How to maximize the customer journey and retain customers right away?

One of the questions that all marketing specialists ask themselves is how to create a lasting relationship with their customers . Regardless of the industry, a brand needs loyal and engaged customers. So how to build customer loyalty by ensuring that they will continue to choose their brand among the various proposals on the market? Needless to deny it, the stimuli and messages we receive from brands are countless, each with an increasingly captivating and varied offer.

Capturing attention and maintaining interest is a real challenge. This is why it is essential, once the consumer's curiosity has been conquered, not to neglect it and to try to keep the relationship alive as much as possible, to integrate it into a long-term engagement dynamic. How can a business involve customers in a lasting engagement dynamic starting from the first interaction with the brand? Maximizing the experience at every stage of the customer journey .

What is the customer journey and why is it important for brands

We can define the customer journey as a journey that a customer takes when he comes into contact with a company. This path involves several stages until you reach the decision whether or not to buy a product or to use a service offered by the company. However, the customer journey does not end with the eventual purchase of the product as it involves various phases that can take place both "online" and "offline". Even product reviews, for example, are part of the various stages of the customer journey.

The phases of the customer journey

And now the time has come to reveal to you the different stages of this incredible journey. We will give you ideas on how to establish a lasting relationship with your customers to transform them into brand ambassadors. You will thus be able to find ideas and inspiration to achieve the objectives of your next marketing campaigns with the help of some martech solutions (technological tools to support marketing) to be preferred to maximize results.

1. Acquisition: the prospect becomes a contact in the database thanks to an Ad on social media

The first step of the customer journey consists of the acquisition , i.e. the first meeting point with the potential customer and the subsequent integration of the contact into the company database. To acquire new contacts interested in the brand, ad hoc lead generation activities are necessary, which will stimulate the interest of the target.

How do we win over the user using social networks?

Let's try to explain it with a practical example. The brand's new summer collection is launched on Instagram via a sponsored post with a 15% discount on the first purchase.

The Ads will refer to a digital form to be filled in with their data in order to obtain a coupon to be presented in the shop or to be used online.

To manage our advertising campaigns on social networks and on Google, we can use a tool like Adzooma which allows us to create and manage digital marketing campaigns in seconds, but above all to constantly monitor them and thus continue to improve them, thanks to the suggestions offered by the platform. Adzooma in its essential, free version, allows you to easily set up, monitor and manage your advertising campaigns on Google, Facebook and Microsoft, even with a series of optimizations to improve results and automated rules that simplify some activities. Opting instead for the Plus version, in addition to the features of the free version, there are more than 81 automation templates and the ability to analyze landing pages to improve the offer.

For the creation of landing pages and above all for the collection and management of leads, we can use Sendinblue (landing pages are available in the Premium plan) or MailChimp .

2. Activation: the contact acquired on Instagram becomes a customer

Now that the prospect has shown interest in the brand and has been integrated into the database, it is crucial to keep his interest alive. The activation of the contact must take place immediately after the first interaction. With the help of marketing automation systems, it is possible to target all the contacts acquired thanks to the campaign on social networks .

All those who have requested the coupon by filling out the form on the landing page are certainly interested in your products. This is the time to send them a welcome email and the lookbook with the new collection, thus encouraging e-commerce traffic and fueling interest. At the same time, you can intrigue contacts by reminding them of the expiry date of the coupon and the nearest store where you can take advantage of the offer.

You can manage marketing automation scenarios by sending transactional emails again with Sendinblue or MailChimp.

The advantages of a coupon are innumerable, if you then opt for a QR Code solution, it will be even more efficient because by simply scanning the QR code in the shop, the customer will benefit from the discount quickly and immediately. Once you have used the coupon, you could automatically transform it into a loyalty card , perhaps associating it with the same QR code, with which the customer can continue to be informed of the latest news and on the other hand can benefit from further benefits and discounts.

Thus, on the one hand you will have acquired a new member in your loyalty program , on the other the customer will be satisfied with the experience offered , immediate and, above all, simple.

3. Loyalty: the customer becomes attached to the brand

We are now at a key stage of the customer journey to establish a lasting relationship: loyalty .

A loyal customer buys more frequently and tends to spend more than a new non-member customer. The key indicators of a successful loyalty program will speak for themselves: the average cart and purchase frequency will always be higher in those who are loyal. Once the customer has made the first purchase, it's time to focus on the real relationship to be able to keep it over time .

A flexible loyalty program that meets your needs and desires will ensure customer retention . A good tactic recommended by Splio is to reserve special and personalized attention to demonstrate one's interest and closeness to the customer. To strengthen the bond, you can opt for sending a short questionnaire via email to new customers to get to know them better. By asking for their tastes and date of birth, it will be possible to send them a surprise on their birthday, for example. Furthermore, those who have completed the questionnaire will be able to credit additional loyalty points to their card as a thank you for the precious time dedicated to the brand.

These are examples of a series of actions and rewards that will lead members of the program to level up. At this point we can then decide to reward the most loyal customers by proposing them to become part of the brand ambassadors .

4. Engagement: loyal customers become brand ambassadors

A loyal customer will become even more engaged when stimulated with engaging initiatives, such as a satisfying loyalty program that combines transactional and relationship loyalty. An engagement program is a loyalty initiative that will reward members for all interactions with the brand, such as:

• email opening and clicking;
• follow on social networks;
• a rich wishlist (wish list);
• the online review;
• visiting the eCommerce site.

The goal of a program of this type is to increase customer knowledge in order to ultra-personalize offers and communications and reward customer engagement not only during the purchase phase. A loyal and engaged customer is the ideal target for a referral marketing campaign .

Word of mouth is the most effective communication channel for trust. In fact, 94% of consumers make purchasing decisions based on the advice of their network while 72% are influenced by what they have seen on social networks . Digital word of mouth helps drastically optimize acquisition costs.

Once the most loyal and engaged customers have been identified , it will be possible to invite them by email to become brand ambassadors in exchange for a coupon and loyalty points. The customer will certainly be happy to share the referral link with his friends on social networks, by e-mail or on WhatsApp. And your friends will also have the opportunity to receive a welcome coupon .

These activities can also be simplified by using a loyalty and referral marketing platform (such as yotpo.com, but there are also several Italian ones) with native social sharing features, together with a marketing automation tool (such as Sendinblue ), which will allow you to launch a member-get-member campaign .

In this way it will be possible to respond to multiple objectives, including:

• recruit new clients ;
• generate additional revenue ;
• increase brand visibility online & offline .

Ready to take up the challenge?

All phases of the customer journey are fundamental and extremely connected to each other. If retention influences repurchase, engagement influences retention. Activating, retaining and animating your database is a decisive strategy for increasing the value of each customer , up to transforming him into an ambassador. Technology plays a fundamental role and is the faithful ally of every marketing campaign.

A loyalty marketing platform and a well-defined and targeted CRM strategy can help maximize your lead generation and loyalty campaigns, but also turn your best customers into brand ambassadors !