Growing a business is hard work. 

You’ve created amazing products and have found audiences that resonate with your message, but how do you keep growth steady? 

While growth is a fundamental goal for almost all businesses, there is one specific aspect that most are concerned with: Customer retention. 

Most successful companies grow when they have a steady balance of existing and new customers. 

Focusing on customer retention as a growth strategy can have immense benefits for your business for various reasons.

This article will break down some of the basics of customer retention strategy and some of the top ways to improve customer retention. 

Why Focus on Customer Retention?

Relying too much on acquiring new customers for growth can cost businesses more in the long run. 

That’s because the process of lead generation, lead nurturing up to conversion, is a time-consuming process that requires a lot of resources. 

However, increasing the customer retention rate can alleviate these costs while also putting businesses on a trajectory for growth.

The main reason for this is that as customers trust your brand, they give you more business.

They know they like your product, customers can trust your company, so they are happy to keep coming back to you. 

Eventually, a solid customer retention rate can also lead to higher purchase amounts and volume orders, ensuring that you have a steady path towards growth.

Get to Know Your Customers

Customer retention is pretty much impossible without a deep understanding of who your audience is. 

You can’t tailor the right personalized experience or even design a strategy if you don’t know who it’s genuinely aimed at and what they want. 

So before starting with any strategy methods, it’s crucial to do research. 

Try to understand your audience, including what they are looking for from your brand and why they choose you? 

How can you capitalize on these strengths to bring back customers for another purchase? 

You can even ask what is preventing them from repurchasing from you. 

Many businesses do short quantitative surveys through their website to gain some insight. 

You can also do in-depth customer interviews to better understand the ‘why’ behind purchasing decisions. 

This will help you build out the solutions that customers truly need and resonate with and craft a purposeful strategy to go alongside it. 

Reward Existing Customers

One of the best ways to increase your customer retention rate is through positive reinforcement. 

There are many ways to accomplish this, and a strong strategy will blend different elements. 

One way to boost customer retention could be through special pricing, such as personalized promotional discount codes within your packaging or exclusive offers via email for their next purchase. 

A gesture like this shows that you value their business and want to offer them more value in exchange, which increases the likelihood of a repurchase. 

Custom discount codes also help you better track your customer retention rate for more precise strategy management. 

Diversify How You Sell Products

Creative selling helps you hold on to your customer base. 

Creating sales packages, deals, and other services that deliver additional value gives consumers more options when shopping with you. 

For example, subscription-based services for refilling favorite products are a great way to build recurring revenue while attracting more people. 

Or you can implement ways to cross-sell and upsell. 

The best way to do this is through diversifying your packaging, and make sure it is transferable enough to cross sell your product lines. 

This could also include sections of your website such as ‘recommended for you,’ ‘top choices for you,’ or even ‘customers also liked’ to show that you diversify how you sell to them. 

This could encompass products that are usually bought together or upgraded versions. 

Increasing the purchase amount through cross-selling and upselling is one of the best strategies for driving up customer retention rates for small businesses.

Start a Customer Loyalty Program

Another method many businesses use to increase their customer retention rate is creating a customer loyalty program. 

The program itself can take different forms, so it’s best to look at competitors to understand how they’ve designed their programs, and you can also take inspiration from major brands that are not in your industry niche. 

For example, many coffee shops offer a free coffee after ‘X’ amount of purchases. 

Or more prominent brands like Sephora offer a points-based system where customers can gain points through purchases and redeem their points for rewards. 

You can even offer perks to loyal customers, including free shipping or a monthly discount code depending on how much they purchase from you. 

Personalize Where Possible

Customers don’t want to feel like just a face in the crowd; they want to feel valued. 

So whether it’s a large corporate brand or a small business, personalization has become a significant priority. 

Personalization can vary, but the idea is to make your customers feel special and help them connect with your company. 

You can start small with a handwritten thank you note or promotional inserts, just to go that extra mile for your customers. 

Custom packaging also plays a significant role in customer satisfaction and retention, especially in the time of unboxing videos and social media. 

Add a personal touch to your packaging that resonates deeply with your customer base. 

This could include anything from design, typography, color palettes and messaging. 

Your packaging is the first point of contact that customers have with your products, so make sure it has a strong impact!

PakFactory takes your business and marketing goals into consideration to create the optimal packaging solutions for your products and customers.