Many businesses spend more time and money chasing new customers than they do maintaining existing customers or reviving recently lapsed customers. According to the Harvard Business Review, “acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five, to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.”
The pursuit of sales from new customers is actually more expensive in Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) terms than these other two segments (current customers and recently lapsed) – therefore there is a very clear financial rationale for contacting lapsed customers.
Contacting Lapsed Customers
Below are 10 successful techniques for contacting lapsed customers that will help you grow your business.
1. Contact them when you have a new service to offer them.
2. Contact them when you have completed a flagship project.
3. Use the seasonal calendar to create promotions; Christmas, Easter, Back to school etc and communicate these to lapsed customers.
4. Purchase history – recommend another of your products or services relevant to their last purchase. Amazon do this every day.
5. Referral discount – offer them a referral discount for their next purchase if a new customer quotes them as the origin of sale – typically the ‘where did you hear about us?’ question.
6. Send them exclusive articles on your niche/ specialist area and other added value information.
7. Offer a financial incentive (usually a % discount) specifically for past customers with a time limit.
8. Conduct catch up calls – ask for customer service feedback, find out what changed and assess their future needs.
9. Send them a ‘thank you for your business’ note.
10. Send them your corporate newsletter with a clear and strong call to action.
Take Action
We hope you found this information useful and of course, we would be happy to craft any of these communications pieces for you.
How much focus do you give to lapsed customers? What success have you had in that area? Let me know in the comments section below.
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B2B Content Marketing Agency London
Marketing Fundamentals Ltd is a B2B Content Marketing Agency in London that creates Content and manages Social Media for Professional Services firms. We hope you find this information useful.
If you would like our help creating and executing a Content Marketing Plan for your business or organisation give us a call on +44 (0) 845 2264 247. You can also email us via mail@marketingfundamentals.com
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Best regards,
Mike Pitt
Founder, Marketing Fundamentals Ltd
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