The crazy BFCM days might be over, but your hard work isn’t. Now it’s time to turn your BFCM shoppers into long-term, recurring customers.
Did you know that for up to 64% of online stores, the LTV (lifetime value) of customers acquired during the Black Friday Cyber Monday period is significantly lower than during the rest of the year?
The reason: the shoppers you get usually find your store because of the crazy discounts, and because they were already actively looking for great deals, often regardless of the brand.
And while BFCM might have brought in a great sum of revenue, you most likely want to keep making money during the rest of the year too.
Don’t waste all the hard work that you put into attracting new customers for Black Friday – Cyber Monday. During this post-BFCM period, you can focus your efforts on turning them into recurring buyers.
According to research, increasing your customer retention by just 5% can result in a 25-95% increase in your profits. This is because we’re more likely to purchase from brands that we’re already familiar with and had a good experience with, and when we’re happy with a brand, we’ll start telling our friends about them too.
But with all the noise and thousands of exclusive offers pulling people’s attention to a million directions during BFCM, you can barely expect your new buyers to remember your store.
In this article, we collected 4 steps you can take right now to keep your shoppers interested in your brand and encourage them to keep buying from you. With these strategies, you can engage new customers and increase their LTV, even if their original purchase was simply discount-driven.
1. Get More Personal In Your Follow-Ups
Most Black Friday transactions go like this: shoppers start getting BFCM discounts from left, right, and center. They see products they want, at a lower price than on any other way, so they purchase them. And then they click on the next offer. And the next one…
But once the BFCM fever is over and you can get more of people’s attention again, you need to add some soul into these transactions.
Start with a Thank you message: a proper one, not just a “Thank you for your purchase” one-liner that they already received moments after their purchase.
In the Thank you message, you can ask about the product they purchased. Ask your customers how they like the product, whether they’ve had the chance to use it, and share a link to your FAQ, knowledge base articles, and the contact details of your customer support department in case they have any questions or issues. This shows customers that you care about them, which will improve your customer experience, and consequently, your revenue!
Turns out, 73% of customers stay loyal to you because of the great customer experience.
As a token of appreciation, incentivize your list to purchase from you again by offering a small discount code.
2. Encourage Reviews and Referrals
Those that interact with your Thank you message tend to be more open to leaving reviews and recommending your products to their friends.
Send a follow-up message asking your clients if they’re still satisfied with your service, and if so, get them to leave a review.
To make it easy, leave a link and clear instructions on how shoppers can do that, and offer a coupon code in exchange.
If you’ve been selling online for a while, you probably already noticed the power of customer reviews on your products. In exchange for a small investment, you can increase your visitors’ trust and convince them easier to purchase from you.
The same goes for referral programs and affiliate programs.
As we mentioned before, happy customers are excited to talk about their purchases with their family and friends, and if they get something in return for their recommendation, the better!
This could be a coupon code, a small gift, or a certain percentage of the sale.
And is it worth the investment?
Think about the last time your best friend was really excited about her new phone, or your mom wouldn’t stop complimenting her new rice cooker. Chances are, you turned to them for advice the next time you needed a similar item.
You can be the most skilled marketing expert in the world, but close friends will still do a better job at influencing your ideal customer’s purchase decisions.
3. Share Valuable Content
I know you’re excited to turn as many clicks to dollars as possible, but hear me out: don’t limit yourself to only promotional and transactional messages.
We’re talking about turning your one-time shoppers into loyal fans, not just making a quick buck.
If all you send is promotional content, your subscribers get the impression that you don’t really care about them – you only care about making money. In 2021, this is a turn-off for most customers.
Send content to your subscribers in between promotions that give more value to them than to you.
One of our favorite ways to do that is by sending in-depth, informative, educational blog posts (like, how to turn BFCM shoppers into long-term loyal fans 😉 ).
Let’s say you sold yoga mats during BFCM. Why not share an article on the best restorative yoga poses or Top 4 tips to clean your yoga mat without chemicals?
Sold kitchen equipment? Send a guide on healthy breakfast ideas that you can prepare in under 10 minutes. You get the idea.
When you give value, your subscribers feel more valued, appreciated, and are more likely to remember your brand and stay loyal to it the next time they want to make a purchase.
4. Turn Shoppers Into SMS Subscribers
Look, email is great. But during a high-paced promotional season, it’s easy for your emails to get lost in your subscribers’ inbox.
Instead, find your shoppers with your promotions through their phones, in their SMS inbox!
SMS is a more direct, compact way of communication with an incredibly high (nearly 100%! ) open rate and up to 30% click rate. These numbers are simply too ambitious for email marketing. Besides, SMS encourages two-way communication: it takes seconds to reply to a text message!
To turn your next campaign into a bigger success, get your existing leads to join your SMS list.
How?
Send an email or reach out through Messenger to those who purchased from you during BFCM. Offer a discount or coupon code (e.g 40%) and reveal the code only if they give you their phone numbers. Then, you can send the coupon code via text message.
If you’re interested in how Recart handles SMS marketing, technology and fees, book a free demo here.
5. Personalize CX With Segments
Once you added your BFCM customers to your list, you will be able to create multiple segmentations, based on the shopper’s activity and history.
For example, you can create a sub-list for only those subscribers whose last order value was above $1,000 (or any amount you choose), and then target only these customers with your high-ticket items.
Or maybe, you target those who left items in their cart during the BFCM weekend. If they were interested in those products, maybe they’ll still want them during your Christmas sale.
You can also segment your list based on location: after all, those from Canada might be interested in different products than those from the US.
You have endless options.
The more specific the segment, the more likely you are to succeed with your personalized offer.
You end up spending less money on the number of SMSes sent, while achieving a higher CTR and ROI. Win-win!
6. Give Recurring Customers a Special Discount on Your Upcoming Deals
Reward your BFCM customers for their loyalty!
Instead of offering them the same deal as everyone else, give them a better deal (for example a higher percentage, free shipping, or a gift).
Make sure to let them know why they’re getting a better deal so that your customers know that their loyalty is rewarded.
With Christmas and the New Year so close to BFCM, your happy customers still have a vivid memory of your service, but enough time passes between the two holidays for them to consider shopping again.
As we mentioned before, recurring customers tend to spend three times more than new customers, therefore even with the extra discount, you can expect a much higher ROI from your now loyal, appreciated BFCM customers.
Start Your Christmas SMS Campaigns Today!
Ready to start setting up your SMS campaigns and improve your ROI this Christmas season? Book a free demo now and take advantage of Recart’s effortless SMS service!
