Top 5 Ways to Improve Customer Loyalty with Digital Marketing

The key is to get people to come back and re-use your services. In the same way digital marketing can help you get to the top and attract new prospects, it can keep them coming back, too – and here’s how.

Why customer loyalty is important

If your main KPI is to grow, you might assume that gaining new customers is all it takes, but this isn’t the case. Acquiring new customers typically costs more money than retaining existing ones, and new customers also don’t tend to spend as much. They’ll likely make a smaller purchase to test the waters, whereas an existing customer who is familiar with your business and trusts you will be more inclined to spend more. With existing customers costing less to maintain and spending more money overall, it’s easy to see how they are fundamental to growth.

Businesses that focus on making lots of money in a short amount of time don’t tend to survive very long. This is why a good digital marketing strategy focuses on both quick wins and long-term sustainability. For example, a killer PPC campaign can entice new customers and kickstart a revenue spurt that can be reinvested later on, whilst an ongoing organic SEO strategy that utilises technical SEO and content marketing – aided by social media – will work towards fulfilling long-term goals and commitments. If the quick win or pure-chance strategy stops working because a trend has faded or someone else has come along and taken your traffic, you can rely on your long-term digital marketing to pull you through.

Essentially, as the saying goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. New customers are nice and all, but churn is costly, so customer loyalty is paramount to fulfilling any and every KPI you have.

How is customer loyalty measured?

Before we deep dive into how to improve your customer retention with digital marketing, let’s first look at how you can measure the progress once the results start sifting in. After all, it’s no good having all the data and not knowing how to read it.

• Lifetime value (LTV): You can identify loyal customers by how much they spend. Loyal customers tend to spend more over time, so measuring LTV is a good place to start. To do this, multiply the average order value (AOV) by purchase frequency to get the overall customer value. Then, multiple the customer value by the average store lifetime (how long customers tend to stay with you before dropping off). 
• Customer churn rate (CCR): This identifies how many customers you’re losing. The higher your CCR, the less loyal customers you have. To get your CCR, calculate how many customers you have at the end of a set time period, deduct the number of new customers from that, and divide this new number by how many customers you had at the start of the set time period. Multiple by 100% to get a percentage value. 
• Referral tracking: If you have a referral programme going on where you give existing customers a discount if they get a friend or family member to sign up/make a purchase, you can use the referral information to determine customer loyalty. If you have a high number of referrals, people are talking about your business and spreading the word, indicating they’re loyal.

5 ways to improve customer retention with digital marketing

Now into the good stuff. Here are some of the ways you can use digital marketing tools and strategies to not just attract new customers, but keep them, too. 

• Use social media marketing

If there’s one place where your customers are, it’s social media. This is where people go to unwind, connect with friends, but also scope out businesses, and this is also where you can start to connect with your customers. Respond to comments, ask their opinion on things, reply to messages, and address all feedback you get to enhance trust in your brand and improve loyalty. 

• Utilise email marketing 

No, email marketing isn’t dead. In fact, it’s one of the key drivers of customer loyalty. A lot of customer retention is built into consistent contact, and email is a great way to do this. Whether you send a reminder about items sitting in an abandoned trolley, customer-only deals and discounts, or to provide advice and news on what’s new with your business and how it benefits them – there are endless ways to use email marketing to improve retention and loyalty. 

• Publish content 

Organic, well-thought-out content doesn’t just get you to the top of Google; it helps you pull customers back in. There are a few reasons for this, and many will depend on your sector. If you offer a high-ticket product or service, your customers will care a lot about your credibility and knowledge before investing, but also afterwards if they’re to keep coming back. You may find that your customers look to you as an expert and a beacon of knowledge, and this alone can be enough to get them to stay with you. 

High-performing organic content, like in-depth landing pages, coherent FAQs, and good blogs/articles, all go a long way to building authority with Google, but also with your customers. If you can prove that you know your stuff, they’ll return. 

• Get reviews 

The importance of customer reviews cannot be overstated enough. They help to bring in new traffic and push leads into conversions, but they can also help you to keep your clients. How? Customers frequently check reviews. If it’s been a while since they last purchased something, they might be inclined to make sure you’re still providing the same level of service as before. We’ve all experienced times where a company we liked did something we didn’t like or went downhill over time, and reviews help us to decipher when this happens. 

Also, just because a customer has a bad experience, it doesn’t mean they won’t repeat business with you. If you can demonstrate that you are reactive to feedback, quick to resolve issues, and understanding in how you approach issues, they might give you another chance. With this in mind, incorporate review generation into your strategy and make sure you respond to every single one. 

People like to be made to feel special, so replying to the good reviews can also work well. 

• Optimise your website 

A customer could have a great experience with you and love your product or service, but if they hate your website, they might not return. No one likes slow load speeds, inaccessible webpages, hard-to-navigate menus, and a bloated customer journey.

If you’re finding you have a lot of new customers but few are coming back, and you’ve not received any feedback regarding the quality of your offering, the issue could lie with your website. Make sure your website is fast, accessible, has clear CTAs, is streamlined for ease of use, and looks good. Also factor in mobile optimisation for cross-platform cohesion.

Final thoughts

Digital marketing is far reaching and there are a lot of wheels in motion at the same time. If you’re unsure where to start with your digital marketing strategy but know you want to improve your customer retention, speak to us today to find out more about how we can help you get new customers and keep them.