5 Proven Methods To Gain and Retain Customers for Your Online Business

Over the course of your career, you've likely found yourself in a position where you have a significant amount of customers or clients that rely on your product or service. But how do you ensure that they continue to purchase from you?

The answer: marketing automation and customer retention strategies. These tools allow your business to keep up with changes in the market and stay ahead of competition by reaching out to customers at critical points during their decision-making process.

In this article, we're going to take a look at five proven methods for building customer loyalty and retain them as long as possible through systems such as lead nurturing programs, contact scoring, follow up emails, reviews & feedback management, and surveys.

Let's get started!

1. Lead nurturing programs for customer retention

Lead nurturing is one of the most important types of marketing automation. It helps you maintain a steady stream of leads - that are paying attention to your company and have shown genuine interest in your product or service (and who will eventually become paying customers) - while also increasing their loyalty for your company. It's important to note that not all leads are created equal, and so lead nurturing programs allow you to focus on leads that have demonstrated more interest in what you're offering, making them easier to convert into customers.

We've found that lead nurturing programs tend to work best when they are built using a combination of both emails and automated campaigns. In an ideal scenario, you'll have an autoresponder that is used to send out a series of nurturing emails that remind the customer why they came to you in the first place and provide them with resources, content, and other helpful information about your product or service. These emails can be sent at any point in time throughout their buying cycle as long as the lead has shown interest in your product or service. This type of email can be very time-consuming, especially when you are handling several kinds of campaigns simultaneously.

We highly recommend using a lead scoring tool to help you accurately identify customers on the go and then automate the sending of nurturing emails at key points in their purchasing cycle. These kinds of tools allow you to easily score and segment your database at very specific points in time so that you can target leads who have expressed interest in your product or service over time. For example, if a customer is still showing an interest in your product but hasn't made a purchase yet, you may want to send them more emails about that particular product while also expanding the value proposition of what they're getting from your services. As long as the customer shows enough interest in what you're offering, they'll be more likely to continue using it. However, when a customer is expressed enough interest in your product or service throughout the buying cycle, you can send them a series of follow up emails.

Here are five examples of different types of lead scoring tools to help you achieve accurate results:

Lead scoring based on purchase pattern - This type of tool allows you to identify certain kinds of buyers based on their behavior and how they interact with your product or service. For example, if a customer only buys products which are meant for the same purposes as yours or purchasing products from companies that they've previously purchased from before encountering your company for the first time.

Lead scoring based on a lead's activity - This is similar to the previous type of lead scoring but focuses on how a customer interacts with your product or service. For example, you can find out whether they've viewed your website, opened an email, downloaded content, or even visited a specific page within your website. Based on these details you can determine which customers are more likely to become paying customers and should be given the most attention.

2. Conducting effective surveys for quality feedback

Customer feedback is one of the most critical components of any successful business. You can engage with customers on social media, review sites, and other online spaces but you can't get the full picture unless you're surveying them.

There are three main areas which you should focus on when you're conducting customer surveys:

Customer retention - A regular survey should be conducted right after a customer has made a purchase. You can ask them if they were satisfied with their experience using your product or service and how you can improve it in the future. Be sure to also ask them how likely they are to recommend your company to others and what changes or improvements they would like to see in your company's operations. This will help ensure that they'll stay happy with your business for as long as possible.

- A regular survey should be conducted right after a customer has made a purchase. You can ask them if they were satisfied with their experience using your product or service and how you can improve it in the future. Be sure to also ask them how likely they are to recommend your company to others and what changes or improvements they would like to see in your company's operations. This will help ensure that they'll stay happy with your business for as long as possible. Customer feedback - After you've conducted a survey, customers may choose to provide you with feedback via email, live chat, and other methods when the opportunity is presented to them. This feedback can be directed at every level of your company and you should pay particular attention to it because it gives you a chance to see what aspects of your business they're unhappy with.

- After you've conducted a survey, customers may choose to provide you with feedback via email, live chat, and other methods when the opportunity is presented to them. This feedback can be directed at every level of your company and you should pay particular attention to it because it gives you a chance to see what aspects of your business they're unhappy with. Customer NPS - When people are asked how likely they are to recommend a product or service to others based on their experience using it, this is called customer NPS (Net Promoter Score). This is one of the most important metrics to consider when you're running a business because it gives you a clear picture of the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. The higher your NPS, the higher your chances of success and growth.

According to this article, there are 9 steps to take in order to run effective customer surveys:

Customize surveys - It's important that you customize your survey so that it's specific to the needs and wants of your customers. For example, if you want them to fill out a survey about how happy they are with their purchase, you may want to send them a few questions via email before sending them an official form.

- It's important that you customize your survey so that it's specific to the needs and wants of your customers. For example, if you want them to fill out a survey about how happy they are with their purchase, you may want to send them a few questions via email before sending them an official form. Choose your format wisely - If your customers don't have time to complete an in-depth survey, then you may want to send them a short feedback form or offer them the opportunity to contact you via live chat. However, if they're able and willing to sit down for an hour and share their thoughts on every aspect of your product or service, then give them what they need.

Conclusion

In addition to customer support, nurturing leads, and conducting surveys, there are many other ways to nurture your existing customers. For this reason, it's important that you have a marketing team or another department of your company which is dedicated to this task.

As ecommerce businesses continue to grow in popularity and competition between companies increases, customer support will become even more vital for long-term growth. With the right strategies in place you should be able to build an army of happy customers who will promote your business for years on end.