It's Not How Much You Make But How Much You Keep
Customer retention in B2B firms has rightly become one of the top priorities among heads of sales, marketing, and even operations as savvy businesses realize that everyone in the company is in sales and it only takes one employee having one bad moment to make headlines far and wide for all the wrong reasons.
As your B2B firm and staff increasingly leverage and rely upon social media to acquire and retain customers, it's smart to have a plan to engage with your customers via both direct communications and loyalty tactics.
You know that it's 6-7 times more costly to acquire new customers than it is to retain existing ones.
In addition, there is the strategy, development and promotion of campaigns for social media, loyalty programs, subscription and curation programs.
All of these B2B marketing elements come together for an effective ROI.
Social Media
Social media for B2B companies is emerging as the second-highest tool to engage with partners and vendors.
According to a report from Salesforce.com on the state of marketing going into 2017, 39% of marketers report significant ROI generated from social media marketing in 2016 compared to just 9% in 2015.
In the same report, 82% of marketers agree that social media marketing is core to their business.
Loyalty and Curation
B2B companies that use loyalty programs can improve their customer's overall knowledge, increase customer retention and bolster revenue.
Using a subscription or a curation model, for instance, can help customers and gain their loyalty.
Online customers can get lost searching for what they actually need on the Web.
Companies that offer B2B curation in search are experts and can help to build a loyal group of customers who subscribe to these types of models on a monthly basis.
Keeping Competitive
In today's new SaaS realities, how can B2B software providers truly offer a one-of-a-kind product?
How can these companies serve and protect their software and keep them from being duplicated by the competition? What steps do companies have to take to produce and sustain their intellectual property across business lines.
Here are some key ways that software companies can bolster its customer acquisition and enable methods for retention.
Customer Expansion
- Seek to grow your circle of customers in new markets.
- Establish and manage your inner team's process and organization.
- Understand shifts in customer behavior, both online and offline.
- Where are your customers and what are their priorities? Focus on knowing these.
- Undertake loyalty analysis: know your customers' angles, partnerships, business bias and more.
- Be vigilant about your top-valued relationships.
Targeting Customers
- Segment-specific targeted campaigns - Look to the range of customers you're servicing and carve and slice up their need for your services.
- Multi-channel campaign strategy: Approach social media, email marketing, social ads and industry shows. You might even consider a personalized Christmas card as a distribution channel today.
- Deliver a great customer experience, from first email note promise to daily social feedback.
Customer Connections
- Track campaign effectiveness with solid analytics capability (including marketing ROI).
- Enable a consistent customer experience across channels and capabilities.
- Develop a brand-customer trust-based relationship across customer touch points.
Overall, B2B companies need to focus heavily for the rest of the year on developing a structured marketing plan and strategy that defines customer segments, attracts new customers, keeps new ones and supports loyalty programs to build effective ROI.
Market like you mean it. Now go sell something! 👍
