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5 Secrets For Designing Communications That Maximize Customer Retention

What in your customer communications supports the retention process?? For most companies it's a very short list because they don't understand how all business communications support customer retention. Instead of what your graphics department tells you works, try these proven customer retention design ideas.

To design marketing communications that maximize customer retention among your most profitable customers you should:

1. Collect demographics and psychographic details.? Collect this information so you'll understand clients enough to deliver what they perceive as valuable. Nevertheless, be careful only to collect what actually use, information can go stale, and collecting information you'll never use is a waste of everyone's time.
2. Focus on a single action.? Avoid confusing your message with unclear direction or multiple choices, give the receiver a single compelling action to take and spend every ounce of your message moving them toward that. Customers want to know what they should do next and will take action when you can give them enough relevant reasons to do so.
3. Measure results buyers create. It doesn't matter how many people see your marketing message if no one is purchasing as a direct result of it. Your communication either keeps or repels customers, so it's critical to use a measurable action instead of relying on "brand development."? Customers know whom they are buying from when they have enough reasons.
4. Marketing is selling in medium.? Learn from your best sales people to create materials that attract buyers with a relevant message. If you can't do that, then educate your customers about why they may have purchased from you in the past. Every communications effort must perform, or stop doing it.
5. Be meaningful to your customer.? Too often business communications satisfy the board of directors more than they provide value to customers. Focus on what helps a customer, what gets them to purchase again, what helps them get more out of what they have already purchased, and what really holds value to them.

For other ideas and strategies that can help you keep your most profitable customers, read Methods For Designing Communications So That You Keep Your Most Profitable Customers (Inside Strategic Relations; February 15, 2005; Designing Profitable Communications).

What other design ideas have you see work in your business to attract those most desired customers?

/ clearly-communicate | customer-relations /

By Justin Hitt at February 13, 2005 1:29 PM  Subscribe in a reader