For any digital marketing strategy or digital communications plan, defining\u00a0a set of objectives and clear strategy behind your plan is essential to\u00a0the success. This post focuses on\u00a0creating an actionable online\u00a0customer retention\u00a0plan<\/a>, <\/strong>which by definition is maintaining or growing\u00a0your existing customer base loyal to your product offering.<\/p>\n Retention<\/strong> should be at the heart of your digital strategy in maintaining and building communication with your existing customer base. Separate to this post, I\u2019ve also created an outline covering techniques for\u00a0creating a\u00a0digital marketing strategy for acquisition<\/a>.<\/p>\n So, where to start? I advise the same place as for all marketing plans!<\/p>\n Before embarking on your retention strategy, understanding your audience<\/em> is a key requirement to ensure the chosen retention tactics are in line with your existing customer base \u2013 so begin to build up a profile of the type of customer\/s that interact with your brand.<\/p>\n Retention is about engaging with your existing customer base, so you should already have a wealth of analytical insights on who your customers are, how they interact with your organisation and their purchase patterns.<\/em><\/p>\n A\u00a0Persona (definition)<\/a>\u00a0helps the rest of your organisation understand the characteristics of\u00a0customers and helps you to get buy-in from across the organisation \u2013 for example, here are a few Persona examples for an online sports retailer:<\/p>\n By bringing together the background and situation of the organisation (Understanding your audience), this content should now provide you with a set of Objectives as to why there is a requirement for a retention plan. To ensure success and buy-in within your business, create your set of retention objectives around the SMART principle<\/a>, for example:<\/p>\n Now begin to define how these objectives will be realised \u2013 by identifying which digital marketing tactics you plan to use as a retention technique in meeting the objective of the plan. The chosen tactics should be justified from the findings you uncovered in evaluating your existing customer and how they interact with your brand in section 1.<\/p>\n As an example, here are a list of digital techniques<\/strong> tailored for retention<\/strong> with defined retention measurements linked back to the Objectives<\/strong> laid out earlier in this post:<\/p>\n Whilst SEO will be\u00a0mainly be considered as a tactic to drive your acquisition objectives, there are many opportunities to utilise SEO to assist with your retention communications.<\/p>\n Creation of email templates \u2013 create and test out multiple email templates<\/strong> to your existing customer base and begin to monitor the effectiveness of your emails \u2013 look to segment your customer base and see which segment drives the best performance based on your retention measures e.g. repeat purchase<\/p>\n Ensure the right email technology<\/strong> is in place \u2013 if you\u2019re using a 3rd party email software provider, does it provide you with the opportunity to create multiple email templates? the right metric reporting?<\/p>\n Ensure email lists are data cleansed<\/strong> before commencing a campaign \u2013 have you removed and are up to date with existing customers who wish to be unsubscribed? Have you tested out your email success rate in hitting your customer inbox?<\/p>\n Personalisation: Segmentation<\/strong> of your email audience by product or defined persona group<\/p>\n Analyse your current database of Social Media followers\/fans<\/p>\n Create an Editorial content plan in place to drive timely content<\/strong> through SM channels \u2013 this should be based around the editorial plan mentioned under SEO in defining your content plan<\/p>\n Ensure you\u2019ve provided in-house training for staff to use SM channels in communicating with customers \u2013 SM provides a timely and cost effective channel in providing a real-time customer service channel<\/p>\n With the chosen retention techniques in place, it\u2019s crucial to measure and monitor the effectiveness of each channel throughout the campaign, so consider setting specific KPI\u2019s for each channel<\/strong>.\u00a0By setting KPI\u2019s, this means each measure can be quantified and used as objectives and provide on-going measurement. The control phase of the report also provides insight into whether the overall objective of the campaign is being met within the set timeframe, e.g. 12 months. \u00a0 Here are a list of suggested retention measurements that could be considered.<\/p>\n SEO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
Key insights to consider when analysing customer data for a retention plan:<\/h3>\n
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Examples of Personas<\/h4>\n
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What are the objectives for your retention strategy?<\/h3>\n
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Retention Tactics<\/h3>\n
Search Engine Optimisation for retention<\/h4>\n
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Email tactics for Retention<\/h4>\n
Social media for Retention<\/h4>\n
Affiliate Marketing for Retention<\/h4>\n
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Monitor, manage and measure your performance<\/h4>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nKPI\u2019s per retention channel<\/h4>\n