What is customer marketing? How to do + 5 benefits
Understand what customer marketing is, characteristics, where to apply it, strategies to start doing it, and benefits for the business.
You may have heard that the investment to acquire a new customer is 5 to 25 times greater compared to the costs of retaining existing ones. To try to reduce acquisition costs and engage your customer base with the brand, you need to invest in Customer marketing.
Mas What is customer marketing, after all? Briefly, they are marketing actions that aim to strengthen relationships with existing customers.
Do you want to better understand how to apply this strategy and the benefits of having loyal customers to your brand so that they recommend your company to more people? Read on and check it out!
What is customer marketing?
Customer marketing is a set of actions aimed at the existing customer base that aims to keep it close to the brand, maintaining a close relationship.
Many companies even provide a good shopping and service experience. However, ending up forgetting to take care of the customer after sales, focusing 100% on the acquisition of new ones.
With this dynamic, the referral potential of current clients is not explored, which would allow acquiring new customers at lower costs, in addition to keeping those who bring new people with them loyal and well rewarded.
What are the characteristics of customer marketing?
The main characteristics worked on in customer marketing are:
- relationship;
- credibility;
- trust;
- novelty.
In the search 'The true value of customer experiences'carried out by the consultancy firm Deloitte, the interviewees state that they tend to spend 140% more with companies that provide a good experience than those with which the service is unsatisfactory.
This data makes a lot of sense, especially when we consider the relationship after the first purchase or subscription to a service.
Imagine that your company added a new product category to its portfolio or included a new functionality in the software it sells. If the customer doesn't receive this update, how will they be interested in buying again?
That's where customer marketing comes in, who will use this news as a hook to send a personalized email, to create new material that shows the relevance of the new item, or a simple SMS to a page with more information.
That way, the company spends more trust and credibility for clients, as it is always presenting an innovation that makes it relevant and aggregating results for consumers.
This close relationship is the basis for customers to feel safe to recommend your business and bring potential new customers closer to the brand.
Where to apply customer marketing?
Customer marketing actions are an arm of the Marketing area, but the customer service sector (especially Customer Success, if that separate area exists) is important to provide data and metrics for satisfaction, retention, relationship, etc.
The strategy will be applied to customer communication channels, especially direct ones such as e-mail, SMS, telephone contact, social media, etc.
That way, actions can be more personalized, which increases the chances of obtaining better results.
How to do strategic customer marketing?
Now is the time to get your hands dirty. We made a list of customer marketing strategies that will help you maintain a lasting relationship with your customers. Check it out!
Know your customer base
Both to attract new customers and to do customer marketing, study your customer base to know the profile of those who convert to your offers and what their after-sales behavior is like.
Knowing these characteristics helps you plan actions that meet your desires and identify what causes dissatisfaction, avoiding problems in the relationship.
Have a unique communication style
Customers who are the target of customer marketing need to be addressed with a adequate communication for the stage in which they are.
Personalized language is what helps maintain a close relationship. Some examples of customer marketing are emails referring to the customer by name with new exclusive offers related to their previous purchases, gifts with a handwritten letter, and other ideas that surprise the customer.
Create a loyalty and referral program
Investing in customer marketing is also a way to increase the customer base. That's because your current base can help with word of mouth, referring friends to contact or encouraging them to buy.
To encourage this practice, Create a referral program with the rules and benefits offered to customers. It is also worth investing in a loyalty program, if your niche is e-commerce, for example, because rewards will also encourage recurring purchases.
Use social proof to your advantage
In the context of customer marketing, social proof it is evidence, that is, a testimony from customers who purchased and obtained value with the product or service sold by your business.
After friends and families, reviews on websites are the most reliable source as a source of information about a brand for 91% of people.
So, using customer speech is a powerful convincing tool. It can be featured on the company's website, in marketing emails, in social media posts, and targeted advertisements.
Monitor the customer after sales
Once your business met the customer in an initial demand, it doesn't mean the end of the relationship with them. Monitor your after-sales behavior and follow the feedback from the satisfaction surveys.
In this way, the customer marketing team can identify new needs and difficulties and thus create specific actions to meet those with the same demand.
5 benefits of customer marketing
Customer marketing provides very important advantages for the company's growth. Check it out!
- Increased customer retention: the better served the customer is and has good experiences, the more loyal and satisfied they tend to be;
- Most qualified customers: qualification is a key issue to increase the chances of conversion, since the approach will be appropriate to the profile and characteristics of the clients;
- Decreased customer acquisition cost (CAC): customer marketing helps to attract customers by referral, which reduces acquisition costs.
- Lifetime Value (LTV) Growth: a long relationship has the potential to generate a higher net profit, so customer marketing is strategic;
- Business growth: happy, close customers, buying and recommending their products or services helps the company's development and growth.
Also read: What is strategic customer experience and how to plan the sector?
A Cloud Humans can help your company optimize service processes and those related to the customer experience. Thus, your team is able to provide a humanized, fast and assertive service.
Talk to our experts who are available to present our solution and show how much it can help you achieve your business objectives.