We know how important it’s for companies to create strategies to engage existing customers. Customers, in fact, are identified as the ones who make the largest number of purchases and, from the brand point of view, they have a lower cost than those who are still not acquired. Therefore, managing the relationship with these customers is a very important aspect for the company, that must be able to guarantee an original and personalized offer to obtain their loyalty.
Let’s discover together how to improve customer lifecycle marketing and the contribution offered by loyalty programs.
WHAT IS CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MARKETING?
Also called Life Cycle Marketing, it is a strategy perfectly integrated into business activities that aims to target, convert and retain consumers at every stage of their journey. To get and deliver value from the customer lifecycle, marketers need to define a roadmap with touchpoints. The result? Generating and ensuring a quality shopping experience in all its phases that we can identify as it follows:
Where to start? First of all you need to classify your customers:
PROSPECTS: those who show interest in the brand and who can be visitors to the website or consult the product catalog for the first time.
ACTIVE CUSTOMERS: those who purchase goods or services for the first time, occasionally or habitually.
INACTIVE CUSTOMERS: those who have made purchases in the past but, at the moment, don’t show interest and need the right motivation to continue the relationship with the brand.
INVOLVED CUSTOMERS: those who are loyal to the brand and are valuable to the company.
WHAT ARE THE STAGES OF CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE MARKETING?
For the strategy to be effective, sales cycle marketing requires the study of the entire customer journey: from the first contact to the relationship management. Instead of focusing on separate campaigns, the advice is to always use an active approach during the customer experience, involving all the available channels and tools. All companies create their own unique lifecycle marketing strategy, but the ultimate goal is the same: engaging customers, increasing revenue and improving the brand. The goal is to attract buyers and transform them into loyal customers and brand supporters, paying particular attention to all the phases on which this strategy is based:
Knowledge: People don’t know the company, they know little or nothing about the brand, so it’s necessary to attract their attention. At this stage it is possible to use advertising campaigns to increase awareness.
Commitment: People start to interact with the brand, they are interested and want to know the offer, for example by subscribing to the newsletter, following the company on social media or visiting the website.
Assessment: It’s the decision-making moment in which people need information to make their choice, compare it with the one offered by competitors according to its characteristics, price and value offered.
Purchase: When someone reaches this stage they can be considered a customer. At this moment, the promotion work of the brand takes a back seat and the goal becomes to offer a simple and fast purchase process.
Conversion: At this moment it’s necessary to keep the acquired customers and push them towards the repurchase. How to make it happen? Using personalized newsletters, attractive incentives and loyalty programs.
Loyalty: To get customer loyalty you don’t have to limit yourself to the previous phase, it’s not there that the marketing work of the customer lifecycle ends. It’s important to know how to engage the customer, so that they independently become brand promoters.
GET THE MOST OUT OF LIFECYCLE MARKETING WITH A LOYALTY PROGRAM
The existing loyalty program members are very valuable resources for companies as they can improve the interest of new customers, acting as brand ambassadors. In fact, word of mouth affects 20-50% of purchasing decisions and people are more likely to establish a relationship with a brand if the recommendation comes from a friend. Let’s talk about the so-called Referral Programs which are based on the involvement of loyalty programs’ members to attract new customers. An example? “Bring a friend and get 40% discount on your next purchase”.
Obviously, the work can not only be done by loyal customers but it is necessary to encourage people to subscribe to loyalty programs through incentives or engagement actions such as contests, surveys and gamification activities. This allows the company to obtain important customer data and use them to propose a personalized offer that can meet their needs.
Once the company gains customers’ trust, it has to invest in this relationship so that churn doesn’t occur. How?
Offering exclusive content to the most loyal members, so that they feel privileged and spoiled;
Sending personalized messages to celebrate important events (birthdays, anniversaries);
Involving them in company-relevant activities or simply listening to their requests.
This means building an emotional connection between brand and customer that goes far beyond the stages of the purchase process and can be identified as the ultimate goal of any company.
MANY BENEFITS IN A SINGLE SOLUTION
Engaging and retaining customers, step by step, in every phase that makes up the marketing strategy of the life cycle is a really important activity for companies in any industry. For the brand, knowing how to keep customers acquired and how to involve them in its strategy means optimizing its investments. That’s why building loyalty programs benefits both the company and the customer, and Bit2win is able to offer all the tools you need to win customer trust.
