Marketing automation (MA) software helps organize and educate prospects and leads for your company. You can track their behavior on your website, engage them with landing pages, email them education tools and event opportunities, then nurture them until they’re ready for Sales.

But, what about after credit cards are accepted and the ink on their contracts has dried? Do you fade silently into the night? Let their CRM profiles collect dust? Take the money and run?

No, because you’re better than that.

MA software has just as many opportunities and benefits for customers as it does for prospects and leads. To maintain relationships and strengthen customer loyalty, we can take those same tools – nurture marketing, online lead capture forms, and website tracking and apply them to our customer base:

  1. Take a hint from B2C marketing: I can’t imagine how dark and cruel the world would be if Nordstrom didn’t email me every time they had a sale. How would I get 20 percent off riding boots? What kind of desolate state would my sundress collection be in?
    • In B2C marketing, engagement truly begins when the customer says it does, through lead capture forms. Interactions usually offer benefits such as promotions or sales.
    • Let customers in on special offers, like trialing an upgrade feature or earning a discount for referring additional business your way. These little motivations will spark curiosity each time your emails hit their inboxes.
  2. Turn lead capture forms into surveys: Shy of their perfect date scenarios and teenage discrepancies, we want to know as much as possible about our customers. This way, we can tailor our next feature, update, etc. according to their needs and wants.
    • Email your database with a link to a brief survey, which can be designed and tracked just like a lead capture form.
    • Since they are taking time out of their day, offer a small incentive for form completion – anything from a retweet to leftover conference giveaways.
  3. Promote events for customers: As we head into the heart of Quarter One, trade show season is upon us – taking the marketing department’s time, attention, and money. Just as you build lead interactions using Event Management software, you can plan customer-based events.
    • Host a customer conference where your base can learn more about your company and network with each other.
    • Inside your marketing automation software, test the idea with an initial survey, then send email invitations through a drip campaign with registration tied to a landing page.

As marketers, we care about retention just as much as we care about acquisition. It doesn’t matter how great the content you’re producing is or how charming your sales staff is if you halt engagement. Use software tools, creativity, and personal marketing experiences to keep customers happy and advocating on your behalf.