The Five Pillars of Inbound Marketing Success
Maximising the value of existing customers is an often-overlooked element of inbound marketing. Given that roughly 20% of new sales come from repeat customers, and that it’s 5 times less expensive to generate sales from an existing customer than to acquire a new customer, this shouldn’t be the case.
One of the most effective ways to grow your business is from the inside, by increasing the customer ‘share of wallet’ and nurturing advocates for your business. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including:
You can also delight your customers with simple improvements to the user experience, like using HubSpot Smart Forms that pre-populate with information your customer has already provided.
Let’s look into each of these initiatives in more detail.
Many businesses spend significant time and resources winning customers yet don’t give their onboarding process the same attention. If a customer has been promised the world during the sales process, but a clunky and unpleasant onboarding experience doesn’t meet their expectations, the relationship immediately begins on a sour note.
As Customer Success Consultant Lincoln Murphy notes:
For example, let’s look at a SaaS company that is getting their customers up and running with their product. According to Lincoln Murphy, onboarding a SaaS customer should focus on Time to First Value (TFV) and First Value Delivery (FVD), where your product has provided them with a quantifiable initial success.
To facilitate this initial customer success, the SaaS company could send a succinct email following sign-up, directing the customer to a resources centre with how-to videos and FAQs, and assuring them of their continued support with the product.
Customer relationship management systems can highlight valuable cross and upselling opportunities with existing customers to increase ‘share of wallet’.
Consider a wealth management company that offers a suite of services, including estate planning, retirement planning and business advice. With an integrated CRM and marketing system, this company has complete visibility into what services each customer is currently receiving and whether there is an opportunity to cross sell them into others.
For example, a retirement planning client who has been visiting business succession planning content on the website can be nurtured through the marketing system and cross-sold relevant services.
HubSpot’s integrated CRM and marketing tools make this customer success process extremely efficient.
Your customers shouldn’t be left in the dark as soon as they’ve committed to converting. Keeping them up-to-date with product developments, business news and industry insights is an effective way to demonstrate your continued commitment to them, build rapport, and also to generate steady website traffic.
Businesses like Amazon and TripAdvisor are renowned for their customer emails, which use an individual’s browsing history to curate an automated selection of products into a hyper-personalised email. Small businesses can also use customer emails to great effect, which should be personalised and come from a senior member of staff.
An email automation tool like HubSpot makes the personalisation of emails simple, and can be used for sophisticated workflows to maximise conversion.
Referred prospects convert roughly 30% better than leads that come through other marketing channels, and they have a higher lifetime customer value. A strong referral program is thus one of the most powerful assets to any B2B business.
Companies like Dropbox owe much of their success to their strategic referral program, which offers extra storage space to customers who refer friends, and also to the referred user. Micro-investing app Acorns follows a similar tact, offering $5 to referrers and referees. ING Bank up the ante even further, offering $100 to both referrer and referee if they open an account using your custom referral code.
Rewarding both parties is central to a good referral program. Begin with identifying your advocates, offer a compelling incentive to them and the people they refer, and map this data in a centralised platform like HubSpot.
Maximising your customer value is the core of the delight stage of the inbound methodology, which shouldn’t be an afterthought of your marketing program.
Years ago, businesses that published regular blog content were applauded for their content marketing prowess.
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