Marketing can be a tough gig. You need to be creative and able to come up with new strategies to make your services look fresh and exciting. One of the hardest parts of running a successful marketing campaign is finding the right balance between generating leads and retaining loyal customers. After all, both are important components that make any business successful, and neither should be neglected.
It’s about Finding the Middle Ground
The popularity of inbound marketing represents a paradigm shift in how we market goods and services. It requires is to be interesting and informative in order to make potential customers come to us. With inbound marketing strategies four times more likely to succeed over traditional marketing campaigns, the success of this style of marketing can’t be disputed.
There’s no question that inbound marketing and lead generation are important parts of running a successful campaign. New customers are important for ensuring companies grow and prosper. With that said, one shouldn't make the mistake of neglecting a loyal customer base due to focusing too heavily on lead generation.
Here are three important things to consider when creating a successful marketing strategy:
- Loyal customers are happy customers, and happy customers promote you to their friends and family.
- The 80-20 rule: roughly 80 percent of your revenue is generated by 20 percent of your customer base, so treat your dedicated customers well.
- Success leans in favor of loyal customers. Acquiring a new customer is much more difficult than selling to an existing customer.
Making Inbound Marketing Work for You
Lead generation should be done with the primary goal of creating a new generation of loyal customers who’re happy with what you have to offer. What this means is that you should always be working on a strategy to retain customers, new and old, so that they stick around. Here are some ways that you can achieve this:
1. Educational mailing lists
Don’t leave your new customers in the dark. Send them introduction packets and scheduled emails that help them learn how to get the most out of your goods and services. It can be something as simple as tips of the day or reassuring them that you’re a notch above the competitors.
2. Customer interaction
Customers want a platform to know that their voices are being heard, so give them one. Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are all excellent ways to communicate with your customers. One of the biggest ways to keep loyal customers happy is by providing excellent customer service. Make sure that you take their input and concerns seriously, respond to messages in a timely manner, and try your hardest to resolve any issues that arise.
3. Provide incentives
These days it’s nearly impossible to go to a retail store and not have someone ask you to sign up for a rewards program. Sometimes it’s frustrating that you can’t even buy a t-shirt without someone asking for your phone number or email address. However, these things exist for one reason – rewards work.
You shouldn’t try to force a customer loyalty card onto someone that doesn’t want one, but rewarding long-term customers is never a bad thing. Let your loyal customers know you appreciate their business by giving them discounts, promo codes, or free items from time-to-time. They’ll appreciate it.
Acknowledge Your Customers
Striking that perfect balance between attracting new customers and keeping the ones you have doesn’t have to be hard. By recognizing the important role that existing customers play, you’ve already taken the first step towards reaching this goal. The secret to running a successful lead generating campaign and building customer loyalty simultaneously is to reach out to your existing customers and acknowledge and appreciate their dedication to your company.