7 Tips to Turn Existing Customers Into Your Small Biz’s Biggest Advocates

Acquiring customers is nice. Keeping customers is how you stay in business.

For small business owners, the ideal state is to create a customer base that creates new customers. Not only will loyal customers keep coming back themselves, they’ll also become a linchpin of your marketing efforts.

Consider these stats from a 2014 survey of just under 5,000 consumers:

  • 88% of consumers have read reviews to determine the quality of a local business
  • 72% of consumers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more
  • Only 12% do not read reviews

Consumers trust other consumers more than an unfamiliar brand. Here are 7 tips to turn your existing customers into your company’s most vocal advocates.

Encourage them to write online reviews.

You have to decide what makes sense for your company. Some brands offer incentives for positive reviews; others simply mention it at brick-and-mortar locations or in emails. The point is to gently remind your satisfied customers that a review from them would mean a lot, without being pushy.

Use email marketing to increase brand loyalty.

According to the 2015 State of Marketing , email loyalty campaigns are among the most successful emails you’ll ever send. Seventy-two percent of email marketers rate email loyalty campaigns as very effective/effective, and 21% rate them as somewhat effective. That’s a high percentage of marketers who rely on email for customer retention. Include valuable, newsworthy, or money-saving content in your email campaigns to encourage subscribers to forward to their […]

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