Have you heard of Boloco’s card and Amazon Prime? They are open secrets.

Okay, this is about customer retention, and I was not bluffing when I hinted that it can increase your sales by 150%. Harvard Business School reported that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profit by 25-95%. So, you do the math.

Moreover, returning customers spend 67% more than new ones and, ironically, it costs 5-10 times more to acquire a new customer than to keep old ones.

Customer retention is the reward for excellent customer service. And what better way to deliver excellence than to relate with your customers on a ‘spiritual’ level, giving them a dream to live up to. That is exactly what loyalty programs do.

Competition has made it easy for business owners to be more innovative on ways to attract new customers and retain the old ones. Are you wondering how? If you look around you, the market is growing daily but so is the rate of suppliers.

If you are not bringing a new product into the market, you should at least be bringing a new way of retaining your customers so that they would not be attracted by the newer versions of your product. You should innovate.

Using user generated content to increase sales

User generated content campaign is one of strategies that you can use to increase your sales by folds. And you know what? It works. The Chobani ‘Share your Chobani LOVE story’ brought about a 225.9% increase in revenue in one year.

This article on Hubspot also lists ten companies that were successful in their user generated content campaign.

Why don’t you indulge your customers and see an increase in your sales. The best way to apply user generated content is to ensure that it appeals to the inner mind of your customers in such a way that they will be aware of you for a very long time. Retention.

Using social media marketing

What can social media do for you in terms of retention? Answer these questions correctly.

  • How do you engage your fans on social media?
  • Are your messages just all about your products?
  • Do you wish your fans happy birthday?
  • How often do you share tips and useful information with them?
  • Do you answer their questions within a reasonable time?

The above questions, though not exhaustive, should form the foundation of your social media strategy. Don’t make having a fan page just about your business. Let it be about your fans, and you will notice an increase in your sales with little effort.

So Boloco’s card and Amazon Prime are loyalty programs of Boloco, the burritos connoisseur, and Amazon, the ecommerce giant, respectively.

Learn Business blogging as a marketing strategy.

Successful companies create loyalty programs like clockwork, because they understand how radically it transforms the bottom line. But if you must do it, you must get it right. Give customers real value, a true dream to live up to.

If you get it right, you own the heart of your customers, you own their purse, and get your deserved share of the purse.

You know what? You would also increase the emotional and physical cost of your customers leaving you for competitors. After all, we all jealously guard our reward points.

It is time you create a loyalty program for your customers. Make it a game for them to play, fun for them to have.