11 Jul 12 Ways To Maximize Customer Lifetime Value [Infographic]
Want to make more money without having to attract more customers?
Well, instead of searching for the latest “hack” to grow your business, let’s get back to the basics and focus on maximizing the lifetime value of your current customers.
Check out my infographic below to learn 12 insanely-effective customer lifetime value strategies used by world-class brands like Starbucks, Amazon and Tesla.
1. Generate passive income with recurring subscriptions.
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If you want to get paid like clockwork, offer recurring subscriptions to your customers.
Not only is it the easiest way to create passive income for your business, it creates lifelong customers.
Even if you’re not selling memberships, you might be surprised what kinds of things you can create a subscription for.
Check out MeUndies for example, they are a wildly popular underwear company that offers customers a 33% discount on future underwear when they signup for their monthly subscription program:
This can turn a $24 purchase into $200 over 12 months. That’s 733% more money every time someone signs up!
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2. Increase average order size with order bumps.
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An order bump is the equivalent of: “Do you want fries with that?”
When you offer complimenting products before a customer completes their purchase, they will be much more likely to add those products to their purchase.
Ever shop on Amazon?
They are probably the single best example of using order bumps to maximize each sale:
3. Increase backend sales and engagement with email followups.
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An incredibly simple way to engage customers after they make a purchase is with automated emails.
Check out this example from BOOM by Cindy Joseph who sends a series of emails to each customer:
Your post-purchase emails should accomplish the following:
- Build excitement for purchase
- Pitch other products
- Collect feedback
- Get user generated content
- Earn referrals
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4. Turn an average sale into an EPIC sale with timely upsells.
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A strange phenomena occurs when people make a purchase…
They enter a “buying mode” which makes it the perfect time to offer an additional product to boost their purchase size.
If you’re selling online, you can even take advantage of 1-click upsell tools like SamCart that let you do what Bryan Harris from VideoFruit did with his new product.
Right after someone makes a purchase, they are pitched an additional $397 offer:
According to his case study, this alone made him an extra $30,000 on a single launch.
Even if you’re not selling digital products, upselling your customers on other products and services you offer is an incredibly simple, yet effective way to make more money.
Related:
- How to Use Upselling to Increase Customer Happiness, Retention and Revenue
- How to Increase Revenue and Improve the Customer Experience with Upselling and Cross-Selling
5. Bring customers back with exclusive specials.
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It’s no secret that email is the highest converting marketing channel.
Why is it so effective?
Not only does it keep you and your business “top of mind” but it also enables you to bring customers back with exclusive offers and deals that get’s them to spend more money.
A smart strategy to employe is using holidays and events that compliment your business.
For example, if you own a flower shop, Valentines Day is probably the biggest day of your year.
On the other hand, companies that sell things like clothing should focus more on seasonal promotions like Proper Cloth:
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6. Maximize your profit margins with bundles.
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Some products have terrible profit margins, that’s just how it goes.
You can offset that by combining multiple products into individual offers.
Check out how Today’s Patio makes it super easy to find a set of patio furniture by creating entire categories for their product bundles:
Plus, when you can successfully package low-margin and high-margin products together, you can attach a premium price tag to that bundle and make more money.
Here’s a perfect example of a product bundle from Canon:
Related:
- How to get people to give you their products for free so you can sell more of your product
- Sidestep the Competition with Product Bundles
7. Optimize your buyer journey by collecting feedback.
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Let’s be honest, if you don’t ask customers what they actually think, you’ll never be able to identify bottlenecks in sales process.
Using surveys (or quizzes) to collect feedback is the easiest way to figure out what’s working and what needs to be fixed.
With all the valuable insights you collect, you’ll be able to enhance your customer experience in no time.
Here’s another example from BOOM By Cindy Joseph who combines an automated email (tip #3) toask every single customer for their feedback using a short survey:
Related:
- The 5 Best Ways to Get Feedback from Your Customers
- How to Collect Customer Feedback That’s Actually Valuable
8. Appeal to different people with pricing tiers.
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So how are pricing tiers a customer retention strategy?
When you offer multiple price points for your products and services you’ll be able to attract more people and past customers with varying budgets by making it easy for everyone to get what they want.
This is a highly-effective way of getting customers to spend a little extra money for additional perks and features.
Car companies have been doing this for years now:
Pricing tiers can even work if you’re selling services:
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9. Use personalization to give customers exactly what they want.
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Treating your customers like rockstars with personalized content and offers is key to developing lifelong relationships.
The easiest way to do this is to create 3-5 categories that your customers typically fall under.
Use those categories to create different segments in your email database. That way you can create content, email autoresponders and offers for each segment/category.
Creative brands like Bombfell and Stitch Fix take things a step further with their personal stylist services:
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10. Feature your fans in content and on social media.
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Digital and social media has given new meaning to the word “sharing.”
You can use this to your advantage by sharing customer stories in your marketing while at the same time encouraging customers to create and share user generated content (UGC).
You can use a unique hashtag that way it’s easy for you to find and share their photos and videos.
Have you ever seen a social media wall at a big event or hip restaurant?
It’s an incredibly engaging way to make customers feel like they a part of your community while getting them to share your business with their friends and family.
Related:
- 10 User Generated Content Campaigns That Actually Worked
- 7 Social Media Wall Platforms for Your Next Event
11. Reward loyal customers for their patronage.
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Give customers a reason to keep coming back to your business with loyalty programs.
It’s important that you make it super easy for people to signup and use their rewards otherwise you could end up ruining a customer’s experience instead of making it better.
Starbucks offers their customers a flexible reward program with tons of perks and membership benefits:
Related:
- 6 Creative Ways to Revive Your Loyalty Program
- 8 Effective Tips for Creating Successful Loyalty Programs
12. Win lifelong fans with stellar customer service.
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Every other customer retention strategy is useless if you’ve got bad customer service.
That’s why companies who can provide seamless customer support and resolve issues fast, win customers for life.
It’s best to always aim to exceed your customers’ expectations.
Check out what Morton’s Steakhouse did for a hungry customer that jokingly asked them for a porterhouse to be delivered to the Newark airpot:
Now that’s going above and beyond!
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Here’s What To Do Next…
Now it’s time to put what you’ve learned into action.
Leave a comment below right now letting me know what customer retention strategy you think might work best for your business…
Or maybe you don’t think any of these strategies will work for you?
Either way let me know in the comments below.
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