Customer Retention Drives A Thriving B2B Business

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I hate the word ‘revolution’.

Yes, hate!

Revolution is such an overused, cliché phrase.

‘Revolution’ fools us into paying attention.

Of course it works.

Customer Retention Cycle

Why does it works? Because it’s a power word.

Yep a power word – power words transcend meaning and reason and get our emotions all stirred up.

Power words hit us in the gut, assault our senses, dredge up deep-seated emotions which draw us in.

And social media is fast becoming a power word.

Social Media is a Power Word Sucking us in with Breathtaking Ease

50 Shades of Social Gray

The reality is a social business divide has formed — you either get it or you don’t.

I’m in the get ‘it’ camp. I’m an ‘early adopter’ open-minded type.

However, I ‘get’ both sides of the social gamble.

I get the benefits and the potential catastrophes (costs/blunders). I firmly understand social marketing is not a silver bullet to magic your business to stardom.

However, if you do kick the social media tyres, looking under the hood and considering how this social ‘thing’ could help your business, then the best use case for social is a customer service and retention.

Customer Loyalty.

Yes, as in a post-sales, we love and respect you, please stay around for more, we need you customer retention program.

However, all this comes with an honest word of warning.

Social is not for every business! (shocking I know, but, it’s true)

Agonizing Truths – Social Is Not For Your Business If:

• Your (potential) customer don’t use social
• You don’t talk with your customers
• You don’t have a website
• You serve a limited group of clients

In these cases social is not for you. Thank you very much, please spread the love in this post with a share, Tweet, +1, and or like.

Or read on and begin saving billions for your business.

Customer Retention: The Real Value in B2B Social Media

What’s cheaper: getting new customers or keeping existing ones?

Show of hands, don’t be shy! Let me count. 1, 2, 3, 4 on the new; 100, 200, 300 on the retain side.

Retain wins! My vote (and the research shows) it is cheaper to keep customer than acquire new customers.

“Retaining Customers is Scandalously easy Compared to Begging for the sale”

Why Focus On Customer Retention?

Sustainability, building relationships and saving billions for your business.

The full article ‘The Economics of E-Loyalty’ and the original graph, is available here.

• Sustainability The costs of customer acquisition outweighs, by far, the profits you realize in the first year or two. Not until years three or four will your acquisition costs be covered by later purchases and you begin to experience the profits envisioned from the outset. (This is obviously over-simplified, although, still valid. Calculate your own customer acquisition costs, compare it to your expected lifetime value and make your own financial value judgement).

Keeping more customers, for longer, reduces acquisition costs and increases profits. A double win.

• Relationships “People buy from people not brands” Relationship building is a key part of a high value, long lead-time B2B sales and marketing process. A long process contributes greatly to the ‘cost of sales’ (customer acquisition cost) line item on your sales and marketing expenses. As you’ve built trust with these new customers solidify and strengthen that trust with continued dialogue, engagement and positive affirmations.

“People buy from People not From Brands”

Social networking is not the only answer – far from it. Email marketing, internal user forms, regular contact from sales, in-person events, will carry out the same end goals — strengthen bonds by building relationships.

Why Social for Customer Retention?

Why use #SM for #Customer #Retention – 84% of Your FB Fans are current & former customers!

Research from DBB found that 84% of Fans of a Facebook Page are current or former customers. See slide 48. Also here Facebook: a Loyalty Program. Facebook is just one of many tools for your retention strategy.

Why use social for retention? It’s relative low-cost, easy to start and a widely used platform by your customers.

A retention ‘strategy’ all about your customers, not you (actually, your marketing has never been about you has it? right?, Right?).

How to Retain Customers with Social Media? Create a ‘Members Only’ club & say Thank You

Content is the Other Half of the Social Story

[Tweet “Content is the fire. Social media is gasoline, both are in the Marketing Engine of your Business”]

A Content marketing strategy is the foundation of great social media marketing. Without compelling, engaging, useful content your social programs, customer retention or otherwise, will fail.

The Value of an Existing Customer [Infographic]

It costs 6-7x more money to acquire a new customer than keep existing one.

You can loose 50% of your customer with in 5 years if your don’t talk, engage and keep them active!

Improve retention by 5% — up your profit by 5-95% that is #SeriousLeverage

Loyal Customers provide competitive advantages including

• Repeat purchase (higher prices, cross/up sell)
• Become brand advocates and market your business (earned media)
• Brand loyal – won’t entertain competitor advances

Here are 2 Related Reads

1. Selling B2B Social Media to the C-Suite will help convince the skeptical business owners of the benefits.
2. Debunking the B2B Social Media Marketing Myth laid out the premise that your customers are on social media.

Customer Retention A Win-Win situation. Image Credit

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