If you’ve been in the Ecommerce game for any amount of time, or any other business industry for that matter, you probably know that the future of brand growth and prosperity depends on your ability to generate repeat customers.
Customer retention and loyalty are the keywords you’re looking for here, and aside from creating an approachable brand that will stand out from the competition, there are other ways to maximize the lifetime value of a customer.
Increasing the CLV for every buyer means investing in the development of every existing customer through various interesting marketing and sales methods to get them to trust your brand, but more importantly, make your brand an inextricable part of their lives.
Doing this will allow you to ensure long-term financial gain, instead of trying to compensate for high customer turnover – which we all know is a costly process. With all of that in mind, let’s get to it!
Prioritize user-generated content
How does a brand show social proof, and what does it stand to gain in doing so? Firstly, a brand shows social proof through online reviews, and user-generated content in general.
And secondly, it stands to gain awareness and reputation, and establish a trusting relationship with existing and potential customers that will inspire them to keep coming back for more. In short, it stands to generate long-term value for the brand.
By putting your customers in the spotlight, you’re effectively shifting the focus of your marketing strategy from your content and products over to the opinions of your customers, which will greatly improve your trustworthiness in the competitive industry.
This gives you the unique opportunity to engage with the individual, and use their voice and feedback to motivate and inspire others to believe in your brand. Ultimately, this will lead to more repeat business.
Listen to and act on customer advice and feedback
Speaking of feedback, it’s important that you know how to listen to your customers, how to extract valuable data from their feedback, and how to utilize it to keep loyal brand followers at your side throughout the years.
Doing this will help you attract new customers as well, because news of innovation and change travels far and wide.
With that in mind, you’ll need to tend to careful media monitoring in order to discover the pain-points your customers are experiencing, and identify the opportunities for improving the CLV.
For example, if you discover that the UX on your site is diminishing and that people are complaining about its design, don’t wait around, but rather work with your developers to bring user experience up as quickly as possible.
Do the same for every issue that comes to light, and you will have an easier time retaining loyal customers and boosting sales.
Create a customer success team to boost CLV
Another effective method of boosting sales over time though increased CLV is to create a customer success team.
In essence, this means you need to bring in or outsource highly-skilled and trained professionals who specialize in maximizing customer retention by engaging with customers on a regular basis, encouraging upselling and cross-selling, and working on CLV through communication and brand-customer relationship development.
Whether you have dedicated sales professionals or if you’re using your online presentation as a primary tool for sales, you still need to create a team of professionals that will work solely on building repeat business and improving brand loyalty.
For example, you can use your in-house sales team to acquire new customers, and outsource CLV management to a special task force to nurture them until they become loyal brand members.
Boost WOM by upgrading loyal customers
To unlock the lifetime value potential of certain customers, you will need to create valuable incentives.
Typically, this means coming up with promotions and deals, and also giving out stuff for free to those prominent customers that regularly engage with your brand.
If you have a multi-level service, then go ahead and upgrade your most valuable customers at no cost to show them how much you appreciate their business.
Remember, not appreciating your customers is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, so doing this will inspire them to spend more in the future. And it will definitely prevent them from abandoning you when the competition tries to poach them.
Reach out to old and potential customers
Last but not least, managers and business leaders trying to improve CLV tend to focus solely on their existing customers, or the leads they are about to convert.
Yet, there is a lot of potential for brand growth and increased CLV down the line in another demographic – your “near misses”.
The people that have abandoned their carts, the people who no longer open your emails, the people who follow your on social media yet never interact with your brand, these are the people you can approach with a good remarketing strategy and convert into loyal brand members.
In turn, this will skyrocket your average customer value and propel your brand forward as a whole, so don’t forget about these lucrative prospects.
Final thoughts
Customer lifetime value is one of the most important metrics every business leader should focus on.
It gives you the opportunity to shift the focus from costly customer acquisition to long-term brand growth through repeat business, so be sure to use these tips to shape your CLV strategy in order to build a successful future in your field.
Michael is the founder of Home Giraffe Digital Marketing. With over 12 years of experience in the SEO, AdWords & Marketing sector, he has built up a wealth of knowledge and skill in the industry over the years.