Have you ever put much thought into repeat purchases and how they affect your bottom line? Many companies put a lot of work into attracting new customers and getting them to make that first purchase. When you gain a conversion and obtain a new customer, it is easy to feel like you’ve accomplished your goal. However, achieving a conversion is really only half the battle. The other half of the battle is keeping the momentum of your conversion alive and turning your one-time customer into a repeat client. After all, while a single sale is a great thing, the strongest brands can nurture a lifelong relationship with their users — complete with customers who offer a high lifetime value to the company.

So, how big of an impact does repeat business have on your firm anyway? While it does vary from organization to organization, it may surprise you to find that the average e-commerce firm obtains around 43% of revenue from repeat purchases. This is way too big a number to simply leave to chance. That’s why we’ve put together three ways to help you increase repeat purchases and maximize your opportunities for revenue.

Give Customers a Reason to Be Loyal

You did the legwork to get a customer to choose your company in the first place; now you need to give this same customer a reason to remain loyal. Depending on your business, you likely have at least one or two direct competitors out there looking to pull your customer away with promises of a lower price or new product. Why should the customer stay loyal to your firm?

⚓Great Service – If you provide top-notch, friendly and personal service, your customers are less likely to want to shop around, even if the offers are out there. Look at the service you provide both live and through social and online avenues and see if you’re taking it to the next level.
⚓Extra Perks – Consider offering special benefits or perks to repeat customers. This little something special can make customers feel good about choosing to stay with your company. A VIP or frequent buyer program can be a good option for certain organizations as well.
⚓Social Encouragement – Social media is a great way to build relationships with current customers and subtly encourage future transactions. Take advantage of every platform available to you to connect with your existing customers as an audience.
⚓Brand Recognition – When you’re staying in contact, you’re building brand recognition and improving the chances a customer will see your company as the superior choice.

Harness the Power of Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to help you close the deal on gaining that first sale, but what about increasing your repeat purchase rate? There are a number of different ways you can harness the power of targeted email marketing to reach your current customers and help bring them back for a repeat purchase.

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A few of these include:

⚓The Abandoned Cart Email – This email is simple and effective. If a customer adds something to their cart when logged in or with cookies enabled, set up an email that will automatically launch after a certain amount of time and remind customers about the purchase they didn’t complete. This may bring them back to the site to seal the deal.
⚓Purchase Follow-Up Email – Once you know what type of product a customer is drawn to, it becomes easier to use a product recommendation feature to recommend top pairings. An email highlighting these items will feel more personal since it targets items that are likely to be of interest to the customer.
⚓Sales and Promotions – The most common way to use email marketing is to connect with existing customers when you’re running a sale or offering a new product. You always want to keep existing customers in the loop and make sure you give them the opportunity to take advantage of any great deals.

Get Social – In Every Way Possible

Social media marketing is no longer a “nice thing to have” but is instead a must for any business that wants to stay relevant today. Social media marketing is a great way to reconnect with customers you’ve worked with in the past and drive brand loyalty. If you can turn previous customers into social followers by providing useful and interesting content, you’ll put yourself in the perfect position to sell products in the future and create loyal brand ambassadors. The key to getting the most from your social media marketing efforts today is to do more than just talk “at” your followers, but instead share and create a forum for back-and-forth communication on your platforms of choice.

One of the best things about social media is that you can utilize it along with SEO and other search engine marketing techniques to work on reconnecting with your current clients at the same time as you are drawing in new customers to your platforms. This increases the ROI your integrated marketing efforts and further brings home the point that social media is something you simply cannot ignore.

Learn About ahoy! Email

The best way to increase repeat purchases is by using targeted and effective email marketing to keep your customers engaged. Learn about our ecommerce focused email automations – and how you can put email marketing (and repeat purchases!) on autopilot. Learn more about ahoy!