When customers browse your site, you have total control over their experience. You can use banners, pop-ups, descriptions, graphics, and images to showcase your products and convince them to make a purchase.
But when customers leave your site, you lose your influence over them—unless you can find ways to help them remember you exist. When you make your business memorable, you gain an enormous competitive advantage.
The three strategies below can help your brand create a lasting impression, bringing customers back to your store long after they’ve forgotten your competitors.
1. Harness the Power of Email
Once you get someone’s email address, you have their attention. Unlike social media (where algorithms can bury content) and paid ads (where other businesses compete for attention), email lists are entirely in your control. Try sending regular updates through a newsletter and boosting engagement with drip campaigns.
Newsletters
If you’re not sure what type of content to include in your newsletter, get started with one of these:
- New product highlights
- Curated collections
- Educational content
- Reviews or testimonials
- Company news
- Personalized recommendations
- Promotions
Keep in mind, if your emails don’t include content that interests consumers, they’ll hit “Unsubscribe” faster than you can say “Please don’t go.” Go with quality over quantity, and conduct A/B tests to find what works best.
Drip Campaigns
Drip campaigns send a steady flow of emails at predetermined times. It’s helpful to include welcome messages, post-purchase emails, and abandoned cart reminders.
- Engage with a welcome series. Welcome emails see the highest open rates—the average is 63.91%. Get off to a good start with new customers by sending them a warm welcome.
- Nudge with abandoned cart reminders. Combat cart abandonment with gentle nudges. The content can be as simple as one sentence: “Forget something? Your items are patiently waiting in your cart—complete your purchase now for a dose of instant joy.”
- Follow up post-purchase for lasting connections. After someone places an order, make sure they come back again by sending a thank you message and a coupon code for their next purchase.
2. Start a Loyalty Program
Many people enjoy the thrill of shopping, and you can make the experience even more irresistible with a loyalty program. As of 2022, the average US consumer was actively engaged in about eight loyalty programs. How can you make sure yours is one of them? Try these ideas:
- Offer attractive benefits. Make sure your customers don’t forget why they joined your loyalty program. To keep them engaged with your brand, offer plenty of perks and benefits. Seventy-nine percent of people say discounts are their favorite perk, with free products and free samples taking second and third place.
- Motivate with tiered memberships. Tiered loyalty programs incentivize people to buy more by tying benefits to spending. Think of more exciting rewards you can offer to customers who buy frequently or hit certain purchase amount thresholds.
- Regularly shout out program perks. Attract new loyalty program members and stay on the radar of current members by highlighting perks in email updates and personalized notifications.
3. Build a Social Media Following
Social media is an inexpensive way to build a following of loyal customers. By posting regular updates where your customers spend time, you’ll naturally bring your business to the forefront of their minds. While organic social media content can be very successful, you can also experiment with targeted ads to enhance visibility.
Experiment with these types of content:
- Product highlights. Showcase new products, best-sellers, or unique items.
- Behind-the-scenes. Give followers a sneak peek into how your business works.
- Customer testimonials. Feature five-star reviews or user-generated content from satisfied customers.
- Educational content. Share tips, tutorials, or how-to guides related to your products.
- Contests and giveaways. Expand your reach by hosting contests or giveaways.
- Flash sales and promotions. Create a sense of urgency by announcing limited-time offers, discounts, or exclusive promotions.
In addition to capturing the attention of your current customers, you can also find new ones by expanding your online presence. Over 40% of working-age internet users visit social platforms to research brands they’re thinking of buying from.
Keep Customers Engaged By Developing Trust and Confidence
By using email to your advantage, starting a loyalty program, and staying active on social media, you’ll help customers feel connected to your brand even when they’re not actively looking to buy. But what about when they’re ready to make a purchase?
In a marketplace filled with choices, it’s the businesses that prioritize both engagement and a top-notch purchase experience that turn one-time customers into loyal advocates. One of the best (and most affordable) ways to create a great consumer experience is to offer package protection and a shopping guarantee at checkout.
The Norton Shopping Guarantee with Package Protection by EasyPost, free to Shopify sellers, lets customers add package insurance to their purchase for a small portion of the price. They’ll rest easy knowing their product will stay safe during shipping, and you’ll boost your reputation as a reliable ecommerce merchant.
Add package protection to your Shopify store for free.
