Getting repeat customers doesn’t just happen by chance.

It takes intentional action and strategy to encourage customers to return, and to spend more when they do.

In this post, we take a deep-dive into tactics you can use to consistently get repeat sales from customers.

1 | Build trust 

As humans, we crave connections and the past two years have made this more important than before. On a personal level, when you have a problem you go to the person who you most trust to share your feelings. This applies to business. Customers want to buy from a brand that they feel they trust.

So how do you build trust with your customers? 

• Always meet and exceed customer expectations by creating quality products
• Be honest when there’s a dispute with an unsatisfied customer
• Respond quickly to customer queries

2 | Create a brand story

Nearly every great brand has a story that backs up why they are in business.

There are so many brands selling products similar to Apple, and they are probably just as good, but Apple dominates its category.

The secret is their reason for existing. Ask these questions… What’s your core belief? What inspires you? Why does your brand exist?

A good example is TOMS, a shoe and apparel company. Their brand DNA is centred around the promise that for every purchase made, a percentage of the profit goes to providing needy children with shoes.

You may not need to buy from them but everytime you remember that part of your money goes to charity, you’re motivated to make a purchase.

3 | Retain customers at all costs

Always, always, always retain the customers you have. Acquiring them is already expensive but losing them is even more expensive. Building trust and having a great brand story isn’t enough to retain them.

What you want is for them to feel like they are in a relationship and not just a mere transaction. So ask for feedback, reward their loyalty and engage with them. This in turn is likely to turn them into your brand ambassadors.

4 | Encourage social proof

As humans, we naturally follow the herd – we follow along with what everybody else is doing, without even thinking. This is where customer reviews come in. 

Even one single negative feedback could change how people perceive your brand. By featuring positive reviews on your website, product pages and social channels, you can encourage customers to follow suit.

How to get social proof for your brand:

• Use celebrity or influencer endorsements
• Show video proof of your products in action
• Reward customers for giving honest reviews

5 | Invest in email marketing

If done correctly, email can be one of the major channels of revenue for your ecommerce store. You, however, need to understand that not email is about getting sales. Sometimes, it should be just to get a click on your website.

For example, after buying and shipping you could have a post-purchase series that directs the customer on what to do next with the product.

Let’s say you’re a skincare brand, your post-purchase series could include a blog post on how to get the best results from the product they bought. It could also include how to make the product last longer in good condition.

Another important email sequence is the checkout abandonment cart series. This report by drip shows that the average cart abandonment across all industries stands at 69.57%.

The most basic reason could be distraction, so make it a point to remind your customers that they have abandoned items with pop-ups and incentives.

6 | Target word-of-mouth

As we’ve already discovered, harnessing herd mentality is key for marketers. Brand growth – and trust – happens when recommendations spread across social networks. 

Your friend tells you about a new product over dinner. Another friend then tells you about the same product, so buoyed by recommendations from two friends, you purchase that product – and in turn, you recommend it to a colleague.

The nudge to become a repeat customer comes when you have a conversation with the friend who recommended the product, or with the colleague who you recommended it to. Those word-of-mouth conversations create a memory shortcut, so that when you see an advert for that product you are reminded to purchase again.

Herdify can help with detecting offline word-of-mouth influence and using it to better target your ad spend, to increase customer loyalty.   

Increase your repeat sales today

There you have it. What resonated the most with you? Which tip will you pick and implement immediately? Remember, small changes could exponentially bring better returns. Increase your repeat sales with the strategies mentioned in this post.