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In this blog, we’ll explore how content marketing plays a big part in customer loyalty — and how you can implement proven techniques to help secure your long-term success.
Landing a new client is hard work!
Between finding the client, strategizing the right type of outreach, and competing with other companies for their trust, it can take immense effort from your entire team to secure just one win.
Doing this over and over is not only exhausting, but it also doesn’t result in a great ROI.
When businesses have to continually rely on new clients in order to survive, it can put a lot of stress on sales and marketing teams, and can eventually lead to burnout — or worse, total collapse.
So, what’s the solution?
Securing recurring revenue!
Turning new clients into long-term customers not only frees up the bandwidth of your teams, but also gives business owners a solid idea of how much will be coming in from month-to-month. And this leads to more confidence, more time to focus on strategy, and overall faster growth!
So, how do you win over customers for the long-term?
5 ways to convert a one-time client into a long-term customer with content marketing
Converting customers into lifelong clients involves 5 key factors:
- Making a killer first impression
- Keeping in touch and staying valuable
- Offering rewards and incentives
- Being both proactive and responsive
- Being obsessive about delivering great quality and customer service
Here’s how you can achieve all of the above through strategic content marketing...
1. Make a killer first impression by supercharging your website copy
First impressions not only matter, they may be your only chance to win over a new customer.
It takes around 0.05 seconds for customers to form an opinion on your website. And it’s that opinion that determines whether they will stay to find out more, or immediately leave.
Even if you can make it past that crucial window, you’re still not out of the woods!
Users will give you about 5.59 seconds to hook their attention with your content. And if it doesn’t lure them in, 38% of people will stop engaging — forever.
This means that if you want to get new clients (who will eventually be loyal customers), making sure your website copy is supercharged for conversion is a must.
Sometimes, this means outsourcing to seasoned experts who know what makes visitors tick, or possibly hiring someone in-house who can dedicate a vast majority of their time to keeping your website copy stellar.
Either way, it’s a need that can’t be ignored if you want to build long-term trust with clients.
This doesn’t just go for your home page either! The content of each and every page of your website — including your landing pages — should be:
- Properly directed toward your target audience
- Optimized for conversion
- Follow your company’s brand voice
Don’t be afraid to invest in your first impression. It can quite literally be the difference between success and failure.
2. Stay top-of-mind through social media
Once you’ve won a new customer over with your incredible website copy, don’t rest on your laurels. Now is the time to make sure your brand remains front-and-center of their mind, so that when they have another need you can meet, they’ll instantly turn to you.
One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Encourage your clients to follow you on your social channels by:
- Including your social handles on your receipts
- Linking to them on your website
- Including social media profiles on your business cards
- Verbally asking customers to give you a follow
- Including your social handles on all promotional materials
Next, concentrate on making your social media content as engaging as possible.
Use your platforms to give clients a behind-the-scenes look at your company — and use messaging that reminds them how deeply you care about helping your customers succeed.
You can also use social media to promote new services, features and functions that current clients may find useful.
All of these things will help clients build on their connection to your brand and, in-turn, build stronger, longer-lasting relationships.
3. Offer rewards and incentives with email marketing
Email marketing is a fantastic way to keep in touch with your current customers for two reasons:
- People are more likely to open emails from brands they work with
- 49% of consumers say they want to receive promotional emails from their favorite brands at least once a week
Including discounts, promotions, or referral incentives in your email campaigns will help your current customers feel continually rewarded and appreciated.
What’s more, giving customers that warm fuzzy feeling isn’t the only reward! 43% of customers spend more money with brands they’re already loyal to — so continual promotion to your current client base is also a great way to maximize ROI.
Here are some other creative campaign ideas for reaching out to current clients via email marketing:
- Product video how-tos
- Little-known uses for your product or service
- An exclusive tip of the month
- Favorable articles about your company
- Company anniversaries or milestones
- Client birthday wishes
- Recent award nominations or wins
- A message from the CEO
- An insight into your company’s history
4. Be both proactive and responsive
No matter how incredible your company is, concerns and complaints from clients do happen.
Sometimes wires get crossed, or human error occurs. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t lose heart! In fact, the way you handle a customer’s dissatisfaction can actually increase their confidence in your brand.
The service recovery paradox is a phenomenon in which a customer thinks more highly of a company after they have corrected a problem with their service, compared to how they would regard the company if a non-faulty service had been provided.
This means complaints actually open a window of opportunity to winning long-term customers!
The key here is to not only respond to every customer concern or complaint, but to ensure that your client feels you have done absolutely everything in your power to make it right.
When responding to a client’s personal email, make sure the copy in your response is both professional and friendly. If your emails contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors or poor language, you’re only going to annoy the client further — and reinforce the idea that your brand is not a good fit.
On the other hand, if you haven’t heard from a current client, that’s probably great! But you can still practice good customer service by being proactive.
Every so often, reach out personally to check-in with your clients and see how they’re doing. This will help to reinforce to happy clients that they are still a top priority.
5. Stay obsessive about delivering great quality and customer service
We saved the best for last. The ultimate way to build customer loyalty is through offering exceptional products, services, and customer support.
If you give your clients your very best work each and every time, they’ll have fewer reasons not to continue working with you in the future. They’re also more likely to recommend you to other companies, increasing your chances of even more recurring revenue.
A great partner is worth its weight in gold, and becoming that partner for a client is priceless.
Looking for a content marketing partner?
Need help with turning your content marketing into a customer generating machine? Scribly can help. Get in touch with our team today to learn more!
