A Guide to Retention Marketing: Proven Strategies, Examples & Trends

Myroslav Protsan

New businesses spring up daily, each offering your clients and prospects a seemingly better package to lure them away. You can’t stop these businesses from being established, but you can keep your customers closer by offering them irresistible value. Statistics show that 33% of users will waste no time leaving you after one bad experience.

The good news is that with retention marketing, you can turn one-time buyers into loyal customers. Therefore, let’s analyze some proven strategies you can try.

What Is Retention Marketing

As the name suggests, retention marketing is a set of strategies and practices that brands implement toward their existing customers with the goal of increasing patronage and loyalty to the brand. No matter how the business evolves and grows, it can help companies build long-term customer relationships that will transcend each phase.

For your retention marketing strategy to be successful, you have to understand your client's pain points and create personalized experiences that address those needs. Ongoing communication is essential to maintain the existing relationship.

The Role of Retention Marketing in E-commerce

When it comes to retention, true success lies in building an ongoing relationship with each and every customer. An effective strategy creates a habit, rather than constantly seeking new customers. It encourages consumers to keep coming back, making your brand a natural part of their daily routine.

New-age services like Reteno offer a range of advanced solutions to help you discover and implement the true value of retention marketing for sustainable revenue growth.

Habitual Engagement via Advanced Segmentation

Understanding who your customers are is the key to connecting with them. Advanced segmentation allows you to group customers based on behavioral patterns, purchasing history, or preferences. Armed with these insights, you can deliver personalized product recommendations and timely offers that keep users interested. Over time, this level of relevance turns casual shoppers into habitual customers who see your brand as their go-to choice.

Automated Retention Efforts

Today's intuitive marketing automation tools help you establish and maintain ongoing, habit-forming contact with individual users. They introduce personalized workflows triggered by specific customer behaviors, such as browsing certain categories, abandoning carts, or showing interest in new products.

With the right messages delivered at the right time, your brand can gently remind customers to return and even increase their average order value. Gradually, a pattern of consistent visits + purchases emerges that feels both natural and convenient.

Triggered Messages for Timely Action

A proactive approach based on precise timing is everything when it comes to customer satisfaction. It helps users anticipate the true value of your product.

Behavior-based triggers, such as back-in-stock alerts or exclusive deal notifications, sent when they matter most, are your weapon of choice. Instead of relying on sporadic promotions or guesswork, you become an essential resource consumers actively seek out when they have a need.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) Increase

To deliver offers that keep users shopping on your platform, track customer journeys from first click to repeat purchase. This approach allows you to create (or refine) your retention strategy to introduce relevant cross-sells and upsells. As a result, the lifetime value of each customer increases, turning buyers into dedicated brand advocates who drive more sales over time.

Reduced Churn

As customers get used to visiting your platform regularly, the churn rate naturally decreases. Research shows that 82% of happy users are less likely to leave, even when faced with seemingly juicier alternatives.

Targeted win-back campaigns and personalized incentives regain the attention of lapsed shoppers before they drift too far. Retention marketing helps you keep the brand top of mind and drive repeat purchases. By keeping customers engaged, you ensure that they see your product as a familiar part of their lives.

7 Proven Retention Marketing Strategies to Try

Retention marketing strategies have produced measurable results for numerous brands over time, and they are worth a shot. Some of the best practices include:

Personalized Onboarding Experiences

It shouldn’t be a surprise that each customer has unique interests and goals. Therefore, one of the most effective ways to retain customers is to provide them with a personalized onboarding experience. Tailoring the first interaction with your brand to meet each customer's specific needs and preferences will help you best guide them through what you offer. This will also set the tone for a long-lasting customer relationship.

Effective Push Notifications

Push notifications are an effective tool for customer retention. You can use them to keep customers engaged and inform them of new products, service updates, promos, and other important information. However, it is advisable to use them sparingly and only when necessary. Too many mobile pushes will overwhelm the users, drive them away, and defeat the purpose of your retention campaigns.

Customer Feedback and Support

Sometimes, asking them directly is the best way to know a client's preference. This way, there’ll be no second-guessing, and you can address their concerns by implementing services that accurately ease their worries. Listening to customer feedback and providing excellent customer support through lifecycle marketing is essential for retaining customers.

Targeted In-app Messages

Another way to keep your customers loyal is by sending them targeted in-app messages. Sometimes, they may be stuck on a particular function in the app, and a timely popup message might provide the answers they need. You can also use these personalized messages to announce new features, new products, and promote relevant content. They also increase engagement and average session length. 

Gamification

Gamification involves incorporating game-like features into your app to make it more engaging. You can create challenges, leaderboards, medals, and points to reward hitting several milestones at a time. 

Gamification is very effective for online platforms and mobile apps, as it has been proven to keep users engaged. It also creates a sense of accomplishment and competition for customers who want to earn rewards and top leaderboards. 

Beta Access to New Features

If you’re looking to introduce new features to your app or upgrade the existing ones, you should first release them to your loyal customers. This will show them they have a heightened sense of importance to your brand. It is also a great way to test these features and get valuable feedback that you can use to improve them.

Loyalty Programs

You cannot successfully conduct a customer retention marketing exercise without incorporating loyalty programs. It shows your clients that you do not just want their money but also value them as individuals. Some common loyalty programs you can try are price slashes, gift cards, exclusive offers, bonuses, etc. This will even push them to make more purchases and spread the good word about your services.

5 Examples of Retention Marketing

Many brands have already hacked customer acquisition and retention thanks to their unique features and products. Their strategies are worth emulating, and you can learn a thing or two that will help your business. Some of them include:

Gamification Elements by Duolingo

As a popular language learning app, Duolingo effectively uses gamification to retain users. The app incorporates streaks, badges, and leaderboards to create a fun and engaging experience. This motivates users to continue practicing, leading to increased retention and engagement.

Personalized Playlists by Spotify

Spotify leverages user behavior to curate personalized playlists for their listeners. This helps to keep users engaged and helps them discover new music, encouraging them to continue using the platform. It is a great example of how retention marketing can help enhance the customer experience.

Prime Membership by Amazon

It’s public knowledge that Amazon runs one of the most successful subscription-based businesses in the world, as seen in the Amazon Prime streaming services and Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud offerings. Their retention marketing strategy is what makes them industry leaders in the respective spheres. This strategy cuts across personalized communications, discounts, great customer support, and an absolute commitment to delight clients.

Personalized Movie Recommendations by Netflix

Netflix uses viewing history and preferences to suggest movies and TV shows that are most likely to interest each individual user. This keeps users engaged and helps them discover new content, thus encouraging them to continue their subscriptions.

Beauty Insider Program By Sephora

Sephora's Beauty Insider program is another example of a loyalty program that effectively retains customers. Sephora offers tiered rewards based on spending, including points, exclusive products, and early access to new launches.

Main Retention Marketing Trends for 2025

The e-commerce space is constantly evolving and embracing new trends. By 2025, more brands will incorporate:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

Brands will now use AI and machine learning to automate tasks, analyze customer data, and create personalized experiences for retention marketing. This will help businesses improve efficiency, optimize campaigns, and deliver better customer experiences.

Hyper-Personalization

Hyper-personalization will continue to be a major trend in retention marketing. We expect many businesses to leverage advanced data analytics and AI to deliver highly tailored experiences that cater to individual customer needs and preferences.

Predictive Analytics

More brands will analyze customer data and behavior to identify and address potential churn risks.  Predictive analysis will help brands estimate customer lifetime value, reduce their churn rate, and increase customer retention.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

Businesses will incorporate AR and VR into their activities, such as app retargeting, to re-engage lapsed users, drive higher retention rates, and create memorable experiences that differentiate them from competitors. 

Omnichannel Engagement

In no time, businesses will expand their reach across multiple channels for better communication. Customers will enjoy a seamless and consistent experience across all touchpoints, including mobile apps, websites, social media, and physical stores.

Focus on User Experience (UX)

It's necessary for modern businesses to design seamless, user-friendly interfaces that allow customers to effortlessly navigate their offerings. A positive UX will increase customer satisfaction and can greatly boost conversion rates within your sales funnel, ultimately driving higher revenue.

Voice-Enabled Interactions

Alexa and Siri are popular voice assistants that help individuals with their inquiries and requests. Soon, voice-enabled interactions will become even more prevalent in retention marketing, and businesses will adapt their strategies to accommodate voice search and voice-activated interactions.

Improve Your Retention Marketing with Reteno 

Reteno provides a platform for businesses to personalize each customer interaction. With its targeted messages, personalization, and strategic ads, customer retention marketing becomes super easy.

By integrating with Reteno, brands can track customer engagement, e.g., monitoring monthly active users, and retain customers at risk of churn. As a trusted customer retention platform, we offer the following benefits:

  • Omnichannel User Retention Platform: Reteno allows you to reach users through several channels, including mobile push notifications, in-app messages, app inbox notifications, email, SMS, web push notifications, and messengers. This allows you to deliver messages in the way that is most likely to reach and engage your users.
  • Campaign Automation: With Reteno, you can automate your campaigns, saving time and money. Additionally, you can design workflows to activate campaigns when users perform specific actions like signing up, making a purchase, or launching your app.
  • Personalization: With Reteno, you can craft personalized messages by leveraging customer data, such as demographic details, interests, and behavioral patterns. This ensures that your communications are highly relevant and more engaging for your audience.
  • Advanced Segmentation: You can use Reteno to segment your users based on various criteria, such as demographics, interests, and behavior. This segmentation makes it easier to target messages to specific groups of users.
  • Ease and Affordability: Reteno is a no-code platform, meaning you can create and manage your campaigns without involving developers. We also offer different pricing plans to suit the needs of different businesses.

Final Thoughts

You can significantly improve your services and reduce the churn rate with the right retention marketing strategies. In no time, you will experience rapid growth and enjoy patronage from the right audience.

There’s no need to wait; kickstart your retention marketing campaigns with Reteno and enjoy endless repeat purchases. Our unique features will help you develop the ideal retention strategy and grow your business.

Don’t know how to go about it? Contact us today to get all the information you need.

Alex Danchenko

|

November 7, 2022

Natalya Ustymenko

|

February 26, 2023

Ready to Gain Real
Competitive Advantage?

Book Demo

See Your Messages Come to Life!

Get a firsthand look at how your messages will appear on user devices with our FREE simulator.

Preview Now

Evaluate and Elevate Your Push Notification Engagement

Are your pushes as compelling as they could be? Find out with our free preview tool. Instantly see how your notifications will display on iOS and Android, in both expanded and collapsed views.

This is your chance to fine-tune your messages to ensure they're not just seen but felt. Make every character and every push work harder for your engagement goals

Start the Test