Wouldn’t it be great to implement a strategy that helps you increase the lifetime value of each...
There are four steps within the inbound marketing methodology: attract, convert, close, and delight. Content plays an important role in all four steps, but what kind of content should you offer to your existing customers to delight them and give them added value?
Are you one of those who is constantly looking for converting new customers and forgetting your existing customers? You’re not alone. Indeed, many people overlook the value of continuously delighting and providing added value to their existing customers.
This might become expensive. Did you know that on average it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing customer? Your existing customers are simply a goldmine of potentially proud ambassadors and returning buyers.
If they are treated well after signing the contract, they can, therefore, bring more money into your company and attract new customers by being your ambassadors. This is how you can continue to create valuable content for existing customers, also known as delight-content in the inbound methodology.
What is the "delight" phase in inbound marketing?
The vast majority of purchase decisions are not taken after a quick round of window shopping. Before we make a decision, we read a lot of information and weigh products and suppliers against each other in order to make the best choice.
For this reason, content marketing has become a universal tactic. More than 90 percent of companies had content marketing as part of their marketing strategy in 2017.
In order to close the company's prospects, it is essential that you create relevant content that answers those personas’ questions - from the stage where they understand that they have a need or a problem that can be solved until they start looking at different alternatives and compare different suppliers against each other.
Once we have mapped out our persona’s buyer’s journey and know what questions they have, we begin to produce content that is customised for each of the steps in this buying process. Now, this is where many fail.
Because the buyer’s journey itself consists of mainly three stages: top of funnel (awareness stage), middle of funnel (consideration stage) and bottom of funnel (decision stage), many forget that the people who have moved through all these steps and become a customer are still interested in learning more, and maybe even buying more. This is where the "delight" phase comes into play.
The last step in the inbound marketing methodology is exactly this: "delight.” This step will help you build customer loyalty, so that your existing customers want to buy more from you and recommend you to their network.
Statistics show that 20 percent of new sales come from existing customers. As a small bonus, satisfied customers will also likely promote your business to people they know, which will help you get more relevant and qualified leads.
The content that turns your existing customers into ambassadors and repeated buyers
There are mainly three tools that will help you engage your customers: email marketing, marketing automation with smart content, and social media. Let's dig a little deeper into each of the three tools:
Email is a good source to keep your existing customers updated on what's happening in your business. For example, you can send an email about the latest software updates or additional products that may be useful to the customer.
Are your customers using HubSpot? Tell them about the latest features in the CRM part of the software. Are they interested in knowing how to rank higher in search engines on relevant searches? Send them a landing page so that they can download a SEO checklist for 2018.
You can also send them tips on how to make the most of your product or service, articles, downloadable content that deals with more advanced topics, and invite to customer-only events.
Workflow and smart content
By setting up a workflow only for existing customers, you can offer them exclusive content such as webinars and online training.
You can also launch a so-called "impact campaign", also known as advocacy marketing. Engage your current customers to become more involved in the sales process and reward them for their participation.
For example, you can create case studies to let the world know what your customers actually think about the collaboration and the solutions you've provided. Make it a competition: the more a customer does to help your salespeople, the more points the customer gets.
Once your customers have achieved a certain score, they get something back from you. This can perhaps be a portal review, that is, an analysis of the HubSpot portal and what actions can be taken to get even more value of the investment.
By using smart content that changes depending on what content the individual has downloaded or read previously, or the services offered to the customer, you can always offer them new content that adds value.
Social media
Social media is the perfect channel to promote events and webinars you offer to your customers directly to these customers and to link to tutorials. You can also use social media to keep your customers up to date on all the fun and exciting things you do in your business or projects and collaborations that has gone well.
Create case studies and publish this on LinkedIn and Facebook. Draw up statistics that make it an interesting case and mention the customer. This way, the customer is getting more publicity. At the same time, there’s a greater chance that those mentioned in the case study will share it on their networks.
Because you already know what your customers are interested in, it's far easier to personalise and customise the content you send to them so that it provides even more value to the recipient.
If you manage to create content that solves your existing customers' problems and challenges – maybe even problems they do not yet know they have – your customers will gain greater confidence in you as a business, become better ambassadors and be willing to buy more.
Ready to get started with content marketing but not so sure where to begin? We've got you covered. With our starting kit, you'll get a template for publishing calendar, a checklist for SEO and presentation for content workshop. Click the button and get started!