Shifting From Awareness to Retention: How PR Helps Retain Loyal Customers
On the heels of our recent blog on the marketing funnel, we wanted to dig in a bit deeper about how modern PR can also be an integral spoke in the sales and marketing hub for customer retention.
It costs, on average, five times more to acquire new customers than to retain existing customers. In today’s marketing landscape, we’re often focused more on bringing in the *new* rather than engaging with the *loyal* (who can, let’s not forget, help attract more new customers). While, at its core, PR is about driving awareness and relationships with the public and key audiences, strategic PR professionals can also help create strategies and tactics that create brand loyalty and retention.
Here are a few things that we, here at TJC, think about when looking more holistically at how to retain existing fans of a brand while still building broader awareness:
Build for the smallest viable audience: If you’ve been on a call with TJC, you’ve probably heard us espouse this concept about, essentially, making choices that are true to your brand and your mission, based on the smallest, most engaged audience that you need. Seth Godin penned thoughts on this brilliantly on his blog, in which he says: “The opportunity/requirement is to create so much delight and connection that they choose to spread the word to like-minded peers.”
Surprise, reward, and prop up your long-time fans and best customers: Everybody loves a freebie--of course. But there are ways beyond gifting to show the love (and in turn, get them to share their love for your brand) with your fans. We’ve developed strategies from pop ups in key markets (outside of the major metro areas) to directly engage with key customers, to digital + press campaigns that highlight organic love for our clients’ products (and in turn highlight our best customers), to first looks/first access, to promoting products that were brought back by customer demand. Make your best customers feel special, and heard.
Be transparent and communicate: This feels like a no-brainer, but in our always-on million-mile-a-minute world, we often forget about the effectiveness of simple communication. Use every channel you own to stay in front of your loyal customers consistently, and do so with communication and content that will be useful to their daily lives beyond your sales pitch.
A forward-thinking PR pro should be able to partner closely with your marketing teams to build long-term brand awareness while driving loyalty and retention as you grow. We’re happy to share more ideas from our own experience if you’d like to set up a time to chat.