- Contest Factory
- December 10, 2019
Every B2B company knows how to acquire leads, but many of those companies don’t have a follow-up plan, or a talented sales rep that’s able to convert leads into customers and sales. Approximately 79% of leads are never converted to sales, with many of them not even followed-up. When this happens, your company misses out on major opportunities.
As every business owner knows, it is harder to acquire a customer than it is to keep a customer. In order to keep those channel partners you’ve already acquired, you simply need to keep them happy and consistently engaged with your product and company.
Successful B2B companies will lean towards a lead nurturing marketing strategy that builds relationships, qualifies and converts prospects into clients, and most importantly, into sales. Lead nurturing campaigns educate, develop brand and product awareness, and build trust so that the prospect will eventually convert.
Customer Retention Campaign Strategies
After conversion, keeping your customers engaged and motivated is essential for them to continue purchasing your products or services.
There are many ways to boost engagement with your customers. Here are some ideas for a few lead nurturing or drip campaigns to increase retention.
- Onboarding Campaign
Once you have the prospect on board, they are now a customer that you must retain. Sending out automated product kickoff information and timelines, FAQs, training resources, image/data sheet downloads, and MDF (marketing development funds) information can be applied without waiting for assistance from a sales rep.
- Product or Customer Satisfaction Surveys
- Your customers are what keeps your company successful and in business, so listening to what they have to say about your product and company is paramount.
- How did they like the product? What improvements can be made? How easy is the product to use?
- How does your customer service compare with your competitors?
- Keep in mind that a survey should be no longer than 10 questions or many customers will lose interest and end up not giving you any feedback.
- Brand Ambassador Campaign
- Brand ambassador programs help get the word out about your products, services, and brands. With social media now influencing so many aspects of a business, it helps to have your best customers actively talking about your company online.
- Use quotes from long term accounts that are positive about your products, company, and services, and post them on your website and social media channels.
- Award the account for having the best training techniques to sell your products and services.
- Referral Campaign
- Incentivize your customers with discounts, awards, gifts, and special promotions for referring other prospects.
- Create themed contests that challenge your customers to submit as many referrals as possible.
- Loyalty Campaign
- Re-engage inactive customers.
- Set-up tiered sales incentives based on the level of the partner.
- Award each level of your partner program with an extravagant trip for the top-selling partner and sales rep.
- Encourage training incentives like surveys, daily product trivia, and quizzes where they can immediately receive awards.
- Appreciation Campaign
This is a great customer-centric campaign that shows your customers they are appreciated.
- Feature partners in an email, newsletters, and a page on your website that go above and beyond to sell your products.
- Encourage customers to write a blog, testimonial, case study, or industry article about their experience with your company.
- Cross-Sell Campaign
- Incentivize your customer base to expand their list of products by focusing on the benefits of offering an overall solution for their end user.
- Payment Option Campaign
- By offering a variety of payment options it will entice your customers to increase their purchase amount.
- Offer a number of payment options in the form of checks, ACH, e-procurement, extended credit, and good old cash.
- Renewal Drip Campaign
- Remind current customers that it is time to renew their contracts.
- Begin sending out email reminders that their renewal date is approaching over a specific timeframe.
- Set-up an automated notification to the user when no action has taken place. This can also be used to notify the sales rep about account renewal.
In Conclusion
When it comes to retaining your B2B customer, the ideas are endless. Overall, implementing simple and easy programs through email drip campaigns, newsletters, and social media will make them feel valued and important.
