Growing your customer base means both attracting the new and keeping the old. Therefore, both efforts must be included in your marketing plan. A customer lifecycle is the process a customer experiences from first reaching out to your business all the way to remaining a loyal fan. The most difficult goal to achieve in a marketing effort is enticing potential customers to reach out to you. Once you have jumped that hurdle, those leads then need to enter a robust communication plan that converts them first to paying clients, and then to raving fans.

Communicate Throughout Your Customer Lifecycle:

Your lead generation marketing efforts have paid off and a potential customer reaches out to you. Hooray! Your sales team is now on stage, where one of the two next steps can occur:

1) They choose not to do business with you.

Instead of moving on to the next lead, take the time to examine why they did not convert. Are your lead generation efforts attracting the right customer? Were they not ready to commit? Was your sales pitch ineffective? Did your response time meet the customer’s expectations? Understanding why someone does not do business with you can help you create a more effective marketing message, appropriate channel mix, and robust sales process. Guessing is not a useful way to evaluate an ad, blog post or sales pitch. At Fresh Figs Marketing, we recommend our clients secure the lead source from everyone who reaches out to them and track the results. These hard numbers allow our clients to truly evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Reaching out to those who said no and kindly asking for their reasons can also give you valuable insight into your communication style.

They said no. That’s that. Right? No way!!! Don’t let that interested person fall off your potential customer list. There are many ways to keep them engaged in your brand, hopefully converting them when they are ready. Invite them to sign up for an enewsletter filled with information that potential customers need or want when deciding to buy from or hire you. Schedule a follow up email or phone call, checking in to see if you can offer any help. Send them a direct mail piece, reminding them that you can solve their problem. How about a quick hand-written note? These are only a few of your options for gently reminding that interested party that you are the company to do business with. Worried about bugging them? The key idea here is “gently” – you will want to implement a communication plan that does not overwhelm your potential clients yet keeps you top-of-mind for when they are ready to convert.

2) They Convert into a Customer.

Congratulations! Your sales team gets a high five and the customer gets the product or service they desire. Your work is not done, however. The next step hinges on one question:

Did you delight them?

1) Nope. We messed up.

We all know the idea that it’s not that mistakes won’t happen, it’s how you handle them that counts. If your customer leaves your business with a negative experience, you can rest assured they will share it. Today, that sharing goes beyond the conversation between neighbors over the backyard fence. Social media and digital reviews offer unhappy customers a wide audience with which to share their experiences. Handling snafus in an honest and genuine manner, doing everything you reasonably can to rectify the situation to their satisfaction, gives you the opportunity to turn that unhappy customer into a fan for life.

2) Yes! We have a new raving fan!

Congratulations! You have added to your pool of repeat or referral sources. But now is not the time to rest on your laurels. It is important to keep those fans engaged in your brand.

Ask for reviews and referrals, and thank those who take the time to give them.

Good things come to those who ask! When the time is right in your product/service cycle, reach out to your customers and ask them to write a review for you on a website potential customers will value. According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2015, 92% of consumers read online reviews and 68% of consumers say that positive reviews evoke more trust in local businesses. Online reviews are beginning to carry the same weight as a personal recommendation. Guiding your fans to promoting you in the spaces your potential customers are looking will help you create a powerful digital word-of-mouth referral source.

Make it easy for your customers to refer you by having a formal referral program in place. Remember, people love to help others, and being able to guide someone to a positive experience makes them happy. A user-friendly, customer-focused referral program allows customers to help their friends while growing your business!

Like your mom taught you, say thank you when someone does something nice for you. Appreciation can take many forms, from a personal phone call or note to a gift card or invoice credit. Whatever you choose, make sure it is authentic to your brand and resonates with your customers.

Keep your brand top-of-mind

You’ve given your customer exactly what they wanted, they have written 5-star reviews all over the web and even referred 5 of their friends to you. You’re all done, right? While your raving fan may be in your corner, keeping quiet leaves room for a shiny new competitor to pick up the slack. Consistently reminding your customers of the value you bring and the positive relationship they have with you can make them fans for life.

Many of your multi-channel marketing efforts can be easily targeted to keep your customer base engaged. Enewsletters and socials media posts offering product updates, service notices, valuable advice, industry updates or fun company announcements remind customers of why they did business with you in the first place. The same messaging can be used in direct mail campaigns and print ads. More personal outreach like holiday cards or service anniversary cards are a nice way to continuously say thank you to your customers. Tracking your open rates, social media interactions, referrals and repeat business will help you determine the effectiveness of your efforts.

If you speak to most successful businesses they will tell you that their number one revenue source is past clients – either returning or referring colleagues, family and friends. It is those people who have no connection to you that are hardest to reach and to convert into actual customers. Does your business have a communication plan in place to keep those leads engaged and eventually turned into paying customers? Do you have a strategy to then keep them active with your brand so they help grow your customer base? Understanding the methods and messaging that attracts and keeps customers throughout their lifecycle leads to more effective marketing, increased business and happier clients.

The Fresh Figs Marketing Team is here to help you attract and maintain customers. Send us an email, or give us a call at 860-670-6595 for more information.