Diving into low-cost strategies to retain and attract customers to your brand.
Now more than ever, it is imperative to draw customers back into your retail stores. While the last year forced retailers to discover new ways to maintain and drive sales, it is essential not to lose sight of this development. Technological innovation and the right customer acquisition strategy will keep your brand alive in the wake of returning normality, but how can you do this without breaking the bank?
To put it simply – shopping behaviors have changed. Retailers can no longer afford to rely upon simplified data to determine a customer’s journey from interest to purchase. Unfortunately, a large sum of customer acquisition strategies can be traditionally costly, with unpredictable results. Participating in a mall-based loyalty program will enable scalable growth as your business needs and customers evolve.
What is the cost of customer acquisition?
The expense of acquiring a new customer can range from five to seven times the amount of keeping an existing one. The prospect of converting a new customer often falls in the 5% to 20% bracket: while for existing customers, it’s between 60% and 70% (Shopify). In order to generate greater footfall in comparison to expenditure on items such as new hardware, direct marketing, or complex and expensive system integrations, a combination of smart acquisition and focused customer knowledge is necessary for attracting customers to your brand. “Success for retailers and compensation for execs is often heavily tied to acquisition,” said Ernan Roman, President of ERDM Corp. “That is a mistake and drives the wrong behavior. Success must encompass effective acquisition and strategies that drive customer engagement and retention.”
One of the most effective customer acquisition strategies for retail are mall loyalty programs. They are a great marketing tool for attracting new shoppers and increasing existing retail customer retention. As an acquisition tactic, these programs excel at exposing retail brands to shoppers that have shopped in similar stores but not their own. Given the added value that these programs don’t cost an admission fee, they become a very compelling tool for brands.
How can a mall loyalty program help your brand?
The right loyalty program gives customers an extra incentive to make frequent visits and increase expenditure across stores while gaining points or receiving personalized offers and experiences in line with their unique shopping behaviors.
Participating in a mall loyalty program offers brands a low-cost way to bridge the acquisition gap between offline and online. Resources such as category benchmarking reports, where brands can see how their stores compare against anonymized competitors, can provide brand marketing teams with insights that lead to actionable and quicker business decisions. By using a combination of smart metrics and delivering targeted and personalized messages at the right time and at the right location, your brand will be able to benchmark against competitors within your category and attract customers who could be shopping with you but aren’t currently. Our customers report that the average spend per customer increases by 26% after participating in and implementing a Coniq loyalty program.
A mall loyalty program means you’ll need to provide something of recognizable value to your customers. This includes VIP store experiences, discounts, vouchers, and more. Although the possibility of giving multiple rewards can often be scary for brands, the return for having the right loyalty program is worth it:
1) Better Data
You can remove the guesswork and personalize your store activations with the correct data, including brand competitor analysis. This will enable you to attract and retain customers who love products in your store category but aren’t yet customers.
2) More sales
According to recent loyalty research (Invesp), 49% of shoppers report they’ve spent more after joining a loyalty program. In other words, your ATV will likely reach new heights following participation and future visits.
3) Brand awareness and advocacy
A tailored loyalty program can transform regular customers into happy brand advocates. Happy brand advocates will have higher retention rates and help your brand obtain new customers through word of mouth, which is another low-cost acquisition marketing strategy.
Being able to benchmark against your competitors and build a stronger community of loyal customers without the high price tag is certainly possible. The right strategy is essential for the life expectancy of your brand, and after participating in an effective loyalty program, the results will surely speak for themselves. Our advice is don’t walk; run towards a mall loyalty program today!
