new features or products along with what they’re currently buying.

This is a great way to test new products while also making your customers feel like they’re being treated to something extra. Of course, you should be certain that the new products are something your customers will actually want, or they’ll feel like you’re being too gimmicky.

3. Offer Insights That Prompt Engagement

Communicating with customers is a vital part of B2B marketing, and if you can truly connect with your customers, they’ll become a lot more loyal. Learn from your customers why they’re happy or unhappy with your offering, and use that information to keep them satisfied in the future.

Having strong, long-term relationships with your customers will make them feel valued, and that is something that customers demand these days. If they don’t feel like they matter to your company, they won’t hesitate to support a competitor that does.

4. Offer Proof of Performance

You can build trust between you and your customers by proving to them that you can back up the claims you make in advertising. Build trust with social proof, and you’ll have customers who want to publicly and loudly support you.

Share customer stories, testimonials, reviews, and case studies with your audience so they can see what they’re getting into. Also, many customers really like the idea of brands using their experiences and are eager to share their opinions — use that to your advantage.

Why Is Customer Retention Marketing Important?

Customer retention plays a big role in many digital marketing strategies and should be the foundation of any B2B marketing campaign, even if just because of how much more affordable it is.

Here are some of the main reasons why you need to focus more on customer retention when planning your future strategies:

1. Lower Marketing Costs

Prioritizing your current customers can lower your marketing budget. For example, advertising to your existing customers costs about $7, while advertising to new customers can cost up to $35.

2. Repeat Purchases = Repeat Profit

When you’ve got loyal customers who want to support you, again and again, you’re making money from them again and again. Regular customers will spend up to 33% more, which means you’ve got yourself a higher customer lifetime value. Also, repeat customers are more likely to try out new products or services because there is some established trust between you.

3. Word-Of-Mouth Advertising For Free

B2B marketing and advertising are expensive, there are no two ways about it. But if you’ve got a loyal group of repeat customers, you also have access to free marketing in the form of word-of-mouth.

Often, word-of-mouth advertising can be even better than any paid advertising strategies you can come up with, because people trust what their peers say. Loyal customers won’t hesitate to recommend your business, so it’s a good idea to keep yours happy at all times.

4. Valuable Feedback

When you have a good relationship with your customers, you can ask them for their honest feedback, and there are few things as valuable as feedback. Learning from your current customers and their experiences will help you keep all your future customers happy as well.

5. Previous Customers Are Willing To Pay Premium Prices

Customers who already know and trust your brand won’t mind paying more for the products or services they want. Repeat customers don’t care as much about prices because they’ve learned to appreciate what you offer.

Talk to GoingClear about your B2B Customer Retention Strategies!

Now that you know the importance of customer retention, it’s time to start planning how you will keep your customers coming back for more. If you need help with your customer retention planning, the team at GoingClear can be of assistance. We have experience and knowledge of story-based marketing that will help you find effective ways of connecting with your audience and make them want to support you long-term. Call us now to get started!