iContact > Why You Need to Work Harder and Smarter to Win Customer Loyalty | iContact


In the online marketing world, we often talk about recurring revenue and customer lifetime value. This is because marketing isn’t just about acquiring new clients. It’s about keeping hold of them and maximizing your earnings from each (expensively acquired) contact.

The problem is, in this digital age, your customers and clients have never had so much choice or the ability to scan an entire market with just a few clicks on a comparison shopping engine or industry-specific review site. When competition is so fierce, competitive offers can easily turn your clients’ heads, and once-loyal (and I cannot say this too many times – expensively acquired) customers can prove themselves to be not so loyal after all.

IMPORTANT: Developing a strategy to drive recurring revenue and generate customer lifetime value is vital in many businesses where acquisition costs outstrip profit margins from any initial sales. Businesses selling low-margin products (such as consumer electronics or media) or competing in areas of business with sky-high acquisition costs (financial services, travel, etc.) may not see any significant profits from newly acquired customers until their second or third purchase (which can take weeks, months or even years to generate).

“Prime” Customers

And what if we told you that some of your customers are willing to pay an annual fee to your competitors that essentially locks in their loyalty?

Amazon Prime (a paid subscription service that offers free shipping and special access to a range of digital products such as TV, music and e-books) does just that.

Why would an Amazon Prime customer choose to shop anywhere else after paying for the privilege?

So you see you’ve got a real battle on your hands if you want to win and retain a loyal customer base and see those recurring revenues that we are all so keen to generate roll in.

Time to Get Email on Your Side

At iContact we know a thing or two about generating recurring revenue. This is because email marketing remains the number one marketing technology for driving such engagement.

We also know that in a competitive market, it’s not enough to send the occasional email newsletter. If you want to get serious about staying one step ahead of your competition, it’s time you started getting serious about email marketing because the more you invest in email (and we’re talking time, effort and strategy here) the greater your return in terms of customer loyalty will be.

You need to get to know the individuals in your contact list before crafting timely and engaging campaigns, built around their specific needs and interests, if you want to see customers coming back to your service time and time again.

Marketing Automation Helps Build Loyalty

The smartest marketers understand this can be quite an arduous task when conducted manually and thus find great success by investing further in marketing automation technology like iContact Pro. This helps them ensure they always send the right message to the right person at the right time.

Get this right and your halfway home to securing customer loyalty. The rest is down to your specific offers, your customer service and your wider reputation as good guys to do business with.

Take your first set towards building greater customer loyalty today by visiting our help portal, where you can connect with an email marketing expert via phone, email or live chat or register for a free 30-day trial of iContact (Email Marketing) or iContact Pro (Marketing Automation).

How loyal are your customers? Share your tips and advice below:

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