We all know as consumers that the advertising world is a noisy one.
Stepping into the role of the business owner can easily prompt you to counter this by shouting as loud as possible, to win as many customers as you can.
Not that this makes little sense. Staying competitive with relevant brand messages has never been more important, but it can also blindside us to one vital thing; keeping customers is also paramount to the success of a business.
In fact, a study in the book Marketing Metrics reported that you have a 60-70% chance of selling to a repeat customer, compared to a 5-20% chance of wrapping up a sale with a new lead. So in this blog, we ask how can you communicate with existing customers to build engagement, and develop brand loyalty.
“You have a 60-70% chance of selling to a repeat customer, compared to a 5-20% chance of wrapping up a sale with a new lead”
Marketing automation
One of the tried and tested ways to sell to both new and existing customers is through marketing automation. How about that? With one powerful approach, you’ll be hitting the mark with both prospects and converted leads.
What is marketing automation, you may ask?
Well, it’s a way of using a lead’s email address to fire through a series of communications through an automated system.
This saves you time by doing all the legwork, helps you to build those relationships, and keeps people interested.
Through simple, yet sophisticated automated systems like ConvertKit you can see how your customers really feel about you, helping you to work smarter, convert more leads into customers and more customers into ambassadors for your brand.
What marketing automation can do for you
Marketing automation has many uses beyond the headline of developing client relationships. It can help you:
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Create workflows. What do we mean by this? You can start off with a welcome email, then nurture that prospect throughout the sales funnel. This can also develop the conversations you’re already having with converted customers.
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Segment customers and communicate with them directly. So whether that’s asking them specific questions to refine your product offering or tracking loyalty with your customer base.
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Personalize your communications. From there, you can send out the right content to the right people. This enables you to stay relevant and deliver something that’s of proper use to your customers, right to their inbox.
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Identify further opportunities. By keeping lead scores for each customer, you can also find out which prospects are open to new offers, are actively engaging with you, and those who have switched off.
Think long term
The significant thing about marketing automation is that it allows you to create a long-term communication plan that’s targeted to individual customer’s needs and preferences, with minimum effort.
This will take the standard of your communications to the next level and build brand engagement.
But when you’re looking at how you speak to your customers, make sure your plan goes beyond those initial stages.
Building a relationship is one thing, continuing to make it grow and encourage brand loyalty on a long-term basis is another. The key is to continue the excellent work.
Keep asking your customers what they like, and what they don’t. Use their feedback to streamline your messaging, and don’t fall into the trap of believing that your existing customers are happy to sit tight, while you try to attract attention from the shiny new prospects.
The actual power of technology like marketing automation is in its capacity to create an ongoing content strategy that really adds value to your business.
