💬 LTV in my opinion is arguably the most important metric (that not enough tend to pay attention to when it comes to strategy and optimisations) and is critical for sustainable/scalable growth.
Why is it so important to improve LTV rates in my view? Just a few key reasons why...
Many other benefits I haven't mentioned, but you get the picture for LTV.
One of the primary areas I help eCommerce brands master are initiatives, tests, and experiments that focus on imrpoving their overall lifetime value - and going deeper into channels to help them uncover hidden opportunities. Sometimes, small tests and changes can lead to big results. Here are some thought starters and things you can tick off that can help, regardless of the stage of growth your brand is on.
- One of the more critical elements to developing good LTV strategies is ensuring you do understand the customer journey and customer experience (CX) in depth.- That means tracking user behaviour via the likes of analytics tools like GA, Shopify and numerous others.
- You should be creating segments on the various parts of the journey - including the likes of pre-customer (acquisition), remarketing (before converting), new customers, customers purchased more than 2x (or more). - There are potentially hundreds of audience segments you can create, but focus on the main ones.
- List down all the key messaging and what personalised triggers of marketing they expect as they interact with your brand via the stage. - Once you get across this, you'll become a more formidable brand and know for great value-add marketing.
- I've mentioned rewards/loyalty programs in other checklists, and it's for a good reason.
- It's one of the best investments and initiatives brands can do to encourage customers to engage and buy over, and over, again.
- The beautiful thing is that there are some amazing loyalty-based app solutions on the market which make it a breeze to implement and setup - all you need to decide on is the perks structure.
- In relation to the LTV of strategy of loyalty/rewards are referral programs, and it's for a similar motivation process.
- You want to encourage customers/visitors to share with their friends - and why's that? Well, it's because friends are being recommended a product/service from someone they trust. Plus, what I've found through my experience working with brands, are that these types of customers who come through this source tend to buy again, because they have that trusted connection from their friend. Not to mention, it's a really cost-effective acquisition channel when you compare it to the likes of paid media (as usually the reward is less than what you pay for CAC via channels like FB ads)
Push notifications are awesome and I'm a big fan of them. The primary reason being is that they're cost-effective solutions to get, and you see the ROI on them pretty quickly.
As long as you setup the right targeting parameters (and ensure people are properly opted in), then it's worth the investment.
We've all signed up to stores that continuously share "deals" and you can tell they're just big, large list send outs trying to get people to buy. To be clear, sending sales-focused emails are important and a key strategy, but you don't want to make it the only-focused content (or be known as the brand that just does 'sales').
Now, it's a strategy that can work with some verticals/categories, but even then, many brands are forgetting that whilst driving sales is one thing, you're also building a brand you want people to come back to over and over. And if you're looking for more consistency, you want to have a reason for people wanting to read your emails, not just another "offer". You want to stand out against other offers, especially during periods where sales are really competitive (i.e. Black Friday, Christmas, etc)
The good news is that you don't need to overthink new ideas all the time, especially if you're an early-stage brand trying to gain traction. Simply use content that you're posting on socials, or new blog content on the website, or perhaps you've made an update to your about page - whatever it is, there's an opportunity to take something and announce. Even if you focus your newsletter strategy mainly on sales, feeding in other content can go a long way to satisfy both sales goals, and brand-building goals.
This coincides with the previous point I said on newsletters, but we want to share content that adds value and that also makes sense as part of the journey the customer is on.
That means sharing value-add content that can help them go to the next step - for instance, those who have signed up to the newsletter, yet not made a purchase even (or for example, 12+ months since their last purchase). You can share content like tutorials, social proof case studies, UGC videos, blog content, community-focused content and more.
The great thing if you use Shopify and Klaviyo (assuming most if you reading would be using these platforms), is that it's easy to create dynamic lists and segments where visitors/customers can go "in and out" based on criteria you set.
Many brands attempt to build Facebook groups, especially for those on those in the beauty and skincare niche - I see many brands who do quiet well.
Building community (and a brand that people that want to engage with it outside of just buying products) is certainly a key competitive adv. that more brands will start to really drive.
There are numerous reasons why - incl. the likes of reducing CAC, referrals, and more. The best part is that starting a community, particularly through Facebook, is free to do. Just need to strategise and have a solid community engagement (content, great members, etc) plan to really see ROI.
One of the more "obvious" strategies I'm mentioning here, but it's really important to highlight.
Customer service is marketing (I'm sure you've heard of this before). Plus, a good customer experience can lead that person recommending their friends. From a marketing lens, the opportunity here is to support the customer to hopefully lead to a sale, but also opportunities to get feedback, and potentially UGC content opportunities for great support - this goes a long way for a brand I just advised recently.
This strategy doesn't need to be over-thought, and it can go a long way to make your most important customers feel special.
Provide new exclusive perks, pre-launched product offerings, personalised gifts, test sample products (etc), which provides a more "exclusive" and experience.
Doing this with your top customer segments can help activate them to become better brand "ambassadors" and help spread the word, and plus, encourage them to stick with your brand and purchase time and time again (hence, increasing LTV).
When it comes to audiences segments that have become inactive and not purchased for a while, you want to send automated emails/SMS campaigns providing exclusive offers.
I've spoken about upselling/cross-selling across other checklists I've done - and for good reason.
More so with cross-selling, which can play a key role across your website, as well as through automated SMS/email campaigns based on prev. customer purchases. There are many good solutions that can help with implementing great cross-selling experiences.
