Without customers, your brand isn’t worth much. Most large and small business owners have been conditioned to focus almost solely on acquiring more and more customers. And sure, there’s a time and place for that. But what good is a growing customer base if you’re losing the ones you already have?

The literal and figurative cost of acquiring new customers is steep – not unlike customer acquisition marketing itself. According to Marketing Profs, taking a new customer through the sales cycle will cost you more than five times what it typically takes to make a second sale to an existing customer.

Looking to expand your profit margins in 2018? Time to deepen and nurture your current relationships. Here’s how customer retention marketing strategies can help.

Sell More, Do Less

Five happy customers who each sing your praises to one friend are worth 100 potential clients waffling in your pipeline. In this way, retention marketing helps to reframe your approach with current customers. Done right, and you’ll turn them into free marketing and sales help.

Your current customers are also likely to be more responsive to your cross-promotional marketing efforts. When they know the quality of your goods and service, they’re less likely to hesitate in the face of an upsell or price increase.

Keep your name (and excellent service) in the brain’s current customers, and you might just insulate yourself from customer attrition due to competition, too.

Retention Marketing Basics

There’s only one way to get where you want to go: start where you are.

We recommend you begin with your brand voice. The more your internal goals and external communications align, the more likely customers are to actually listen. Make them clear, make them consistent, and just like your customers, make them current. Bonus points if you have a customer support lead weigh in on crucial marketing copy. They can help you make sure your messaging is airtight.

While you’re at it, why not give your most loyal customers the floor? Whether by testimonial or social media review, make sure you’re amplifying the voices of those you’ve impressed along the way. Keep your ear to the ground for truly compelling stories, and don’t stop shy of handing them the mic. (Literally, invite them to speak at your next hosted event or a conference you’re attending.)

Of course, there are still two groups aside from your happy customers that can’t be overlooked: the unhappy ones and the competition. Lose sight of the former, and you miss a valuable opportunity to learn how to improve your processes. Ignore the latter, and you’re out a chance to plug a potential customer leak.

The more you prioritize current customers in your content marketing and social media strategies, the more you’ll recognize ways to engage, stay in touch, and reach out with new opportunities.

Ultimately, stands to reason the more time and attention you pour into your current customer base, the fuller your sales – and leaner your marketing budget – will be.

Need help crafting an out-of-this-world marketing strategy? Get us on retainer.