What is Retention Marketing in E-Commerce?

Retention marketing is a method for keeping customers engaged with your shop for longer. It is an important part of how companies bring in revenue. All of the work your company does to market and attract customers can be more valuable if those customers continue to make purchases rather than buying once and leaving. You can make this happen through retention marketing. Here is how retention marketing in e-commerce works and how it can increase your company’s revenue. 

Creating Repeat Customers

Customer acquisition and retention are the core processes of marketing. Your company invests in marketing because it needs new customers. If every customer comes in, makes a one-time purchase, and leaves, your company’s success depends on constantly bringing in new customers. 

What if you could turn each of those leads into a customer that comes in, buys, leaves, then comes back to buy again? Your company can save money on customer acquisition costs since they are already acquired. Every customer becomes an ongoing relationship that continues to generate revenue. In every way, your costs decrease while revenue increases. 

How do you turn one-time customers into customer relationships? The key is retention marketing.

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What is Retention Marketing?

Retention Marketing (RM) is a set of marketing methods that:

• Identifies a target customer by segmenting your customer base
• Creates marketing to target specific customer groups
• Provides incentives for customers to make your company their preferred source of goods or services

In short, you apply your marketing skills to customers that have already shopped with your company to convince them to come back and buy again. There are many ways to do this, but the process generally follows three steps. 

1. Customer Segmentation and Target Customers

All of the customers that buy from you vary significantly in their needs, preferences, expectations, and purchases. To raise your marketing retention rates, you need to first segment your audience to identify groups of target customers. 

Start by identifying the differences between your customer base. You can do this by examining:

• Purchase history and amount spent
• Time spent shopping
• Difficulty of acquisition
• Location
• Specific needs addressed by purchases
  

These are just a few examples of what to look for. Look through your customer data and find trends or groups that stand out, especially your most profitable group. This information will guide how you build your retention marketing strategy. 

2. Create Marketing for Specific Groups

Once you know who to target and what makes them special, develop your retention marketing strategies for specific customers. Focus on what makes them special and identify how your products or services can address their needs over and over again. The key to this is making sure that customers see that their previous purchase mirrors the value that they can get from making future purchases. 

3. Provide Value in Messaging For Retention Marketing

Finally, find ways to tailor your retention marketing messaging to provide value. Make your customers see that there is more value to be gained from maintaining the relationship with your company. Above all else, show them how your goods solve problems related to how they are already using what they bought. This shows that there is ongoing value and that subsequent purchases can continue to help them. 
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SMS Retention Marketing Strategies

The methods that you use in retention marketing in e-commerce can make a difference in how you reach customers. The best option is SMS retention marketing. Customers have their smartphones with them and check new messages quickly. If you have customers opt-in to receive SMS marketing during their initial shopping session, you can message them promotions, special event information, and new products to drive repeat purchases.

Text message marketing is popular and effective. The key is to write effective marketing messages and deliver them regularly. If you have questions about developing a powerful retention marketing program with SMS, schedule a free strategy review session with Concierge.