04 Sep How To Use Print to Perfection For Customer Retention
In the current climate – with worries over Boris, Brexit and the state of the UK economy – many businesses are seeing a drop in customer acquisition. Now it’s more important than ever to make sure you look after and retain your existing customer base and print could be your greatest route to success.
Print personalisation
We love digital marketing and recommend it as part of any effective marketing mix. However, when it comes to increasing customer retention, print and its personalisation options are optimum.
Emails drop into your inbox addressed to you directly but there’s nothing innovative about the experience and an email blast – even when they astonishingly manage to spell your name right – isn’t always going to cut it. Everyone’s bombarded with email communications daily and just another email is likely to get lost in the crowd. But a well-designed and beautifully printed direct mailing could be just the light relief from the daily dirge your customers are looking for and some businesses are already singing from our hymn sheet.
To promote their #PersonalizeMe campaign and range of customisable pieces, in 2016 Monsoon Accessorise sent out a flyer in the shape of a denim envelope clutch bag that was personalised with the recipient’s forename initial in the style of a sewn on badge. Imagine getting a flyer that’s not just run of the mill but instead features the first letter of your name and the feelings that could provoke:
- Your importance to the retailer as a valued customer acknowledged
- Your realisation that they sell accessories that can be customised to suit your style or as a special gift
This personalisation double-whammy goes a long way to show how something reasonably simple can have maximum impact. Though the personal touch from a company, perhaps introducing people behind the scenes that work on the products, works well too. For example, Seasalt Cornwall creates a seasonal printed brochure that’s posted out to existing customers. This not only introduces their latest product line but also reveals stories behind the chosen prints for the clothing – including interviews with designers and artists.
Reward programmes
The same message applies for customer reward – you can keep it relatively simple but still put in some innovative effort with your print marketing to stand out from the crowd. Everyone from garden centres and garages to restaurants and chocolate retailers offer loyalty reward programmes by way of money off vouchers in exchange for points collected on loyalty cards with each purchase made and free gifts for special occasions such as birthdays and product launches. With around 92% of UK shoppers using loyalty schemes at least once a month, this is a fantastic way to hook your existing customers back for more.
While many retailers, especially ecommerce website that offer daily deals and sign up rewards, go down the email marketing route to distribute discount codes and issue reminders of special offers there’s a lot to be said for the print options here too. Shoppers still like something physical to hand to a cashier in-store. There’s something very gratifying about handing over a voucher and, for many, an actual flyer acts as a memory prompt at the time of transaction.
Xpress Group can aid customer retention
You should be under no illusion that retaining existing customers takes time, energy and resources. But once you have an awesome print marketing campaign in place, you have better odds at acing customer attention and increasing brand loyalty with a view to boosting sales.
Xpress Group is here to help you design and print everything from personalised flyers and sales brochures to loyalty cards and loyalty card reward vouchers. Get in touch for more information today.