One of the biggest challenge businesses face is retaining customers. You can have a customer make a purchase once, but the struggle begins when you try to get them back for a repeat purchase. It costs 5 to 25 times as much to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one which is why businesses should focus more on customer retention rather than acquiring new ones.
From e-mail marketing to running a loyalty program – you have tried everything to boost customer retention but in all of this, how much are you maximizing the most popular marketing avenue – social media? If you thought social media can only be used for creating brand awareness, you are mistaken. Well, there is no business goal that social media cannot help you meet.
Looking to boost customer retention? Here are the 5 most important ways social media can help you achieve that –
Enhance Customer Service
Customer service plays a huge role in retaining customers. If you deliver a shoddy customer experience, don’t expect your customers to return because in today’s overly competitive world, no one has the time or patience to pay for average experiences. Hence, improving your customer service standards should be one of the first tactics to retain customers.
That said, why not utilize social media to enhance customer service?
Did you know that 1 in 3 social media users prefer social media customer care services to telephone or email? So, whether or not you consider social media to be your ‘official’ customer service point of contact, customers are likely to turn to it before anything else in case of concerns.
Use social media listening tools to keep a close check on what customers are saying about you and how your brand is being perceived. Use this medium to engage with your followers, address their concerns in a timely manner and provide valuable content that keeps them interested in your brand.
Collaborate with Influencers
Influencer marketing is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Love it or hate it – you surely can’t ignore it!
Influencers have a strong clout of people who listen to them and take their opinions seriously. As a brand, you must leverage that aspect as people are more likely to take note of what influencers say over branded communication.
So, do your research and reach out to influencers who are relevant to your domain and speak to a similar audience. More than basing your decision on the follower count, what is important to note is the kind of content they post and how they engage with their followers.
By having an influencer endorse your product or service, you gain credibility and the trust of millions of potential customers who follow the influencer.
Encourage User Generated Content
Word-of-mouth marketing has always been the most powerful marketing tool and in the social media world, it translates into positive testimonials and user-generated content. After all, it does not get better than having happy customers turn into your brand advocates, willingly.
User-generated content is 20% more influential than other media, giving you all the more reason to encourage such authentic, user-led content to be posted. Coming from a third person, this social proof strengthens brand loyalty and also helps generate awareness.
So, how do you encourage user-generated content? By hosting contests, showcasing such content on your social media pages, and by republishing them on your e-commerce site & POS, running a user-generated content campaign, … to name a few. If you are hosting an event, you can also include a social wall at the venue which can display user-generated content posted by the attendees in real-time. This can then be further shared on your website and social media channels.
Run Exclusive Offers
Who doesn’t love offers and discounts! Running offers exclusively for your social media fan following or running flash sales from time to time is a great way to retain customers and keep them hooked to your channels. This way, you also reward your loyalists and keep them coming back for more.
Showcase Branded and User-Generated Content
Another way to boost customer retention is by republishing branded and user-generated content where it matters most and gets maximum visibility such as corporate websites, product pages, order page, digital signages at events, offices or point of sales in physical stores.
By doing this, you boost customer retention by informing, engaging and inspiring your target audience while fetching a higher ROI. Looking for a social wall and social media aggregator? Social wall and Data SaaS solution experts, Dialogfeed can help you with your needs.
Author Bio –
Adela Belin is the Head of Digital Marketing at Writers Per Hour. She creates content surrounding marketing with a focus on social media and digital marketing. Feel free to contact Adela on LinkedIn.
