If you are a business owner, it’s tempting to focus your marketing strategy on finding new customers. After all, if you need to increase sales and build a strong brand, what better way is there to accomplish both at the same time?
However, your existing clients can provide your business with a reliable revenue stream that can be the foundation for long-term success. Repeat customers can also strengthen your company’s reputation by forming an enthusiastic and dedicated user base.
Once you learn key strategies to harness the power of your current customers, you could position your company for future success and growth in your customer base.
How to Increase Sales from Your Current Clients
Here are four key steps to take in order to increase revenues from your current customers:
1. Study Your Customers
Your loyal customers can provide a willing and able source of data which you can use to improve your business. Conduct surveys of your customers to learn about the buyer personas that your business interacts with most. You may want to offer incentives to show customers your appreciation and to get more information.
Customer analytics can help your business identify and exploit trends among clients. Your business can use this information to refine its marketing efforts, products and services to better appeal to existing customers.
Those companies that have accurately portrayed their customers through persona marketing have seen a drastic increase in performance.
2. Personalize Your Service
Personalized service can significantly increase the profitability and longevity of each client to increase their customer lifetime value (CLV). This is fast becoming the norm in many industries, so you should find some way to tailor your services to the needs of individual clients or buyer personas.
Depending on your business, this may require limiting the number of clients you take on. However, each one can bring you greater profits and has a better chance of becoming a repeat customer. At a minimum, consider creating special offers tailored to your clients’ past purchases and current needs.
3. Communicate
E-mail and social media provide inexpensive ways to converse with your customers. Use both to keep your customers abreast of news and any special offers you might have. However, you will be competing against the entire Internet for a share of your their attention, so make sure your online presence is compelling and engaging.
This also provides you with a great way to build a community around your business. By interacting with our customers, whether it is by sharing their pictures and reviews or by immediately responding to their complaints, you can show that your business values and appreciates them.
4. Offer Rewards
One simple, yet effective way to keep customers returning to your business is to reward loyalty. You can provide discounts, freebies or group deals depending on customer spend.
A rewards system can incentivize further spending while building brand loyalty. Make sure your offers are commensurate with the amount your customers have spent, or you could disincentivize our customers from spending more.
According to Bain and Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can translate into a 25% or greater increase in profits. Marketing firm McKinsey & Company reports that companies which combine customer analytics with outreach and retention efforts see a nine times greater rate of customer loyalty.