Reasons Why Businesses Should Use AU Direct Mail for Customer Retention 

Customer retention refers to a series of actions a business takes and a combination of strategies it adopts to keep its existing customers coming back. An effective customer retention process increases repeat business to maximize profitability.

With the right customer retention strategy, a business can acquire and provide more value and ensure a better customer experience. Customer retention starts with the first contact you make with a customer and it continues throughout their relationship with your business.

Focusing on existing customers who speak positively of your brand is also important because they the most powerful medium of marketing – through word of mouth and social media.

An incredible way to create a result-oriented customer retention strategy is direct mail. Direct mail provides you with the opportunity to send your customers 100% personalized mails and offer them special discounts and promotions.

Why Customer Retention Matters

To understand the importance of customer retention, have a look at the following findings based on research and marketing statistics.

• The chances of selling your products or services to existing customers are always higher than new prospects.
• Existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products than new customers.
• It can cost five times more to attract a new customer than retain an existing one.
• A 5% increase in customer retention rates increases profits by 25% to 95%
• Well-designed strategies help a business outperform its competitors since retention fundamentally focuses on customer engagement.
• People prefer to purchase from a business that is consistent in their customer service across online and offline channels.
• When it comes to planning budgets, programs, and campaigns, customer retention comes out as a clear winner over customer acquisition.

Customer Retention Strategies Using Direct Mail

There are a number of ways and strategies that can be used through direct mail to achieve customer retention.

1. Connect with Customers Individually

Direct mail is a great customer retention tool because it can be completely personalized.

From making the customers feel special with a thank you note, to providing exclusive offers and personalized catalogues, direct mail is all about connecting with your existing customers at a personal level. Having the customer’s name, location and other credentials on the mail makes them more likely to open the mail.

But, it’s not just about customer’s name and address, you can make them feel special through a special promotion that is either consistent with their past purchases, or suggests new ways of using your product, or provide tips that are relevant to your industry. All this helps in very meaningful ways to keep the existing customers engaged with your brand.

2. Reinforce Brand Image

Used wisely, direct mail plays a huge role in brand reinforcement among your existing customers. Professional mail companies use colours, fonts, and other brand-related elements consistently to reinforce your brand image. Since the material delivered through direct mail is tangible, it leaves a more long-term impression on the minds of the customers and they are better able to remember your brand. This ensures that customers think about your brand, whenever they need a product or service that your business offers.

3. Introduce Engaging Customer Loyalty Programs

Loyal customers are the key asset to your business. The top 20% of customers of a business generate nearly 80% of their revenue. Direct mail is a wonderful way to keep your most loyal customers happy.
The key here is messaging. Target the biggest fans of your brand with an exclusive offer that inspires them to act or push customers to the next level of loyalty. A flyer is a great way to feature all the awesome things along with the special offer.

Besides providing extra perks, targeted offers, and thoughtful surprises to your top customers, mail services can also be used for introducing general loyalty programs. Here, you can specify the number of purchases a customer has to make to join the program along with the benefits they will be entitled to.

4. Reactivate Dormant Customers

Direct mail can also help you win back and reactivate your dormant customers. First, you need to know why they are no longer buying. It may be a bad experience or a matter of seasonality. You can use a Business Reply Mail card or drive consumers to a unique URL printed in their mail to motivate them to respond to a survey. Remember to thank them with an exciting reward.

Once you know why your old customers are not buying, you can work on re-establishing your relationship with them. Use a targeted direct mail campaign that resolves the issue and addresses the reason they left. The campaign should also include a motivating offer to return. Keep enticing your dormant customers with special offers throughout the year and use direct mail to stay in front of them, so that when they are ready to buy again, you will be top of mind.

5. Bonuses And Referrals

Give bonuses to your loyal customers. Make it a special privilege instead of a one-time discount or a coupon, for example, free shipping or new product installation, free add-on to the product they purchased, extended opening hours for your loyal customers, and an “honoured member” status with some benefits included.
Offer a present or a discount if your customers refer your business to a friend. Restaurants and bookstores frequently use this strategy to grow their databases.

Things To Do Before Launching A Direct Mail Retention Campaign

1. Analyse all available purchasing history to create relevant messaging.
2. Think of something special for each of your loyal customers.
3. Plan for cross channel customer experience. Lead your customers to your company’s website or social media profiles where they can make purchases, redeem proposed offers, use coupons, or interact with your brand.

To sum it up, direct mail can take your customer retention drive to the next level. To get the maximum out of your marketing campaign, always use direct mail as one of your strategies, whether you are an online business or a traditional street-side business.