Retaining Those Customers Starts With Knowing Who They Are!

• Know who your customers are: their demographics, cohort groupings and life stages.
• What do you know about why they signed up? Does your database keep track of that?
• One way to think about your customer’s demographic is to understand what search engines they prefer
• If you receive an opt-out, look for patterns. Why did they sign up originally and from what source.  If one source or offer repeatedly generates the highest drop-out rate, then that marketing channel and message needs to be reconsidered or adjusted.

Nurture your Customers with Tactics Tailored to What You Know About Them

• Unexpected delights, e.g. new offers or surprise giveaways or premiums, can help improve retention. Consider testing new offers on an A/B split basis to see which ones improve retention, increase ROI, improve Lifetime Value, etc. One caveat:  don’t appear to being gratuitous or condescending and make sure what you “give” is relevant to each customer segment.
• Test the timing of any nurturing tactics. At what point in a customer’s tenure on your list should you offer those unexpected items? What engages the customer for both the short- and long-term? Test varying offers against each other during key times.
• Engage with your customers on a regular basis via one (or more) of the many Social Media tools at your disposal.  These platforms give you even more individualized insights into who they are, what they want, how happy they are with your company and its products or services.
• Based on past results and/or anecdotal information as to what has worked and what might work to keep them in the fold, develop a plan or matrix of possibilities going forward.
• Try surveys to identify build your knowledge base:
  • Surveying canceled clients can help  you learn what went wrong
  • Surveying active customers helps identify the greatest opportunities for payback
  • Assign targeted deliverable options to each of these segments.

One of the advantages of email and web-based communications is that it can create strong customer loyalty by reassuring the customer every step of the way. Before the customer even has time to wonder whether something has been taken care of properly, send an email notification that it has. You will find this step especially important when marketing to the many segments of the boomer and senior demographic.

Bottom line:  test, test, test. Until you try variations on each marketing tactic in a systematic way, you won’t know what to do with the demographic information you’ve gathered. You need the demographics to segment your tactics, and you need the tests to impact your ROI.

We’re looking for your help to focus our blog content so that it best meets your needs. Please fill out this quick poll on LinkedIn, and of course, your detailed requests can be put into the comments on this post.

Amanda and Bob

Demographics are only part of the segmentation picture for successful marketing.  More important is understanding the key life-stages for your customer & prospect.

Put emphasis on life-stage & cohort marketing

Your customers often have life-stage issues in common that do not totally line up with traditional age-based demographics, since age-related life-stage events have evolved over the past couple of decades.

• One of the best examples of this is the “grandparent segment”.  This is no longer the sole province of people in their 60s, 70s or 80s. It often includes both single and married people in their 40s and 50s.
• In contrast, another life-stage change is the large increase in the number of people delaying parenthood into their late 30s and 40s, adopting children into their 50s, or raising their grandchildren as their own.

Screenshot of an eBook published by and available at Grandparents.com

• Each cohort brings its own unique, characteristic approach to purchasing & consuming.

Pay attention to appropriate visuals

There is a common visual message that engages and interests life-stage connected consumers.

• Lifestyle photos beat product photos for all but the oldest, most highly educated cohort.
• A clearly defined, single image is more appealing to those over 60, whereas younger consumers are intrigued by cropped and collage images.
• “Older adults are more persuaded by emotional, and not rational, advertisements regardless of their product category” according to leading researcher at the Wharton School of Business, Patti Williams.

• Show multi-aged grandparents engaging in activities with their grandchildren.
• Make sure your images represent nearly every older cohort engaging in active, vibrant activities.

Stay on top of the Research (or trust us to do it for you)

What was true 10 years ago just isn’t true today. You need to stay on top of the research about this older demographic. One of the more current publications that makes use of solid data is The Grandparent Economy: A Study of the Population, Spending Habits and Economic Impact of Grandparents in the United States.

Source: Estimated spending by 2009 grandparent households on selected items calculated from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics annual Consumer Expenditure Surveys (2007).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau estimates & projections and 2004 Survey of Income & Program Participation.

What have YOU learned about your older audience segments lately? We’d love to open up this discussion — share your experiences in the Comments section below, or get in touch for coaching about the challenges you’re facing.

Bob and Amanda

If the “birds of a feather” theory is true, then using your valued customers to help you find new customers is a great idea. A happy customer is the most convincing salesperson you’ll ever find. And, if you take the time to “reward” your customers properly for their support, everyone will come out a winner.

Psst….Pass It On—and Get a New Customer for Less!

How many of us can resist sharing a good deal with friends?  That’s the premise behind “pass-along” offers and discounts. Quite simply, you offer current owners of your product a pass-along discount that the owner can use or pass along to friends, neighbors, relatives or “good” social marketing contacts. If the discount is greater than anything offered to the general public, your customer will be doing “friends” a favor by passing on the discount. And, you’ll have a delighted new customer at significantly less acquisition cost than you would normally incur.

There are other advantages to this strategy as well. Friends of the customer are able to see your product in use or hear firsthand from someone they trust about, say, the great job the new mower does on their lawn. As long as you’ve taken the time to build a good relationship with your customer, the only added incentive (read: marketing cost) it takes is a special pass-along discount cost.

This is not the time to cut back on costs. Make the offer a worthwhile proposition for both the existing and new customer. When you consider that your customer is doing all the advertising and selling work for you, and that your promotional costs are slashed as a result, you can afford a significant discount.

Where Do I Do This?

Choose just about any channel or vehicle for your pass-along offer. Your web site, a letter or postcard, newsletter, blog, Facebook or Twitter—all are good choices. Just be sure to explain the concept of your program in clear and honest copy—and repeat this concept often!  Results seem to improve when you give some believable reason for any discounts, premiums or incentive.

To add further believability to your pass-alongs, provide a space for the owner to endorse the discount on behalf of a friend. And don’t forget to let your customer know that the discount may be kept for personal use. Just be sure to time your pass-along offers correctly, e.g. you don’t want to send a customer an offer for a discount on a product that he or she just purchased!

Tell ‘Em Joe Sent Ya…or Getting More (Qualified Leads)

It’s crucial to maintain good relations with your current customers, but list-building is still a vital part of any marketing plan. One of the most effective ways to gain qualified leads is through “member-get-a-member” and “friend-get-friend” referral offers.

In a future post we will discuss more about how this is best done—for low cost and without alienating your customers. If you’d like some immediate coaching, get in touch for a quick consult.