You may be familiar with the story of the two mountain men who set about trapping bears so they could sell the bearskins. One of them had a sure-fire approach for trapping the bears. He’d smother himself in honey, run through the woods until a bear began to chase him, and then dash into the open front door of his cabin with the bear in hot pursuit. His partner would shut the front door and his honey-soaked partner would run out the back door—closing it behind him. Mr. Honey Britches would then yell through the window: “You skin that one and I’ll bring back more!”
When it comes to business, “keeping customers in the cabin” is crucial to success. The good news is that some of the inbound marketing strategies you use to bring in new customers are also effective in retaining them. Here are just a few.
Great Content: Offering quality educational content is a great way to win customers. But it’s also a way to keep those customers coming back. Educate your existing customers about your industry and the value of your product or service. They may have only scratched the surface when it comes to using your products or services. Customer-only webinar training sessions are a great tool for doing this.
Foster Feedback: Nobody can help you improve your products and services quite like the people that actually use them. Take advantage of online survey tools, email and social to collect valuable feedback from your customers. Set up regular customer surveys and explain to your clients how their feedback will be reviewed and used to make improvements.
Build a Customer Team: You can empower your customers to help one another. Customers can be your best customer service representatives. They work with your products and services all the time. And by helping other customers, you can actually build up a sense of community and loyalty. Consider creating online forums so that customers can assist one another.
Tell us how you’re using inbound tools to retain customers.