Customer retention marketing is an important aspect of any business as it contributes the most profits to the bottom line. Often companies develop new products and spend thousands of money on marketing to acquire new customers. But the current customers deliver the lion’s share because they are already loyal and more likely to buy products offered from the same company. Also, word of mouth is more effective when done by the existing customers leading about half of new consumer acquisition.
 
So, when existing customers are so important, let us discuss some important ingredients and ideas for starting customer retention marketing:
Important ingredients:
·        People – An important aspect of any customer retention marketing project. Keep them happy and be relieved of any worries.
·        Product – Create a product that defines high quality and continued value for customer retention.
·        Place – Place in online marketing is ‘context’ and it matters when you want to upsell to your existing customer by sending an email message while they are browsing your site.
·        Price – Provide great deals and continued service without increasing the price.
·        Promotion – Analyze your existing customer purchases and send them targeted mails.
Ideas for kick starting Customer retention marketing:
·        Frequent communication with Customized content: Most companies have some sort of newsletter to communicate with their existing customers but not many are making offers that are customized to their current base. For better customer retention make daily communication with some offerings or special offers,
·        Service: Poor customer service accounts for 70% of customer loss. Marketing Team should work together with support team and work on this numbers. The gap should be bridged between company offerings and customer expectations.
·        Be attentive when they speak: Customers will not communicate about their dissatisfaction. Regular touch can alert us, presence in different social networking channels can notify about the dissatisfaction. Be prompt to listen and address their issues for better results.
·        Run loyalty programs: Reward your existing customers for the association they share with you, for referring new business or for repeat buys.
·        Build proximity among the customers: Create online spaces like forums, custom social networks like Facebook, Linkedin where users can get connected, share their experiences and learn from each other.
By placing importance on customer retention marketing, can generate high value, stronger relationships and important referrals that can be useful for continuing successful business.