Building Customer Retention With Direct Mail
According to Forbes.com, research shows it’s five times cheaper to keep existing customers than attract new ones. Additionally, a returning customer is not only more likely to spend more money with you, but a 5% increase in retention can result in 25% to 95% increases in profits. Improving customer retention with direct mail can help ensure those increases.
A customer retention program can be a very beneficial part of your marketing plan. Direct mail can be an excellent tool in building and maintaining a customer retention program for your business, whether you specialize in B2B or B2C services.
Build Trust with Your Customers
Building trust is one of the best customer retention strategies. Trust is defined as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.”
While any initial purchase or use of your services will start a foundation for trust, it’s not the final step.
When working to build trust with your customers, it is crucial to remember that just because they bought from you doesn’t automatically mean they trust you. Developing trust takes time and effort.
Reliance is a key factor in building trust. Consistently following through with quality products and customer service is a key building block of establishing trust.
Maintain a Customer Communication Calendar
A communication calendar is essentially a system that lets you track how often you communicate with your customers and how frequently they communicate with you. Potential uses for a communication calendar include:
- Tracking the last customer communication you received.
- Scheduling promotional mailing campaigns for new products and services.
- Sending out reminder mailers for recurring services like dental appointments and oil changes.
- Recognizing a customer’s special day with a birthday mailer providing a gift of products or services to help them celebrate.
Direct mail is an excellent way to reach out, and creating a communication calendar allows you to plan exactly when and how often different types of messaging can be sent. Additional ways a calendar can be useful are:
Reconnecting With Customers You Haven’t Heard from in a While
If customers haven’t visited you for a while, sending out a direct mail postcard with info about a new product is a great way to give them a nudge.
Pairing that with a gift card to go toward a purchase or use of a new service will provide even more incentive for them to re-establish a connection to your business.
Reward Loyal Customers with Additional Discounts
Let a customer know their consistent patronage is appreciated by sending out a select promotion rewarding them for their support. With a loyalty program, customer retention can increase significantly.
Provide Thoughtful Reminders
If your business utilizes agreements that need to be updated annually, you could benefit from sending out reminders that the customer’s current contract is about to expire.
Own a medical or dental practice? Appointment reminders are especially helpful these days as people are often going in several directions at once.
Make it Personal
Customers want to be viewed as people, not statistics. Personalization is an excellent example of customer retention program strategies that help customers understand you do view them as individuals. When a customer receives a mailer that is not only addressed to them but uses their name in the main area of the piece, you establish an immediate connection.
Providing a personalized version of any type of direct mail campaign can make a significant impact on the customers you want to retain.
Apologize When You Make Mistakes
We’re all human, which means none of us is perfect. Even when things go wrong, it’s possible to increase customer retention with direct mail.
Despite best efforts, mistakes will happen. How you deal with those mistakes matters when building a customer retention program.
Apologizing and then offering ways to resolve the issue will make the customer feel heard and make your business look like it truly cares about the customer experience.
Once a mistake has been recognized and resolved, follow up with a special direct mail message. This lets the customer know you want to continue to show them they are important to you. It will also help continue to smooth things over and rebuild any trust relationships that may have been affected.
Frequently Asked Questions About
Building Customer Retention WIth Direct Mail
Triadex is a trusted source of information concerning customer retention and direct mail. Here are some common questions we receive.
What are the benefits of using direct mail over digital channels for customer retention?
Direct mail stands out for its physical presence and tactile experience, which can create a stronger emotional bond with the brand. It is also less likely to be overlooked compared to digital communications, making it a powerful tool for retaining customers.
How can businesses personalize direct mail for better retention?
Personalization can include addressing customers by name, referencing past purchases, or offering recommendations based on their buying history. This makes customers feel seen and understood, increasing the likelihood of continued patronage.
How can businesses measure the success of their direct mail retention campaigns?
Use trackable links, unique discount codes, and direct response mechanisms like pre-paid reply cards or QR codes to measure the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns. Analyzing customer feedback and tracking key metrics can also provide insights into campaign performance.
Let Triadex Help You Maintain Your Retention Program
As mentioned earlier, a good customer retention program is a beneficial part of your marketing plan. Direct mail can be an exceptional tool in building and preserving a customer retention program for your business. Contact Triadex today for help increasing your customer retention with direct mail and other strategies.