10 Tactics For Increasing Your Customer Lifetime Value and Loyalty

By Sean Work

We live in an age of growth hacking and rock star startups taking the world by storm. As a result, many of us focus on new customer/user acquisition, even though it can cost 7x more than customer retention.

While there’s nothing wrong with working hard to grow your customer base, it’s important to remember the value behind customer retention and brand loyalty. Internal research from social analytics platform SumAll shows:

“25% to 40% of the total revenues of the most stable businesses in the SumAll network come from returning customers. Even better, steady customers help businesses weather lean economic times; businesses with 40% repeat customers generated nearly 50% more revenue than similar businesses with only a 10% repeat customers.”

Brand loyalty is one of the most difficult assets for a business to attain. Or, at least it was. We used to have to rely on customers having a great experience with our product/service, or with our employees. Now, we can give them a great experience, but most businesses still haven’t figured out how to do it.

Before we get into specific tactics that you can use to increase brand loyalty with your customers, I recommend checking out the Global Loyalty Sentiment Report from Nielsen. It’s filled with insight into what customers from different international markets and different verticals care about most when it comes to the brands/products they buy. This data could/should influence how you use each (or any) of the suggestions below.

1. Feature Your Fans in Your Content

Embed social media posts from fans who have shared your content or said something great about your brand to their followers. Put them in the spotlight and let them know how much you appreciate them. Once they see the reciprocity, they’ll make your brand a priority and become one of your most valuable …read more