Competition is always unpleasant, especially when you are the one receiving the damage. In the business world, you have to face competition at any place or anytime. More and more brands today have started to launch unique products and services, making them stand out. In terms of online and E-commerce businesses, every day means a new product or service. In such a scenario, customers have various options to choose from, and they give less attention to your brand. You have a few seconds to attract a customer, so your brand building starts even before the customer reaches the final buying decision stage. Brand switching is a concept that you need to understand if you want to stay ahead of your competition. Acquiring new customers is more challenging and expensive than retaining the existing ones. In other words, maintaining an existing customer lowers your costs while maintaining your profits.
Brand switching is a term when your customers choose to switch brands and go to the competition. The concept is easy to understand, but it isn’t easy to prevent your customers from switching to competitors. As mentioned, brand switching can happen anytime and has various reasons. If your competitor is a startup or in a growth phase, they will likely try to lure your customers. You might find yourself on the forgotten side if you do not take precautionary measures and effective marketing techniques to retain them.
Let us discuss some of these marketing tactics to prevent customers from switching to the competition.
Effective Marketing methods to Retain Customers
Customer Engagement
Customer engagement is a marketing technique that applies to both traditional and digital aspects. Engagement means contacting your customers about news or information regarding your brand. You may not have time to engage customers due to other activities. So, remember that regular customer check-ins are a necessary part of a customer retention plan. Your customers forget about you if you do not keep them in a constant loop. Customer engagement can be as simple as calling for promotions to more personal, like inviting them to a new product launch ceremony. Customer engagement is about appreciating their relationship with the brand and the loyalty they show. A phone call, email, or text message does the trick of re-engaging the customer.
Build Mobile Responsive Website
If you remain focused on online marketing, then building a mobile responsive website will keep you ahead of your competition. Today, more than 50% of users remain online using smartphones. It gives you a huge potential to attract new and retain existing customer base. If you own a business website, use SEMrush’s website audit tool to determine if it has mobile optimization. The tool will also give you insights about areas of the website to improve and design according to customer preferences. Providing a mobile-optimized website offers a better experience to users and improves overall ranking on SERPs. Improving site speed, altering images, and delivering mobile-specific features retain customers from switching to the competition.
Competitor Analysis
Have you ever wondered where your customers go? Please do not make assumptions, as they usually backfire. Instead, you want to find out which of your competitor fulfills the preferences of your customer. Customer switches when there is some value addition offered by your competition that attracted them. The best way to find out is by doing a competitor analysis to understand your competition better. Look at your competitor’s website, buy their product, study it, or take information about their service. These simple tactics will help you gain better insights into their strengths and use them to your advantage.
Influencer Marketing
Hiring influencers for marketing and spreading your word is a cost-effective yet highly engaging way to retain customers. Influencers do not mean only high profile celebrities or famous people. It is just someone with lots of followers on social media and a good track of promoting products. Research for influencers by searching for trending topics related to your business. Reach out to these influencers and ask them about promoting your products. Some may ask for a free product in return, while others online demand a fee but be sure to track your ROI accordingly. Remember that influencers with fewer followers may be just as effective as those with ten times the amount.
Video Marketing
Over the last decade, customers have become more attracted to digital imagery and visual culture. Visuals come in a variety of forms in which videos have remained on the top. Recent studies have shown that more than 78% of online marketers use videos or visuals in their content. With that idea, customers prefer content that has video or any other visual medium. However, video alone is nothing without compelling content. Video marketing has become a norm in which you can explain various aspects of your product or service in a short video. It is both time saving and a more personalized form of marketing. Successful video marketing means paying attention to the trending aspect of storytelling. If you can tell a compelling story of the solutions you have for the customer, you entice their curiosity. Keep your videos short and precise as people’s attention span is relatively low, and tell your story with a compelling anchor.
Value Addition
Whenever you re-engage your customers, always have something to offer with value. Whether it is the news, an article, a new product, or anything else, relate it to the customer somehow. You can inform them about the maximization of results they get after they have already bought from you. If the customer takes you as a valuable resource, they will less likely drop you for a competitor.
Bonus Tactic: Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, if done right, keeps your site on maximum visibility for users to see. Customer of today demands something new of daily basis, so keep updating your site to remain on top of the SERP rankings. Remember to use various SEO techniques to bring value to the customer and gain their loyalty to your brand. SEO is the most powerful tool in online marketing to master that gives you desired results. Combined with competitor analysis, you can design your SEO strategy according to customer demands and preferences.
Final Word
Preventing customers from switching to your competition is something you have to plan effectively. Even the slightest mistake can make a customer prefer other brands over you. The marketing strategies mentioned are some of the most effective means to keep customers focus on you. Remember to re-engage with customers regularly and keep them updated. Customers quickly forget about brands that do not grab their attention. Conduct market research, competitor analysis, and shape your marketing tactic accordingly.