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BEGIN THE ENGAGEMENT Whether this step consists of product registration alone or if you have thought through an alternative call-to-action, your customer is at the peak of her engagement at this stage. In order to connect your customer post-purchase, you need a channel through which to communicate, share updates, tips, cross sell and upsell messages. ASK THEM TO SHARE THEIR STORIES We know that customer testimonials are worth far more to new and existing customers than marketing materials. So why not ask your engaged customers to speak up? Leverage your post-purchase channels to elicit reviews, testimonials, and stories about your products, then distribute those to your contact database. Remember, you can mine your current customers to feed the same group. It’s the gift that keeps on regenerating content—and revenue—if properly used. MEET AND LEARN ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS For many brands, the point of sale brings revenue but not a whole lot of insight about who made the purchase. In order to effectively address this first stage of post-purchase, you need a mechanism that allows you to learn who your customers are through data collection. KEEP THEIR ATTENTION This is where first-time purchases become loyal customers. At Registria, we refer to this moment as the “new point of sale.” If you’ve accurately identified, engaged, and encouraged your customers, then this stage can repeat indefinitely. And if you have a tested, automated platform to capture customer data, serve communications to that population, and keep their attention, the ROI you can achieve is astounding. STAGE 3. ENCOURAGE THE POST-PURCHASE MARKETING GUIDE Creating a robust, omni-channel marketing program to match today’s complex customer journey has been the goal of brands for years. However, much of those investments have been to shore up acquisition. In order to feed the always-hungry purchase machine, marketing has prioritized new sales over upsell and cross-sell activities. Yes, every organization needs a healthy influx of revenue from new custom- ers. But the post-purchase stage is where marketing dollars gain their leverage. It’s where current customers continue to open their wallets. And business-as-usual isn’t a sound strategy to address post-purchase. Let’s look at the unique tactics to create an effective post-purchase marketing strategy. THE RIGHT CHANNEL What do we mean when we say channel? As we explained above, your post-purchase strategy and tactics cannot simply be borrowed from your up-funnel activities. These stages of the customer journey demand an alterna- tive approach. At Registria, the channels we’ve seen the most success with are simple, low-friction, and provide both a data-collection and customer-engagement touch point all in one, easy step: the point of registration. The moment when customers register products—for warranties, to collect points or incentives, or to get access to important product information—is the optimal point to accelerate them through the four steps of the post-purchase journey: Identify, Onboard, Encourage, and Repeat. But any channel needs to be easy to access. If your channel of choice requires paper submissions, mailers, or applications on a smartphone to work, you risk low adoption and low engagement. Interaction should be simple from the customer’s perspective. THE RIGHT DATA The best data comes directly from your customers. Demographic and user data helps you focus your targets and makes your pre- and post-purchase messaging more relevant. But without an effective way to collect, store, and leverage that data, you’ll just be guessing who your customers are, especially if you have to rely on retailers to provide that information. Why go through a middleman? If you can establish the right channel, then you ostensibly have the makings of a data-collection strategy. THE RIGHT STRATEGY How do you bring this all together? First, consider your channel and data approaches as the infrastructure to your overall post-purchase strategy. They make the onboarding and engagement steps possible. You need to ensure that channel and data are one in the same. This might seem counterintuitive. Normally, your channel feeds your CRM system. But in post-purchase, you should be looking for a solution that can provide the channel, data storage, and data access in one location. Why stitch together a series of expensive point solutions to cover the stages of the post-purchase journey when you can Identify, Onboard, Encourage, and Repeat using a single platform? Take the traditional customer journey, the typical stages of Awareness, Consideration, Decision, and finally Loyalty. That final stage has always been misleading, and that’s because it’s made up of multiple sub stages. Each stage above belongs to what we consider post-purchase. Let’s explore each one. AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION LOYALTY IDENTIFY ENGAGE ENCOURAGE REPEAT START OF CUSTOMER JOURNEY REPEAT CUSTOMER JOURNEY START OF POST-PURCHASE STAGE 1. IDENTIFY STAGE 2. ENGAGE STAGE 4. REPEAT FIRST THINGS FIRST, WHAT’S POST-PURCHASE? THE POST-PURCHASE STAGES THE POST-PURCHASE APPROACH THE POST-PURCHASE ENGAGEMENT SOLUTION Registria provides holistic solutions that address the many stages of the post-purchase journey. Our Omni-channel solutions capture the point of registration. This step begins the engagement and provides your organization with rich, actionable customer data. The Marketing Services teams work with you to activate customer data through a series of engagement programs that drive increased reviews and brand loyalty. The Revenue-as-a-Service team will then help you shape your strategies in eStores, affiliate sales, and service plans to leverage your customer loyalty to collect revenue. Learn more about Registria’s approach to post-purchase engagement. Visit us at registria.com to schedule a demo.
