Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, without them it’s useless.
Keep in mind the importance of tracking your customer data metrics. Two of them are customer retention and customer lifetime value. These metrics provide insight into which customers you have to prioritize to increase your retention efforts.
Customer retention is defined as the number of customers you can retain for a specific period while Customer Lifetime Value refers to the worth of each customer over their entire relationship with your business.
Honestly, in the outdoor gear industry, this is very important because your target audience are individual who have an active lifestyle and is most likely to need various things from time to time which means that retaining one customer would mean a lot for your business!
You can call it insane but the truth is people who wanna stay healthy has to accept the cost of being healthy and they often don’t care about cost when it comes to health.
Read on and learn more about these two metrics and how you can enhance your strategies to improve them.
How Customer Retention Directly Impacts The Customer Lifetime Value Of Outdoor Gear Stores
Before we move to the different strategies you can implement for your business, let’s dive into the connection of your customer retention on how it directly impacts the customer’s lifetime value.
A high customer lifetime value can provide an insight into your potential for a steady growth of a business in the long term which makes it a must-track metric.
Then how do you think you can maximize your CLV?
Well, you need to understand how to retain your customers. This will enable you to segment your active customers properly and be able to boost your products which you need to promote to several groups of individuals with specific interests and needs from your list.
Retaining customers can help you increase your customer loyalty and brand awareness which in the long term can help you increase revenue and CLV.
Why Do You Need To Retain Your Outdoor Gear Customers?
This is self-explanatory but many business owners don’t see the value of retaining customers
In the outdoor business, returning customers are extremely valuable. These people are a prime audience to nurture and retain because they have already demonstrated an interest in and enthusiasm for outdoor activities.
You can cultivate brand loyalty and gain several advantages by concentrating on their requirements and preferences.
Strengthening bonds with current customers promotes brand loyalty. Adventure, exploration, and a sense of closeness to nature are frequently the driving forces behind the outdoor sector of the economy.
Additionally, Customers grow a strong sense of loyalty and attachment to a brand when they discover one that shares their values, exceeds their expectations, and provides exceptional experiences.
These devoted customers not only continue to support your brand but also act as promoters, generating favorable word-of-mouth and bringing in new clients.
Why Your Existing Customers Are Important?
To grow a business, it is required to maintain the existing customer and keep acquiring new customers.
New customers can help your business to grow more but existing customers will help to increase your profit more. Acquiring new customers will require you with more marketing expenses rather than existing customers.
Take note that it is less expensive to keep current clients than to find new ones.
Maintaining relationships with existing customers typically involves lower costs than acquiring new ones, which often necessitates significant marketing and advertising expenditures.
You can more effectively allocate resources and increase return on investment by concentrating on customer retention.
First of all, returning customers are more likely to do continuous activities. Outdoor enthusiasts frequently participate in activities that call for specialized equipment and accessories, whether it be hiking gear, camping gear, or outdoor clothing.
You can build a reputation for quality and dependability by offering exceptional goods and experiences, which will entice customers to make more purchases from you in the future.
Additionally, returning customers offer insightful commentary. They can help you understand the changing needs and preferences of your target market as well as suggest ways to make improvements and point out your strengths.
Simply put, it’s a lot easier to sell to them again and also to help them recommend you
Note that improving your goods, services, and overall customer experience can help maintain your competitiveness and relevancy.
Benefits Of Customer Retention To Outdoor Gear Stores
Due to habit, customer retention in the outdoor gear industry will be more advantageous because upselling and cross-selling are very simple to do with this type of product.
Once you are aware of the customer’s behavior pattern. It will be easy to sell and get more profit.
Here are the 3 main benefits of retaining customers for your business:
Increase Revenue without spending money on new customers
Customer retention can increase revenue easily without even spending a lot on marketing and convincing new customers for the same product.
Retained customers are more likely to make repeat purchases compared to new customers resulting in a more predictable revenue stream for your business.
Additionally, they are more likely to refer their friends, family, and colleagues, which can lead to new customer acquisitions through word-of-mouth marketing.
Customer retention can reduce your marketing costs and allocate resources allowing you to invest those saved resources in other areas of growth or improvement.
Consistently delivering exceptional customer experiences and building long-term relationships fosters a positive brand reputation. Your satisfied customers are more likely to become your brand advocates, promoting the business to others through positive reviews, testimonials, and social media.
This will in the future attract new customers and differentiate your business from your competitors which will help you increase your overall income.
Lastly, customer retention helps maximize your CLV. Nurturing long-term relationships can help your business generate more revenue from each customer over their lifetime.
Cost Effective Marketing (Email, SMS, Web push)
Data is everything in today’s world.
So it’s hard to find your exact customer with the help of different tools or digital marketing. But you probably haven’t thought that it’s easier to target your previous customers. This is because they bought your product and have an experience with it.
Having a large database with consistent existing customers surely will help to generate low marketing cost revenue rather than the cost of occurring new customers using digital marketing
You can create automated email, SMS, and web push campaigns using a good marketing automation tool like Vibetrace. Through automation, your time and resources are saved while timely and reliable customer communication is maintained.
Although email, SMS, and web push notifications require customers to opt-in or provide consent to receive communications.
This guarantees that the recipients of these messages have indicated a desire to interact with your business. This opt-in nature leads to a more receptive audience and higher chances of conversion.
Competitive Advantage by Collecting Valuable customer insights
To compete with the other brand you need your customer insights to understand their behavior and generate the most possible sales revenue. There are many decisions you would love to take after having customer insights.
Making decisions that are centered on the needs and preferences of the customer is possible when you gather information directly from your customers.
Customer insights can point out areas for improvement and spot potential problems before they spread widely. By proactively addressing your customer concerns and fixing flaws in products or services, you can maintain your customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Additionally, this allows you to identify unique selling points and differentiate yourself in the market.
Top Causes Of Bad Retention
There are many conditions where customers can have a bad taste of the brand experience.
But not often because of the use of the product. The main reason for bad retention could be bad customer support or after-service.
Here are the two top causes of Bad Retention.
One Bad Experience
It’s critical to take care of the customers at the beginning.
The first time a customer interacts with your business, that relationship’s whole tone is established.
If they had a bad first impression which could be with your product or user experience, it can be challenging to change that perception. It makes customers wonder if they made the right decision and might prompt them to look for alternatives.
Once a customer has a negative experience, he or she may decide not to do business with your business, it not only affects customer retention but also increases the need for more money to recruit new customers to make up for the ones who are lost.
Poor Customer Service
Another cause of bad retention is poor customer service.
Failing to communicate effectively won’t help you to provide updates on the status of the problem of your customers which can lead to a risk of losing them.
Proper communication matters because maintaining solid customer relationships requires open and proactive communication.
When you repeatedly fail to acknowledge and fix customer issues, it not only breeds dissatisfaction but also gives the impression that customers’ needs are not necessary to your business.
Your customers anticipate prompt, effective responses to their questions, concerns, or grievances. Customers may start looking for alternatives if your business doesn’t respond to their inquiries in a timely and helpful manner.
Try your best to destroy the reputation. A single bad review can stop many customers to buy from your brand.
Strategies To Increase Customer Retention
There can be many strategies that can be used to enhance customer retention for your outdoor gear store.
Although you need the best and proven effective strategies otherwise you will just be wasting your time and effort executing strategies that don’t work.
Here are the six proven effective strategies to increase customer retention:
Establishing A Loyalty Program To Incentivize
One of the greatest and most successful retention strategies is to have a loyalty program. Create a customer loyalty program to encourage reordering. Give your devoted customers rewards, special discounts, or VIP benefits.
Encourage them to use referral programs to spread the word about your company. These initiatives promote both customer acquisition and retention.
There are several crucial steps involved in implementing a loyalty program in the outdoor industry.
First, specify your goals and the outcomes you hope the program will produce, such as higher repeat business or a higher customer retention rate.
Next, create enticing rewards for outdoor enthusiasts, like special access to outdoor activities or discounts on equipment.
Pick a program type, whether it’s points-based, tiered, or subscription-based, that matches your business model.
Utilize customer data to customize the program by making rewards and offers more suited to specific preferences.
Utilize various marketing channels to spread the word about the program and promote participation. Continually assess the program’s performance and make adjustments based on user feedback.
Giving Due Attention To Customer Complaints
The first sign of good business is never to let your customer walk unhappily.
If you want to care for the growth of your business and the retention of your customers, it requires you to focus on customer support and complaints.
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This is because customers are hard to please but easy to lose with one mistake. When customers know that they can trust your brand whatever happen to their purchase they would be willingly repurchased at your store with the relief that they don’t have to worry about anything.
Well, this can be very expensive but by using special software like Vibetrace, your problem can be minimized and the quality of customer support will be increased.
Maintaining An Active Presence On Social Media
Social media is more about creative photography. It’s beneficial to have a photoshoot of your outdoor products.
For businesses today, keeping an active social media presence is essential.
Post interesting content frequently and engage with your followers. Share updates, valuable information, and quickly reply to comments and messages.
To encourage brand loyalty and increase your reach, stay current and develop relationships with your followers.
You must also answer questions, messages, and comments as soon as possible. You may as well create connections with your audience to encourage advocacy for your brand then analyze social media analytics to track results and improve your plan.
Implementing Email Marketing Campaigns
In the outdoor industry, implementing email marketing campaigns can be a successful way to interact with your audience and promote company expansion.
Email marketing campaigns can be a very effective approach too no matter how old this is. There are many ways in which you can use email marketing campaigns. This can be proven very effective.
It will be really easy for you to run different campaigns using emails from the ready-made email template library offered by software tools like Vibetrace.
By using email marketing, you can promote new products and call attention, encourage purchases, increase credibility and trust, share customer testimonials and reviews, utilize flash sales, and promote related equipment to upsell and cross-sell.
Additionally, you may send targeted emails to different parts of your email list based on their interests and preferences.
Targeting Marketing Efforts Towards The Specific Interests Of Customers
Targeting specific customers through marketing and social media would be hard but targeting existing customers based on target marketing would be easy and effective too.
There are many ways to target the customers. Here are a few ways to target them:
- Segment customers based on preferences and interests
- Exclusive promotions and benefits matched customer preferences.
- Customized content highlighting the outdoor industry interests of customers.
- Fostering a sense of belonging among clients with similar interests.
- Individualized product suggestions based on preferences and previous purchases.
- Feedback is continuously gathered to comprehend changing interests.
- observing online forums and social media for clues about customer interests.
Top Customer Retention Tactic Examples Of Successful Outdoor Gear Brands
Marmot
One of the known Customer Retention Strategies of Marmot is a few days discounted sale to entice customers to buy products at a cheaper price for selected items. This will help them sell out left items on their inventory and get more sales from customers.
Patagonia
This is the best customer retention strategy to keep introducing new products. Check the email from Patagonia, it also provides free shipping and early access to new products. These are signs that a business giving first preference to its existing customer to check the product’s review too. It won’t take too much marketing cost either.
MacPac
One of the best outdoor gear e-commerce stores. Every brand has a different strategy to retain customers.
MacPac uses a winter sale strategy to increase the retention rate. The business has to list down all the required seasons for its products. The outdoor store may have product sales in summer, winter, and holidays. To sell the on time. It needs to have enough demand to sell the product.
Taking Your First Step
To succeed in the long run, customer retention is essential. It can increase your profitability, create lasting relationships, and gain a competitive advantage by putting a strong emphasis on customer retention.
Whether you’re just starting your business or it’s old and has enough customers to run different campaigns for upselling, cross-selling, new product launches, seasonal sales, or holiday sales. Start your retention strategy today.
Take your first step with Vibetrace. We offer a wide range of tools to prepare for any kind of sale or launch. You do not need to worry more about the development of strategy and increasing retention rate.
