People don’t make purchases in a vacuum. They form
relationships with companies and come to trust them, and might continue to
patronize them even when competitors come into play. But this only happens when
they form positive associations with the company
and thus loyalty to that company and trust in its products. When enough people
connect with a company, it becomes a brand, and a brand is so much more
valuable than any individual product. Again, this comes from positive
experiences and the mental associations that come from these experiences. So
customer retention and brand value are all about these associations: creating
them, maintaining them, and strengthening them over time. Here are four things
your company needs to look at if you’re concerned with turning one-time
purchases into sustainable, lasting relationships, and building a brand that
people trust, return to, and recommend to their friends.
SEO
Search engine optimization is a buzzword for a good reason.
It refers to the methods by which companies make their websites appear on
search engines when people search for certain key words or phrases. SEO is so
important in today’s online-driven marketplace that many companies hire outside
firms to maximize their presence on SERPs (search engine results pages). There
are many paths to achieving good SEO. Some companies host blogs or articles
with keywords that potential customers often search for, in hopes of drawing
them in with a catchy headline and making a sale. Others aggressively position
themselves on certain SERPs by targeting long-tail keywords, phrases that
customers only type in when they’re ready to make a purchase. The better
optimized your brand is on search engines, the more new customers you’ll be
able to draw in, and because search engines operate according to algorithms
that place the most popular results near the top of SERPs, your SEO can become
inextricably linked with your brand’s value. The end goal is that your brand
becomes shorthand for the product you sell; with well-targeted SEO efforts,
this is an achievable way to corner the online market.
Web Design and User Experience
Good SEO will only get you so far. If you manage to maximize
your ranking for a certain long tail keyword, but your website’s interface is
poorly designed or an eyesore, you’ll have potential customers clicking the
back button and scrolling down to a competitor’s page. Investing in a good
website pays off in a multitude of ways
because it directly improves the user experience (UX in tech speak) of your
customers. Their experience using your website forms those associations we
talked about; if navigating your page and placing an order is a breeze, they’ll
return again and again and recommend your company to their friends. If the page
is confusing and ordering a product is difficult, they’ll form a negative
association, and even if they do place the order, they won’t immediately think
of your brand the next time they need your product. The customer isn’t retained
and the brand value is diminished, all because your site’s UX is lacking. Make
sure your site is targeted to the consumers you want; it doesn’t need to be
overly simplistic if you’re selling advanced drone gear, but it shouldn’t be
verbose and menu-rich if you’re hawking personalized license plates.
Email Marketing
Customer retention is tougher than it may seem. If your SEO
is on point, you’ll draw in new customers, and if your site’s design and UX is
great, they may even come back. But keeping them coming back is a task for
email marketing. And make no mistake, when executed properly, email marketing
can generate new customers just as effectively as top-notch SEO. Gathering
potential or current customers’ emails is a task in and of itself, as is
crafting messages that will garner their interest. Savvy brands craft email
campaigns that are interesting in their
own right, while also including a call to action, letting the consumer know
what’s expected of them and ideally resulting in a click and a purchase on
sight. Keeping your messages short, segmenting your email list, and timing your
messages out are all basic email marketing tips, but it’s a deceptively
versatile tool, and the more you know about it, the more effective it can be
for building your brand’s value and retaining customers.
Content Marketing
We briefly mentioned content marketing above, in reference
to companies who host blogs or articles to improve their SEO for certain
keywords. Content marketing is all about creating and sharing things that build
interest in your brand, without explicitly promoting it. Things like videos,
social media posts, and blogs can all put a customer in the frame of mind where
they’re ready to make a purchase. Running a consistently entertaining social
media account can generate interest in your product and build name recognition
of your brand, all without spending a dime on direct advertising. And content
marketing can help with customer retention, as well. If your brand is
associated in the public’s eye with well-crafted and relevant content,
customers will feel proud to buy your products and services again and again.
