How To Market To Your Current Customers (And Why You Should)

When planning their marketing strategies, many small business owners tend to focus solely on acquiring new customers. While growing your customer base is undoubtedly important, so is engaging with your current and past customers. In this blog, we will explore how you can grow your business by marketing to your existing customer base. 

Why Should You Target Your Current Customers?

So why should you spend some of your marketing resources on your current customers instead of exclusively focusing on generating new ones? Simply put, existing customers are easier to market to than potential new customers.  Existing customers already know your brand, trust your products or services, and have made a purchase before. This familiarity makes them easier to convert and often more receptive to upselling or cross-selling. In fact, studies have shown that acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer. The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is also considerably higher (60-70%) than the success rate of selling to a new customer (5-20%).

Additionally, existing customers can help grow your customer base further by becoming brand advocates (helping you acquire new customers through word-of-mouth and referrals). Retaining current customers is, therefore, not just about maintaining your existing customer base, but also about building long-lasting relationships that fuel sustainable growth.

How To Market To Your Current Customers

 So, how do you go about marketing to your existing customer base? Here are a few key strategies:

1. Share Quality Content

The key to retaining customers lies in the content you share. Consistently offer valuable, relevant, and high-quality content that resonates with your audience. This content can include informative blog posts, how-to guides, entertaining videos, and engaging visuals. By providing content that your customers find useful and entertaining you keep them engaged with your brand. 

2. Personalized Content

Tailor your marketing campaigns to each customer’s preferences and behaviours. Use their past purchase history and interactions with your brand to send personalized product recommendations, special offers, and relevant content. When customers receive communications that resonate with their interests, they are more likely to engage and make repeat purchases.

3. Loyalty Programs

Customer loyalty programs are a great way of encouraging repeat business. Whether you give them exclusive discounts, free products or free gifts on their birthday, loyalty programs give additional benefits to your customers that they won’t get from your competitors.

4. After-Sales Follow-Up

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that the sale isn’t done when the transaction happens. How you interact with the customer post-purchase will go a long way to determining if they will continue to do business with you, or move on to your competition. Some common methods of after-sales follow up include:

• Sending thank-you messages. 
• Order confirmations, regular updates and tracking information for e-commerce purchases.  
• Asking for feedback. Address any issues promptly to demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. 
• Automated email sequences to request reviews, offer loyalty rewards or give helpful tips after a purchase.

Choosing the Right Marketing Channels

So now that we know how to market to your customers, the question becomes which marketing channels are the best to reach them and put these strategies into practice. Our two favourites are social media and e-mail marketing.

Social Media

Social media provides the perfect platform to keep your current (and past) customers engaged with your business. Firstly, it gives you a way to communicate directly with your customers; keeping them informed about upcoming sales, new products / services that you offer while also providing helpful tips about how to get more value out of their purchases. This keeps your business at the front of their minds and encourages them to make more purchases in the future. 

Secondly, social media gives those customers a way of sharing your content with their friends and family. Everytime they comment on or share one of your posts, it appears on the timelines of their friends and family, spreading the word while also providing an endorsement of your business. This kind of content is more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on, amplifying its reach and impact.

Lastly, social media opens up opportunities to implement strategies for improving content quality effectively. By consistently sharing well-researched, accurate, and engaging content, you not only maintain your current customers’ trust but also boost your brand’s reputation. Such content tends to be more shareable, likable, and comment-worthy, amplifying its reach and impact.

Email Marketing

E-mail marketing is another powerful tool for marketing to your existing customer base. It provides another way to keep your customers informed about your business while also giving you more control over who sees what message; allowing you to customize your messaging to different segments of your audience. Examples of this customization include:

• Sending reminders to people who have purchased a product with a specific shelf life when they are likely to need to replace it. 
• Sending an exclusive offer to past customers to encourage them to do business with you again.
• Create customized content that aligns with the customer’s purchase history, providing them with timely, useful information.
• Send exclusive offers to past customers, encouraging them to do business with you again.
• Promoting loyalty program benefits through email and sending exclusive offers to members.
• Expressing gratitude and confirming orders while automating reviews and loyalty rewards for post-purchase customer satisfaction.

Measuring Your Efforts

One of the most important parts of any marketing strategy is checking your results. Tracking metrics such as engagement rates and click-through rates will help you refine your content strategy. For instance, if you notice that a specific type of content or topic generates more engagement, you can create more of it to keep your audience interested.

In addition to monitoring engagement, it’s essential to track conversion rates on your website. Implementing exclusive promo codes or special offers can provide insights into which strategies are driving sales. Furthermore, examining your customer’s average spend year over year can reveal the long-term impact of your marketing efforts.

Measuring your efforts in ways like this will help you gauge the effectiveness of your strategies and make data-driven decisions to maximize customer retention and business growth over time.

Wrapping Up

In the world of business acquiring new customers is undeniably important. Retaining your existing customer base is equally, if not more, crucial. Your current customers are a valuable asset, and with the right marketing strategies, you can unlock their full potential to foster brand loyalty and grow your business.