Content marketing is great for acquiring new customers, building awareness, generating leads and increasing conversions. Beyond that, content marketing is a great way to retain existing customers and gain their loyalty.
When new users make an initial purchase of a product, they oftentimes need further support to fully understand its features. Smart companies recognize this need as an opportunity to create value and help users progress on their post-purchase journey.
With content, you can educate users as they journey through multiple touchpoints and keep them coming back for more. Even better, you can convince them to spread the word to others. Here’s how to improve customer retention marketing through content.
How to use content marketing for customer retention
When content marketing is done right, this can increase how often customers connect with your brand and stick around for the long haul. Here are some ways to use content marketing for customer retention:
- Publish high-quality blog content that targets relevant keywords that your audience is searching for. Create blog contents to answer customer questions, solve problems, update customers on new releases and so on.
- Use social media to build a long-lasting relationship with your customers with various forms of content, ranging from texts to graphics and short videos. This lets them know that you value their relationship with your brand.
- Answer questions that users in your target audience have submitted on forums like Quora and Reddit.
- Use emails to promote new product features. and teach your users how to use them effectively.
The Power of Customer Retention Marketing
Do you know your brand has up to a 70% chance of selling to an existing customer? This means that the chances of growing your business increases significantly when you have that first purchase locked down. This gives you an idea of how powerful customer retention marketing can be for your brand.
Why Customer Retention Strategies Are So Valuable
Customer retention is one of the best ways to measure customer loyalty. How willing are your customers to talk about your brand positively to others? Will they happily recommend your brand to family and friends? Your customer retention strategies will ensure that the answer to these questions is a resounding YES, and this reduces the churn rate.
More than 80% of businesses agree that customer retention costs less than customer acquisition. The right customer retention strategy will give you access to valuable data, build customer loyalty, boost profits, and create lifelong customers. These customers already know you exist, so you don’t have to spend so much time and resources creating awareness.
What is A Good Customer Retention Rate (CRR)?
The Customer Retention Rate (CRR) refers to the percentage of existing customers that remain loyal to your brand within a specific period. It compares how many customers you have retained within a particular time frame to the total number of customers gotten within that same time frame. While it’s not possible to have a 100% customer retention rate in light of actual market realities, you can still have an impressive average customer retention rate, just like these top industries:
| Industry | Customer Retention Rate (CRR) |
| Insurance | 83% |
| Media | 84% |
| IT services | 81% |
| Banking | 75% |
| Retail | 63% |
The marketing approach used to build customer relationships is a significant factor in these high customer retention rates. Here’s the formula to calculate your customer retention rate:
((E-N) / S) X 100 = CRR
E = Number of customers after a specific time frame
N = Number of new customers acquired within a specific time frame
S = Number of customers at the start of the specific time frame
Types of Content That Are Effective for Customer Retention
There are various types of content available in today’s digital world. However, the types that are most effective for customer retention are blog posts, videos, social media posts, user-generated content and emails.
What do these types of content have in common? They emphasize the importance of a two-way communication channel between you and your customers. Here are some examples to take a look at:
- Videos are great for engaging people with visual content. For example, you can create Youtube videos to educate users about your product
- With blog posts, you can share valuable information about your brand and solve potential problems before customers contact you.
- Social media posts and emails that can be used to give your customers amazing offers and get valuable insights into what they expect from your brand.
These will lead to repeat purchases, reduced costs, and increased brand loyalty.
How Do You Use Content Marketing Strategy To Increase Customer Retention
Customer retention marketing using content marketing strategies are in five crucial stages. These will enhance lead generation and reduce churn rate.
1. Awareness Stage
Every business model is built on providing solutions to the problem of your customers. In the awareness stage, your focus should be on attracting potential customers by letting them know you understand their problem and can fix it. Use relatable content marketing materials like videos, social media posts, free ebooks, and email marketing.
2. Consideration Stage
At this stage, customers are about to decide whether to choose your brand or move over to a competitor. Your aim at this stage is to educate them on why they must choose you. Create educative content to show potential customers how your products work and how they can use this effectively. The right content strategy at this stage will include webinars, reviews and testimonials, case studies, and blog posts.
3. Conversion Stage
The first two stages are not about selling but guiding your customers toward noticing your brand. The conversion stage is perfect for selling because this is the point where potential customers are ready to buy. Use call-to-action within your content to nudge them towards clicking the buy button. Examples of content for this stage are webinars, videos, and FAQs.
4. Loyalty Stage
This is the most crucial aspect of customer retention. To ensure your company grows, incorporate customer retention strategies that convince customers to keep buying from you, while building lifetime value. Use whitepapers, social media posts, in-app messages and guides, customer onboarding emails, and blog posts to send valuable information to them and request feedback to ensure continuous growth.
5. Advocacy Stage
Your customers are loyal at this stage, but this is not the time to stop. Loyalty means that they are repeat customers, and the advocacy stage is the perfect time to encourage them to share their positive experiences with others. Turn your customers into advocates using discount offers, reward programs, referral links, and exclusive content that makes them feel valued.
To gain deeper insights into Churn360, we recommend setting up a demo with one of our experts for a detailed walkthrough
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Tips for Improving Customer Retention Rates With Content Marketing
Improving customer retention rates with content marketing is not rocket science. Here are some practical tips to help:
- Send attention-grabbing onboarding emails: How engaging are your onboarding emails? Make them attention-grabbing by incorporating valuable information about your brand and including tips to make interactions with your products seamless.
- Use customer intelligence in a smart way: Content marketing gives you access to customer data. Use this to your advantage by studying customer behavior to understand when to incorporate specific customer retention strategies.
- Create a help and resource center: Customers appreciate spending as little time as possible searching for solutions. With a help and resource center containing high-quality information, you can increase customer satisfaction and reduce churn.
- Implement Improvements to Process Quickly and Announce Those Changes with Content: Stay proactive and in touch with your customers by acting on their feedback promptly and announcing these changes so they are fully aware.
- Understand Where To Use Automation: Automation saves time and resources. Incorporate automation into your marketing strategies, such as scheduling social media posts and emails. You can also use automation to respond to customer inquiries before linking them with a human agent.
- Build Your Website to Be a Retention Resource and Machine: Your website is a fantastic way to introduce your brand. It also works as an excellent tool for keeping customers informed on the latest updates. Use this as a retention resource that customers can regularly visit for up-to-date information.
- Develop KPIs to Understand How Content is Currently Contributing to Retention: KPIs measure the effectiveness of your customer retention marketing strategies and areas for improvement. Use this to monitor how your content contributes to retention and ways to improve results.
Conclusion
Never underestimate the power of customer retention marketing through content. Creating valuable content is reason enough for users to stick around and use your product. Include customer education as a seamless part of your product experience and gain insight into valuable customer data that will boost loyalty with the right Customer retention software.
