How To Turn Potential Prospects into Brand Advocates
The way is a bit longer but not unreal — thanks to the power of customer lifecycle marketing. Here are tips on how to make it real faster.
Jim was having breakfast and looking over the daily news on his tablet when he accidentally came across your online store. He thought to himself, ‘What a coincidence, I was just thinking about buying these!’ But as he finished his breakfast and walked out the door to head to work there wasn’t time to do a more in depth search. In the world of eCommerce Jim’s story represents the first milestone of a customer’s relationship with an online store: the Customer Lifecycle. But what this lifecycle looks like and how well it works for you depends on how much time and effort you put into understanding its dynamics.
Customer Lifecycle Marketing (CLM) is a marketing strategy based on a given customer’s behaviour from the moment they see your brand to the final step of engaging with it in order to purchase a product.
The goal of this strategy is to develop loyal long-lasting relationships with buyers, and in the best scenario these are sort of the customers who become Brand Advocates. We all know that loyal customers buy more frequently and spend much more (60%) per transaction. But did you also know that 80% of all purchases involve some form of word-of-mouth recommendation? As a result, Brand Advocates play an integral role in the marketing activities of any online store.
What Are The Main Customer Lifecycle Stages?
1. Prospects
Who: Somebody who visits your online store or signs up for the newsletter, but hasn’t committed to making a purchase yet.
Risk: Failing to appeal to them in which case you may lose a potential customer — and while this is quite common, your goal should be to lower the number of “lost souls” to a minimum.
Goal: Encourage them to make a purchase.
Tips On How To Achieve The Goal Using CLM:
- Try remarketing campaigns by using Facebook or Google AdWords. Be wary of overusing them as this can easily put off future buyers, especially if they’re not specific or feel too generalized. These campaigns must be clever and well targeted.
- Offer a limited time discount for signing-up to the newsletter — encourage them to stay updated with your campaigns and product releases, and use this as a platform to encourage them to make that first purchase.
- Send a welcome email, ask for preferences, or offer free samples and trials. However, be aware of pretending you know your customers when you lack information on their spending habits, as this can be dangerous and dissolve that hard-earned trust you’re trying to build with them.
2. One-Purchase Buyer
Who: Somebody who made their first purchase. This is a very important interaction that gives you the opportunity to initiate a long-lasting relationship. How it will evolve is in your (or in your marketing team’s) hands. Remember, the kind of experience your customer has right off the bat will shape the relationship going forward.
Risk: Stagnation — this may involve your customer making an initial purchase and then disappearing or losing interest.
Goal: To turn them into repeat buyers.
Tips On How To Achieve The Goal by using CLM:
- Try using extended offers or discounts as a “thank you” for their first purchase.
- Create personalised newsletters with catchy subject lines. Now that you know a bit about their buying preferences, you can be more specific and personalize your interactions with customers. Struggling to craft creative and enticing emails? We’ve got you covered.
- Facebook Advertising has become an essential part of any marketing strategy, and is simply a consequence of living in the era of social media. Facebook is still the most popular network with 1.79 billion monthly active users, so why not to try Facebook Ads? Don’t overload your customers, but target their interests and use your data to make informed decisions about how to best connect with them. To find out more click here.
3. Active Buyer
Who: Somebody who has made more than one purchase and who can be expected to engage in repeated purchase behavior in the future.
Risk: That will become less active and turn into an “At Risk Buyer”.
Goal: Take the relationship further and encourage your loyal customer to become a Brand Advocate.
Tips On How To Achieve The Goal by using CLM:
- Cross-Sell — now when you know what your customers are interested in, try to offer them related products or product bundles for a special price.
- Loyalty Program — make your customers feel that they belong in your community and reward them for their purchasing behaviours. The more energy you spend on them the more they’ll get the impression you are trying to meet their needs every step of the way, and they’ll be more willing to spend money.
- Ask for a review — when you are sure your Active Buyer loves your brand, you can be more courageous and ask for a review. Nowadays, good reviews are essential for your online business and having a good ‘social proof’ behind your brand goes a long way towards drawing in new customers!
4. At Risk Buyer
Who: Somebody whose frequency of purchases is decreasing based on average purchase behavior.
Risks: You will lose them either as a prospective or returning customer.
Goal: Engage with them in a way that encourages them to return.
Tips On How To Achieve The Goal by using CLM:
- Use social media as a way to bolster social proof. Again, you can use Facebook Ads, or arouse interest in your products by including advertising with attractive pictures and graphics via Instagram. If you’re still not sure what SM is suitable for you, take a look at this well-arranged infographic to get some ideas.
- Give them a reason to come back. Try to reactivate your buyers by offering limited time discounts, and show them something new and exciting they might be interested in: anything from related products to collections. Develop special product bundles according to their preferences and make them feel like they’re being heard.
- Engage their interests through personalised newsletters that capture their demographic — and be sure to refer to your own numbers and research about which products and trends appeal to them.
5. Brand Advocate
Who: Somebody who is buying frequently, loves your brand, organically promotes it, and has demonstrated loyalty to your product.
Risks: Keeping a consistently good relationship with them as your Brand Advocate or disappointing them by offering poor services, whether it be through inappropriate communication, misunderstandings, or a decrease in product quality.
Goal: Maintaining this relationship at all costs.
Tips On How To Achieve The Goal by using CLM:
- Be consistent — you need to choose a philosophy which reflects your consumers’ beliefs and demonstrates to them through your overall communication that you are both on the same page. Be sure to brand all marketing efforts consistently so consumers are encouraged to keep returning to what’s comfortable and familiar.
- Provide excellent customer service — buyers will keep returning if you’re offering high-quality products and exceptional customer service. Outstanding customer service is the foundation of any eCommerce business, and will have a significant impact on your relationships with customers.
- Invest in your best customers — in the long term, it’s always worth it. They are bringing a huge value to your business so keep them motivated and show them you really care.
How To Track Your Customers’ Behavior:
To have a good CRM is crucial in managing relationships with clients. You need to have as much information as possible provided in a form that is well-arranged and easy to understand. However, you can’t only rely on the CRM system — you also need an overall analytical tool to see the results of your actions so that you’ll be able to make smart decisions.
To properly track your business performance there are a number of great analytical apps on the market, including MonkeyData. With it you can display interesting and comprehensive metrics such as the ratio of new to returning customers, information about your top customers, and much more.
Store Lab feature helps you identify amount of orders, revenue and time period of orders to each customer email.
Additionally it’s very easy to navigate and provides lot of crucial datasets necessary for making everyday business decisions so you can react quickly and accordingly to every facet of your online store.
This article is originally written by @bratova.zuzana — thank you! :)
