2020 had a crazy impact on all of our businesses. Whether it be skyrocketed sales or a big loss of clients and shoppers, we’ve all felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our economy. Lockdown after lockdown, businesses have felt the sting of being forced to close their doors. Even if you have been able to reopen, one question you’re probably asking yourself is ‘where did all my customers go?’
There are a variety of reasons why a customer may not be buying from your business anymore. It could be for factors out of your control such as not feeling safe with the pandemic and social distancing protocols in place. Or it could be something such as accessibility, change of needed services, or falling out of love with your products. Whatever the reason may be, there are ways you can bring your customers back. It all starts with knowing why your customers are no longer using your business. Once you know the why you can begin to create a unified message in your marketing to help rebuild those customer connections. Below we will explain how to identify the reason why your customers are leaving, and how to utilize messaging in your marketing to bring them back.
Where did your customers go?
Before you start panicking and come up with a bunch of marketing tactics, you first need to understand why your customers are leaving. It won’t do you much good if you’re creating a bunch of different messages when you’re not sure what you need to say. There are countless reasons why a person may choose to stop coming to your store or using your services.
We’ve broken them down into 4 major categories:
- Prices: Culprit #1 as to why your customers may have left is because of the price of your product or service. Even if your product is the best on the market, your customers may have found something similar for a lower price or better value. The price you charge for your product or service is one of the most important decisions you will make as a business owner. Setting the price too high or too low will limit your business growth and impact your cash flow.
- Service: This can be anything from how your employees interact with your customers to the accessibility of your business. If there have been too many poor interactions between staff and clients, this would be considered an internal issue that needs to be dealt with. If it has to do with people being able to access your business, you need to find ways to improve this. As an example, if your business sells clothing but you only have a physical store, consider an online storefront.
- Messaging: People want to feel good about the products they buy, and your messaging should be the main reason they do feel good. As of late, people respond the best to authenticity, transparency, and eco-consciousness. If people don’t trust your business or feel good about it, why would they want to choose it? You could have the most amazing product in the world, but people won’t buy it if they aren’t aware of your business and your brand’s values. On the opposite end of this, polluting people’s newsfeeds with too many posts and ads will also drive them away. So there needs to be a balance between feel good messages and sales messages along with how often your message is being seen.
- Product: At one point in time, you probably had one of the greatest products or services your industry had to offer. But what does your industry look like now? How many competitors are out there now? Is there a product similar to yours that more people are buying instead of yours? If so, what makes it better than your product? Take the food industry for example. People may love the classics on your menu, but there will always be new places to eat in town. That’s why restaurants change up their menus and add new items every once in a while. As your industry grows and new competitors hit the scene, you need to keep up with those changes by evolving, and so does your product.
Identifying the issue
So, we know the different reasons why your customers may be leaving, but which one is it? This is where your research comes in. There are a few different ways you can identify the reason (or reasons) why your customers have stopped interacting with your business.
Using marketing tools available to you…
- Send out email surveys asking what improvements people would like to see in your business.
- Create Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn polls asking customers what new product they would prefer to see next.
- Read reviews and see what your customers are saying about your business online. Reviews are a great way to identify any issues within your business or customer service.
- Conduct some industry research. How many competitors are in your area? How does their business compare to yours? What are they doing that you’re not doing? What type of product, services, or promotions are they offering? All of this is critical in knowing why your customers are leaving. Once you’ve identified the issue, then we can move on to fixing it.
Come up with core messaging
Now that you’ve figured out why your customers are leaving, you need to give them a reason as to why they should come back. You need to show people that you’ve fixed the problem. How do you do this? Coming up with a core message for your marketing plan, of course!
If pricing is the issue…
Then you need to find ways to adjust the price people are paying for your product or service. This doesn’t necessarily mean de-valuing your work or products. You can choose to lower the price of your product, or you can host a giveaway, promote a sale, or send out a coupon. Consider creating digital ads and social posts promoting the sale or sending an e-mail newsletter out with a coupon attached.
If service is the issue…
Then find a way to bring customers back by improving your services. If the issue is that people are no longer buying your product because they can’t access your physical store or business, find a way to go digital. Create an e-commerce store or have your services available through Zoom meetings. Once you’ve found a way to reach those customers again, promote it. Make people aware of the changes you’ve made.
If messaging is the issue…
Then you will need to revaluate how your message comes across. How often are you sharing messages on social media? How often are you updating your website or changing your radio commercials? How often are people seeing your messages overall in the market? How many emails are people getting from your business each week? If you’re sending out too many or not enough messages to your audience, it will impact your customer’s perception and buying reaction. Nobody wants their inbox spammed with marketing emails. At the same time, you need to make sure you’re putting out enough messages, so people know you exist. It’s a fine balance, but with effort, you will find it.
You also need to be aware of the context of your messaging. Does everything you share read like an advertisement? Or are you sharing a good mix of content that reflects who you are as a business? Does your messaging make people feel good about choosing your business? Or is there a lot your business is hiding to control the public perception? Remember, people respond best to honesty. Be transparent, be inclusive, and make your message exciting and mean something to your audience.
If the product is the issue…
Change your product. Enhance it, improve it, or come out with a new product. This can be hard to admit as a business owner because you’ve probably worked extremely hard for the products and services you offer today. But part of being a business owner is keeping up with the changes in your industry and being open to change when change is necessary. If you can’t admit that you will stop seeing your business grow. Once you’ve either improved your product or come out with something new, promote it across all your different channels. Create digital ads, talk about your new product on social media, send out email blasts about your new offer, etc.
Unify your message
Overall, when it comes to your marketing strategy, make sure it is unified. A unified message will make your business more identifiable and will help bring customers back. But remember, if you’re not willing to understand why your customers are leaving, your marketing or advertising will only take you so far.
Are you ready to get your customers back in 2021? We can help at 3SIXTY Marketing Solutions. Not only can we show you the opportunities your business could take advantage of, but we can also help you create a unified marketing strategy to bring your customers back. Bringing your customers back is a marketing goal. Increasing your sales is another marketing goal. Together we can make a list of goals you want to achieve and then create a game plan to get the results you want. To get started, give us a call at 705-252-4180. We’re the marketing partner that you’ve been missing.
