Grow A Loyal Customer Base That Loves Buying From You
Promoting your online store is kind of like growing flowers.
You prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water your buds, and voila! You’ve got a beautiful blooming garden.
The same goes for attracting the right customers: you acquire them, nurture them, and then reap the rewards of your hard work.
You may have come across this strategy before as increasing customer lifetime value. We like to call it attracting a bunch of brilliant customers who love buying your stuff. But that’s just our vibe 🙂
So, you might be wondering: this all sounds great, but how do you get these amazing people to find (and fall in love with) your online store?
Do these 4 things and you’ll be on your way to growing that loyal customer base in no time.
1. Nail your online advertising strategy
The most effective way to make sure you’ve got a bunch of brilliant customers in your email list, is to advertise to the right people, right from the start.
Sounds like a no-brainer?
It totally is.
Unfortunately, many brands cast their net too wide and end up with more passive aggressive UNSUBSCRIBE IMMEDIATELY-types on their email list, rather than customers who drop them a line just to thank them for existing.
Want more of the latter kind of customer?
Simple trick: Do most (or all) of your advertising through Facebook and Insta. Thanks to the crazy detailed targeting options on these platforms, brands can nitpick exactly what type of customer they want to reach.
Pretty cool, right?
What’s even cooler: with the Lookalike Audiences targeting option, Facebook will find those ideal customers on your behalf, based on existing repeat buyers from your store. WIN!
2. Create an unforgettable customer experience
Okay, now that you’ve got those ideal customers, you need to keep ‘em.
For that to happen, your online store’s customer service experience needs to be absolutely FLAWLESS.
According to a consumer study by Temkin Group, 86% of people who received a great customer experience said they were likely to buy from that brand again. Of those who received a poor experience, just 13% said they would repurchase.
That’s a huge difference.
Bear in mind, great customer experience begins from the moment your ad first pops into people’s news feeds, and continues all the way through to the checkout process, thank you emails, request for feedback…
… you get the gist. Great customer experience takes dedication, so make every interaction count.
3. Personalise everything (and then some)
Some people say that talking to your plants helps them grow faster.
We can’t really weigh in on that (you do you), but this is excellent advice when it comes to nurturing your customers.
In other words: talk to your customers like the awesome human beings that they are.
It starts from the basic stuff, like personalising emails (It’s Hi Sarah, not Dear Customer), to more advanced things like segmenting your audience according to what they’ve bought and when…
… so that every communication they receive feels like it’s meant for them.
Focus on the person who’s buying from you – not the product you’re selling.
Every now and then, remind your customers that this isn’t just a one-way thing you’ve got going on.
For example: Why not encourage them to reply to your emails with their feedback or thoughts on a new product range?
4. Keep the spark alive
Because loyal customers look forward to hearing about the cool things you’re making for them, make sure you’re delivering the goods. (Both literally and figuratively speaking).
That means updating your store’s inventory on a regular basis.
But even if you don’t have anything new to promote, keep your customers in the loop about products they might be interested in, based on what they’ve bought previously.
How should you go about doing that?
Look no further than Facebook ads and automated email campaigns.
They’re pretty much the best way to up-sell and cross-sell products to people you know are also interested in your stuff. (We’re written about this before – check it out [include link to AOV article).
5. Give customer loyalty programmes a shot (even if you hate the idea)
Customer loyalty programmes often get a bad rap.
Maybe it’s the memories of that flimsy cardboard card that you’d slide in the back pocket of your jeans, only to forget about it until you retrieved your clothes from the washing machine and…. Yikes.
But it’s not because customer loyalty programmes sound kind of uncool that they don’t work.
FACT: they can be a great way to reward your best customers and thank them for sticking around.
You don’t have to call it a loyalty programme if you don’t want to.
Just incorporate the strategy into your email marketing campaigns or your Facebook ads.
Give away product samples of new products to your VIPs, or exclusive, customer-only discounts that always make everybody feel special.
To wrap up…
Alright, this is how you attract a bunch of brilliant customers who love buying your stuff.
Choose your people carefully, then focus on growing that loyal customer base, instead of spreading a bunch of seeds you’ll constantly have to replant.
When you put all your energy into building these relationships, you’ll reap the rewards of a profitable online store + an epic brand loved by many.
Think you need a hand with all this? Let’s chat! Just drop us a line, or give us a call. We’re all ears.
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