Customer acquisition is a top focus for most organizations. It’s not a bad strategy, especially for startups, but this focus misses out on one critical component to long-term success. While you’re busying enticing potential consumers, you’re neglecting the ones who are already loyal to your brand.
Those loyal, or high-value, customers are the key to boosting business growth as well as your bottom line. The trick is customer value management, and it allows you to turn an already loyal customer into one that will love your brand for a lifetime. Here are four ways you can boost their lifetime value.
Getting Started
Before you can implement these tactics, you need to identify who your most valuable customers are. They fall into four main categories with each being equally as important as the next. Those are:
- Big spenders – Customers that regularly buy high ticket items
- Regulars – Customers who routinely shop with your brand regardless of dollar amount spent
- Social Sharers – Customers who advocate your brand on social media
- Feedback – Customers who willingly provide feedback and opinions
All four groups share loyalty as their common theme. Regardless of your business model or industry, learning how to build relationships with these high-value customers increases their lifetime value for your brand, ultimately increasing your bottom line and fostering massive growth potential. Follow these next four steps and you’re well on your way to making this a success.
1. Gather Your Resources
Isolating those four groups is the simple part, and you likely already have the data you need to do so. The next step is making the investment to foster the relationships you need with those groups, which starts by dedicating a team to them.
This team utilizes sales data, competitive analysis, market trends, and more to create strategies that boost lifetime value. They will also measure the success of their efforts in deliverable results. Without a dedicated team, your efforts are going to offer half the return they could. So, create this valuable resource first.
2. Leverage Relationships
Your high-value customers already possess brand loyalty, but it’s up to you to grow that connection. Leveraging the existing relationship they have with your business is vital to boosting lifetime value. The trick, so to speak, is simply engaging with them.
Personalized emails, loyalty/point programs, and even something as simple as checking in with a big spender to see if they are satisfied with a high-ticket purchase all create the type of meaningful engagement that builds increased loyalty. Treat your most valuable customers with special care and their lifetime value continues to grow.
3. Creating Brand Advocates
Word-of-mouth continues to be the most powerful marketing channel available to any business. Leveraging your relationships will lead your most loyal customers to advocate your brand to their friends and family, but businesses have a new avenue to make this happen thanks to modern technology.
Social media likes, shares, and comments all act as word-of-mouth marketing. You goal here is also engagement, like leveraging existing relationships, strengthening the relationship you have with customers online. As that relationship grows, they advocate your brand via those likes, shares, and comments.
4. Create Feedback Loops
Finally, you need to let these high-value customers know that their voices are heard. Take the feedback you’re already receiving and add it to feedback you’ve solicited, then take action. By taking their suggestions to heart, you create a better customer experience while continuing to build your relationships with them. All the while, you’re boosting their lifetime value as loyal brand patrons.