For most handmade sellers with a good grasp on their brand identity and a wonderful array of products to sell, it’s not difficult gaining clients regularly. However, even the best companies and sellers tend to have a far more difficult time keeping these clients coming back time and time again. So, how do you retain clients that you know loved your products once before and would likely buy from you again with the right nudge?
In this article, we’ll break down 14 of the most unique yet tried and true ways to keep your top buyers engaged for far longer. Through these efforts, we hope to help you finally develop the online fanbase you’ve always wanted and keep them involved with your brand for years to come!
1. Do Online Auction on One-of-a-Kind Items
Nowadays, auctions aren’t like they used to be. There’s no one vigorously chanting and no paddles being raised to indicate new bids. Instead, online auctions reign supreme and provide a unique way to sell your special and one-of-a-kind products. The Balance Small Business shared a list of bidding apps based on price and functionality which may be helpful as you start using this new method to sell your rare items.
The main reason this option works so well is because it allows certain past customers to participate in unique events and feel special because of it, it shows that engaging with your brand regularly leads to rewards, and it can also be used to raise money for charity which showcases your care for your community.
2. Subscription Boxes
We actualy featured a story about subscriptions in the January magazine this year, ‘This Etsy Seller Turned Her Product into a Subscription Box That Grows by 20% Each Month.’ Flavia Gabriel of The Fabulous Planner shared how subscription boxes were the perfect fit for her product and keeps consistent income coming in. This method is particularly useful for handmade sellers who create bath bombs, natural makeup, face masks, essential oils, CBD products, and soaps because the box can be marketed as a self-care subscription box. However, its ability to help sellers doesn’t just end there as nearly any product can be turned into a monthly subscription plan if done right!
3. Virtual Treasure Hunts or Competitions
Hosting a virtual treasure hunt or competition is a great way to keep your past customers engaged and interested in your brand for longer. As humans, we have a desire to compete and try to win in almost every aspect of our lives. Using this to your benefit as a handmade seller is a great way to engage your past customers effectively and keep them coming back to buy from your shop over and over again.
In order to do this for your own brand, start by analyzing what kinds of offers or competitions match your company’s aesthetic, make sure you have enough engagement online to actually host a real competition or treasure hunt, and decide what the prize will be. For example, if you have a bath bomb company, you might ask your customers to take photos of their bath bomb water looking super cool and the best photo will get one free bath bomb with their next purchase. This encourages people to use your product, engage with you on social media, and buy from you again all at once.
4. Free Online or Socially-Distanced Crafting Courses
Teaching an online or socially-distanced course is truly not that difficult and it gives you an opportunity to connect with your past clients, engage with potential new clients, and make connections in your local community and online that you wouldn’t have otherwise. Now, you may be wondering how teaching your past clients to do what you do will encourage them to buy from you again but what you shouldn’t forget is that your clients appreciate your expertise in your craft and would likely appreciate it even more upon knowing just how much goes into every product you create.
Most people enjoy the process of making something once, but then they would rather purchase the product from that point on. This is something that Annie from Natural Annie’s Essentials mentioned in her recent podcast. Before starting her candle business, she taught classes showing people how to make natural products with doTERRA. Although people enjoyed the classes, they had no interest in continuing to make soaps and similar products once the class was over.
5. Create an Incentives Points Program
One of the best examples of a successful incentives points program is the Starbucks rewards app. For Starbucks customers, it incentivizes buying their drinks and other items regularly in exchange for free drinks and gifts. This is something that more handmade sellers should consider as having an incentives program isn’t just for restaurants and coffee shops by no means.
By creating an incentives program that offers free products after a few purchases, you are actively increasing the sense of urgency that comes with your products and quite literally training your customers to buy your products regularly. Obviously, you won’t be able to offer digital rewards, but you can slip a coupon into your packages as a “thank you, please shop again,” or you can message people after they’ve placed an order and send them a coupon that way.
Lastly, make your customers aware of your rewards program by posting about it on social media. For example, you can say that repeat customers automatically get 15% off their next purchase.
6. Hold Virtual Events on Social Media
Sometimes, even just seeing you on social media regularly and getting to know your personality will encourage your customers to buy again from your brand. Just as we often will buy products from our friends’ businesses to help them out, becoming a friendly face to your customers elicits the same desire to help your brand continue to be successful.
A great way to do this is to utilize Instagram Live. According to Later, “Instagram Live is an incredible channel for driving new followers, engagement, and even selling products.” A wonderful idea when starting to use these live videos is to start with testing your products or showing them in videos. Next, you can even just talk about your brand and goals for the year. You can even share events, volunteer work, or daily life to help your customers get to know you better. This connection between your customers and you as a brand owner is sure to help you retain your clients and increase your online engagement moving forward.
7. Offer a VIP Subscription for Your Brand
Subscription boxes are so successful that, sometimes, it may be even more beneficial to have a second tier. Offering a VIP subscription to your brand online doesn’t even need to require a box, either. These subscriptions can be as simple as getting special offers, newsletters, one-of-a-kind free gifts, and access to your new items before anyone else.
VIP subscriptions encourage return customers and also make your customers feel particularly special when joining. This also quite literally exchanges memberships for even more advertisement for your brand making it a win-win for your shop every time.
8. Post Memes and Trendy Content on Social Media
Posting actual brand news, interesting industry topics, and seasonal sales are all great ways to use your social media accounts. However, modern meme marketing is slowly taking over the internet with companies like Wendy’s, Ruffles, and even Gucci taking part in this new trend.
The key to this method is taking current, popular memes and making them work for your own brand. For instance, as seen below, Ruffles used this highly popular meme format but replaced the other woman with their new chips. This resulted in over 4k likes in one day and proves the efficacy of this strategy not just for social media engagement but customer retention. By showing off your funny or cool side, you get people talking about your brand and wanting to buy from your ‘cool’ line of products once again.
9. Send Movie Night Snacks
This may be one of the more expensive options on this list but it is sure to lead to an increase in customer retention based on care for your customers. By creating a direct mailer like the one below and including a few snacks such as a microwaveable popcorn bag, candy, and a cheap item from your brand, you are actively showing that customers of your shop are very much appreciated.
It may seem silly considering the price of your products is likely far more than a few pieces of candy and paper, however, consumers are conditioned to look for deals and free items even if it means bigger purchases in exchange. Playing into this with a cute idea like ‘movie night’ is sure to have favorable results because of this.
10. Offer a Photo/ Hashtag Social Media Discount
Have you ever had a brand tell you to take a photo with their products to earn free gifts or discounts on social media? If so, then you know how effective this method can be! This method doesn’t just help you increase your social media presence but also helps to encourage your customers to engage with you online, show their love for your products, and get more products from your shop with their new discounts or free items. Plus it gives you more photos to use for your brand!
As shown in the example below, this fake company, Ruff Collars, is encouraging its customers to post pictures of their dogs wearing their collars in exchange for 50% off their next order. This offer doesn’t just lead to tons of great pictures of dogs on their social media but also encourages their customers to buy other products they might sell like dog treats or leashes.
11. Cross-Promote With Other Brands
While Nascar may not be the first thing you’d think of when hearing the term cross-promotion, it’s still a great way to understand the benefit for both parties when cross-promoting. As seen below, Skittles and Monster teamed up with racecar driver, Kyle Busch, to not just show off their brands but do so in a crowd of individuals they know already buy their brands regularly. With this being said, why would they choose to advertise with customers they know they already have?
Well, it’s simple; top-of-mind brand awareness. These brands are reminding their past customers of their awesome products and hoping, in exchange, it will entice them to buy them again because of it. The same applies with cross-promotion with other brands online. For instance, if you are an artist, you may choose to work with a clothing brand to create awesome custom designs on shirts and jackets. This doesn’t just help you acquire new customers but increases top-of-mind awareness for your brand with your past clients as well and entices them to buy from you yet again.
12. Host a Virtual Market or Fun Run for Charity
Hosting an event for charity doesn’t just help you gain new clients but plays into the humanity of your current customers as well. Whether it’s a virtual market or a fun run, being able to gain interest, market your brand online in connection to the events, and share it with past customers to encourage them to participate all helps you to market your shop and show your compassion at once.
According to Forbes, “81% of millennials say they want to support brands with corporate citizenship.” What this means is that it actually pays to give back to your community. For past clients, this only encourages them to support your brand even more and leads to a healthy and long-lasting relationship between you and your fanbase without fail.
13. Volunteer in Your Community
This tactic is great for your weekly newsletter and blog (which, if you don’t currently have these marketing methods, you absolutely should) as it allows you to market yourself and encourages past clients to buy from you again to keep you going and doing volunteer work in return. In fact, many handmade sellers use blogs to boost their businesses online because it’s a great tool to keep people visiting your website.
When starting this volunteer journey, you may be unsure of how to find volunteer opportunities near you but fortunately there are plenty of volunteering sites that track local volunteer programs and will help you choose the perfect opportunities that match your passions and brand. To only continue to boost this method’s efficacy, try to find programs that specifically tie into your brand and your customers as well. For instance, if your brand is a CBD brand, you may want to work at a hemp farm for the day. Similarly, if you sell toys, you might want to work with low-income families and even donate some of your products to the kids in these programs. This encourages your customers to buy more so you can donate more in return!
14. Send Free Tickets to Local Events
This unique customer retention option is really based on trust that your past customers appreciate your brand and confidence in the results that will follow. While it may be a bit more expensive than the other options above, buying some cheap local basketball game tickets, movie tickets, or event tickets of any kind is a surefire way to show your past customers you appreciate them. It’s also a great way to encourage them to buy from you again simply out of reciprocated respect and possibly even a desire to get another kind gesture like this in their email or mailbox in the future.
All in all, gaining and keeping customers is the key to a healthy and successful handmade seller shop. By using any of these different but effective methods above, your brand will stay in the spotlight and have return customers for years to come based on creativity and engagement alone!
