Effective Tips to Increase Customer Retention for Small Business Owners

Having a good customer retention program in place enables you to identify, track and promote your customers based on loyalty. The quality of the service you rendered to customers determines the rate of retention. With the changes in the current business model, the power has entirely moved to the customer with the current market shift making the internet in control of customers. The internet gives the best business support for both sellers and buyers, and its proper utilization yields positive results. Additionally, social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have become powerful marketing tools to increase customer retention. Strategies for increasing customer retention for small business owners include:

Effective use of Email marketing

Email marketing is a very powerful way of reaching your customers without spending money. For easier email marketing, post a sign up from your homepage, Facebook page, blog to attract your potential customers. You can also do this by inviting readers to like your pages and groups with your business links on your sign up page.

Remember to send them a thank you mail and always send them the content they desire. Use segmentation when sending your mails to different categories of people. You can also send a campaign about the things you are selling to specific customers. Sending relevant content makes your readers engaged as they share threads of information about your services to other people, a factor that helps you increase customer retention

Making use of automation

The use of automation tools helps in standardization of time-consuming tasks that require manual intervention into recurrent processes. Businesses that use automation get time to focus on minimizing time wastage and instead maintain their loyal clients by providing quality services. They are bound by contracts that guarantee their services and increase accountability to their clients. Through leveraging of automation tools and streamlining of repeatable processes, you can meet your clients’ expectations. By standardizing your processes and setting up achievable expectations for your service levels, you increase customer loyalty that will increase customer retention rates.

Create an engaging content

It is essential to develop a content marketing strategy that balances between giving quality information for your existing customers while continuing to meet the interest of new customers. You can achieve this through the release of e-Books, blog articles, or webinars that provide answers to all of the customers' questions across the life cycle stages of your business. Blogs and articles related to your inbound marketing will attract new customers while an e-Book with detailed information about your products attracts and delights both old and new customers, making them more satisfied. This increases the level of customer loyalty and the retention rate. To remain relevant, you need to create your website content  writing that outshines your competitors. Let your content tell your customers what to do and how to do it.

Running relevant promotions

Running promotions is a very noble way to increase customer retention rates. Relevant pander- free promotions that reward customers make them feel good and enhance their identification with your brand. Examples of such promotions include the use of loyalty points as it encourages repeat business. Special discounts help in retaining customers and neutralize negative attributes about your business while ensuring a personal touch.

More so effective and continuous communication with your loyal customers promotes understanding and creates a warm bond between the business and the customers. Most customers prefer to do business with friendly companies. Through communication, you will know their expectations and needs, and attempt to meet these needs helps to increase customer retention and loyalty. To get more insights about customer retention, please read the eBook "20 Marketing Trends for 2013."

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