Consumers today can and do switch brands with the click of a mouse. In response, brands are focusing on retention marketing to remain competitive and drive growth; in fact, 97% of businesses say that retention is a top priority for them. While brands use various strategies to increase customer retention, many of them, including ThirdLove, Brooklinen, and Ralph Lauren are hiring specialists to lead retention efforts.
More from PostFunnel on retention:
How to Lose a Customer in 10 Days
9 Ways Subscription Marketers Can Reduce Churn
The Do’s and Don’ts of Relationship Marketing
Who is a Retention Specialist?
A retention specialist or retention marketer develops and manages initiatives directed at increasing customer retention. The role is a cross-functional one, as retention specialists collaborate with various teams to create and foster customer relationships and engagement. In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at what retention specialists do and why demand for them is on the rise.
Churn Reduction
Although subscription eCommerce is thriving, churn rates are high. 72% of customers fail to make a second purchase within six months of the initial transaction. To tackle subscriber churn, brands are turning to retention specialists.
Among other activities, retention specialists manage the execution and launch of promotional events. Specifically, they use customer data to find out what resonates with customers and ensure that the bundles or deals offered to at-risk customers are relevant and impactful. Working with creative teams, a retention specialist also helps optimize content and messaging to encourage repeat purchases.
From poor experiences to dissatisfaction with product assortment, customers cancel subscriptions for several reasons. While losing a customer can be unpleasant, knowing why they canceled can help prevent others from churning. This is where a retention specialist comes in. He or she conducts customer surveys to identify why customers cancelled their subscriptions, and based on responses, designs and implements programs to retain current customers.
The road to retention is paved with bricks of personalized marketing. 44% of consumers will become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience. To ensure the delivery of personalized experiences across channels, a retention specialist develops and tests segmentation strategies to understand the micro-behavior of customers and target them correctly.
Increase Customer Lifetime Value
Brands are increasing their focus on customer lifetime value (CLV) to achieve companywide growth. Tracking CLV enables brands to identify their most valuable customers and build a strong relationship with them. Customers that have an emotional connection with a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value.
Consequently, one primary responsibility a retention specialist has is to optimize CLV. Leveraging customer data, retention specialists find new ways to deliver the right offers and messaging to customers at the right time across multiple channels.
With generic experiences no longer satisfying customers, retention specialists also help brands become customer-centric by optimizing the journey of various customer segments and designing experiences to increase repeat purchase rates and lifetime value.
Regardless of how well a brand’s email marketing is performing, there’s always room for improvement. Retention specialists improve email campaigns by creating data-driven campaigns and sending targeted emails to specific customers at crucial points in their journey.
They also develop customized lifecycle-based email programs, track engagement metrics, and provide actionable email recommendations based on key performance metrics and A/B test results. These strategic steps help improve campaigns and increase customer retention.
Build Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is key to increasing retention and profitability in today’s competitive environment. 52% of customers will buy their favorite brand even if it’s cheaper and more convenient to go with a rival product. While brands are investing in loyalty programs to retain customers, most programs fail at building customer engagement: 59% of consumers use their favorite loyalty program less than once a week.
Because loyalty points aren’t necessarily enough to keep customers engaged, retention specialists conduct research to understand customer behavior and use the insights gathered to build loyalty programs that appeal to their target audience. To prevent customers from abandoning these programs, a retention specialist uses data to determine the right reward structure and offers that’ll build deep relationships with customers. The specialist should also conduct competitive research and analysis of various loyalty programs to understand the current retail loyalty landscape.
Since 73% of consumers use multiple outlets when making a purchase, a retention specialist is also responsible for leveraging data to understand how customers behave across channels. This ensures that brands can identify where customers are open to receiving marketing messages that encourage them to build cross-channel loyalty.
If you’re engaging a retention specialist to help overhaul your loyalty program, check that the person you are considering has experience managing loyalty vendors to achieve program goals and an understanding of loyalty/CRM databases. Also, look out for someone who has experience working in a cross-functional environment, feels comfortable working with data, and has the ability to clearly communicate insights to stakeholders.
The Need for Data-Driven Marketing
With consumers becoming more selective in which companies they patronize, brands rely on data to deliver higher value to customers and retain them. 58% of retail marketers rank improving customer retention strategies as their top priority for data-driven marketing.
Because data needs to be managed across an organization, a retention specialist collaborates with members of data teams to analyze findings and identify and drive initiatives that will improve customer retention. Using this information, a course of action can be recommended and implemented.
If you hope to increase revenue from repeat customers, onboarding a retention specialist should be high up on your to-do list. Winning the customer retention game takes a lot more than offering discounts, so you need a professional with a customer-first attitude who brings new ideas to the table and isn’t scared of experimenting. Most importantly, listen to the solutions they provide and be open to implementing their recommendations.