It’s a well-known fact that retaining customers is far better for business that obtaining new customers through paid and organic reach methods, however there will be cases where loyal customers decide to stop working with you for one reason or another.
The reasoning behind the customer’s choice to leave can be nearly anything, making the process of re-engaging past customers tricky for some. Sometimes they no longer have a need for the product or service you are offering, and other times they have simply forgotten their need for your product or service.
In today’s eCommerce world, attention plays a massive role in the success of business, as the idea of “going viral” has a lot to offer online stores looking for expansion. The issue with “going viral” is the often short-term effects of the phenomena. When companies see extreme popularity for one reason or another, it’s common for many customers to forget why they shopped with that company in the first place, as they move on to another trend.
That being said, not all disengaged customers are lost forever, and there are some basic ways you can remind them of why they should work with your company:
- Use whichever methods are preferred by your customers for reach. If you noticed great success from social media marketing, use whichever platforms were most successful to reach your customers. If one ad campaign was far more successful than another, implement the same basic idea into a new ad campaign.
- Take your knowledge of the customer and apply it to your campaigns. This can be done by recognizing what your customer purchased in the past, and use this as leverage to show them which of your other products they may be interested in.
- Stay consistent with your offers through each of your channels.
- Take note of when your customers are showing the most engagement, and use this information to target your audience at the right time.
The basic idea behind re-engaging customers is understanding what customers want from your business, why they want it, where they see your promotions and ads, and at what time they are most engaged with each of your channels.
One of the best examples of customer re-engagement in action is made by Amazon, one of the world’s most successful eCommerce businesses. Amazon has many great marketing and business tactics going for it, but perhaps the most revolutionary of which is the “Items you may be interested in” factor, which works to increase customer retention in an effective and helpful manner.
The idea of showing customers items or services similar to those they have purchased in the past is one of the most trusted ways of increasing retention and re-engaging customers. If a customer purchases a camera, it only makes sense to offer them accessories they need, such as tripods, lenses, or carrying cases.
Nearly every business can take advantage of the item recommendation strategy, making it one of the most powerful marketing tools known to the eCommerce world. Using this in combination with other methods of re-engagement, such as reaching out to customers using their favorite platforms is one of the most effective ways of retaining and re-engaging customers used today.
While lost customers can be discouraging, they can be re-engaged using the simple methods above. It’s important to always rememeber that not all customers leave because they are unhappy – many simply find themselves distracted, and forget about the value they saw in your products or services. Draw on this idea, and soon enough you’ll find more and more past customers coming back for future purchases.
