Retention Strategies Beyond Email & SMS | Podcast

Vira: 0:40

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to Email Einstein, the podcast by Flowium. We are your hosts, Vira Sadlak.

Andriy: 0:48

And Andriy Boychuk.

Vira: 0:49

Welcome back, you guys. Yet another exciting episode at the beginning of the year. Andriy, you even had like a fun naming for this topic of the month or whatever. I couldn’t, I couldn’t remember it, but it was like some sort of like a word pun about the—

Andriy: 1:05

Yeah. So actually it was fun, but it was so hard to remember that I forgot.

Vira: 1:12

That you have to look in your notes.

Andriy: 1:14

Yeah, it’s like something about January and retention.

Vira: 1:19

Retainery.

Andriy: 1:21

Retainery.

Vira: 1:22

Let’s call it retainery. Yeah, you guys.

Andriy: 1:24

So it’s not as cool as segmentation.

Vira: 1:27

No, segmentation was our like top of the top. Like, I’m so proud of us. Yes. So good. I like, we could, we couldn’t come up with anything as cool as segmentation ever since, but you guys, we’re open to your puns, so send them our way if you have ideas.

Andriy: 1:46

Yeah. You know, I volunteer for this Dignitas organization and we had found this, this week. We combined word drone and donate and call it Dronate.

Vira: 1:57

I love that. Oh my goodness. But this is like so organic. It’s almost like this word should have existed. Like, it’s so cool. Yeah,

Andriy: 2:06

yeah. I want— and its domain is gone. So I’m like, I’m bad with domains. I’m spending all my money on domains.

Vira: 2:14

I wonder, I wonder who owns that domain. It’s like so niche. It must be some sort of Ukrainian. I don’t know. Because like everyone, it’s, it’s an, it’s our new thing. Everyone is like collecting for drones and yeah.

Andriy: 2:26

Yeah.

Vira: 2:27

Well, you guys, so we briefly introduced the topic to you already, but today we want to talk all things retention marketing. Obviously it’s a big, big topic, but we just picked some of the examples that you might reuse for your brand, some of the examples that we like from other brands. Then hopefully you’re gonna get inspired. And you’re gonna get your retention strategy in place for 2024.

Andriy: 2:55

Yeah, but before we start, just want to like disclaimer, like we all know that email marketing, SMS marketing is powerful for retention. But we will not be talking about email and SMS marketing here. We’ll be talking about different, more unique, like unique strategies for how you can retain your customers. And as our prediction in the previous episode for 2024 was, is that retention would be like bigger. It would be like people will start focusing more on the retention than on acquisition, or they will take retention more seriously. So that’s why we want to cover today, what, 8 strategies or how many we have?

Vira: 3:39

I didn’t count them. 8-ish.

Andriy: 3:41

Oh, 10, 10, 10, 10.

Vira: 3:43

Maybe. Yeah. And like, especially it’s important considering that like you know, these numbers, like retaining new customer, retaining a customer versus like attracting a new one. The cost of recruiting new customer will be 5 times more than retaining an existing one. I remember like when we first started doing this podcast, we saw the number like 3 times more expensive than retaining the existing one. Today, I found this like 5 times more expensive digit. So, yeah, the cost of acquisition is increasing. That’s why the cost of like retaining, like your efforts to retain your customer are more important. than ever. I’m like super excited about this first strategy. I feel like brands don’t talk enough about this strategy, but like building a community around your brand. You guys, this is like—

Andriy: 4:33

I have a, I have a quick story about this.

Vira: 4:36

Yeah.

Andriy: 4:37

So I did it. I went to Traffic and Conversion Summit first time back in 2000, I believe either’19 or’18, probably ’19, 2019. And they said the next big thing, big things, communities, communities, communities. So when I came back from that event, the first thing I did, I created Klaviyo. Now it’s called Unofficial Klaviyo Community on Facebook. And we start to get over the years, we start to get leads from that. We get to start recognitions from that. Now it’s close to like 3,000 or 4,000 people. Even Klaviyo was part of this and still is a part of that community. And they were learning from us while they were building their in-house community.

Vira: 5:23

Yeah, that’s so cool, Andriy. I love this story. And I mean, it’s not a new thing, right? Like brands have been doing this like community things or this like closed club things like for years, for generations. We’re gonna share some examples like from the ’80s, some from some of the brands that you recognize. But even though it’s not a new idea, it’s still like super, super powerful. Like one of my favorite communities that I belong to, my favorite like brand communities that I belong to is Gymshark. Have you heard about them? It’s like this huge, like, okay, cool. This is this, like, probably like one of the biggest, like, athleisure brands, like, of our time, probably been— I think they’ve started like somewhere in Manchester in like UK. So they started in UK, but now they’re like this whole, like, huge worldwide gym brand or like worldwide leisure brand. And basically, what made them so popular is not the clothing that they sell, even though it’s like amazing, the quality is super good, but actually the community they built. So just like imagine having this, like, I don’t know, group of followers who love you and who continue to engage with you beyond your product. So this is exactly what Gymshark did. They have this like amazing blog that they run about all of the like gym strategies, gym recommendations, stuff like that. They do have pop-up shops where you can come and meet your favorite brand ambassadors. And for brand ambassadors, they, they have this, like, the most influential, like, athletes and the most influential, like, gym influencers and stuff like that. What I also love that they do have an online, like, clubs, like running club, for example, but also like a physical club, physical running club in some cities. So, I know that they do have one in London. I think they did have some sort of like a pop-up running club in Vancouver as well. I was not able to join back then, but now I’m thinking I might as well join their running club here to be able to run with my favorite athletes and with people who love this brand and who follow the brand. I mean, they did an amazing job. I’m like totally obsessed with, with whatever they do. And yeah, a lot of actually athleisure brands are doing a similar thing. So.

Andriy: 7:40

Yeah, but this is a great example. I love what you describe about this brand and I like, love what they are doing because at the end of the day, they are business and they’re here to make money. So, but this is, to have that community, it’s the retention strategy. Yes, people might first come to, to them to buy clothing and stay for community or vice versa. Maybe they will join community and then they start buying the apparel to kind of to fit in.

Vira: 8:10

Yeah.

Andriy: 8:10

And this is, it’s unbelievable, like retention strategy. Like, yeah, you might think about it’s hard to create, but now you can start from like Facebook group or WhatsApp right now, like WhatsApp have communities and even like we have a Flowium community there and we have a podcast chat so we can go to that podcast chat and ask us questions. Like soon we will have MrBeast retention director on our podcast. So excited. So if you want to ask him, yeah, if you want to ask him some questions like you leave it in our chat And we will ask them on the podcast. But this is just an example. It costs me nothing to create that community. It’s cost— like it’s free of charge. It’s free to support it. Yeah, because we have like, what, 5 members, 10 members?

Vira: 9:00

For now, you guys, you can be member number 11.

Andriy: 9:04

Yes. It’s hard to build. Maybe not technically, not money-wise, but like hard to build like that group. But we, we would strongly recommend to build the community around your brand, and it will improve your retention.

Vira: 9:21

Yeah. And I really love what you said about some people joining, like, the community for the sake of community, some people like buying first, because that’s exactly what happened with me. I was like searching for some like workout inspiration online. And that’s how I learned about Gymshark. I like literally found their like reels and their like little workout routines or like some workout regime recommendations. And then I got into their email list and then I purchased the product. So, it’s powerful. And yeah, are you, Andriy?

Andriy: 9:52

So, email converted you?

Vira: 9:54

Everything. It’s like the very omnichannel experience.

Andriy: 9:58

I think email marketing is important.

Vira: 10:00

I mean, obviously, I’m gonna say it was email marketing. I might be biased, Andriy, right? Working in this industry and their emails are excellent, by the way. But yeah, I think they’re doing an amazing job with like influencer marketing, with all of this like community building thing and Yeah, I might as well actually join their running club. I’m not a good runner. I stopped running after Kilimanjaro completely. But hey, you never know, maybe I still got it in me. Are you a part of any, like, big brand communities, Andriy?

Andriy: 10:28

I’m going to a small local gym, and I would consider this a community. And it’s expensive. I mean, relatively expensive. It’s like I pay150permonth,actually450 per quarter. So compare it to Crunch or LA Fitness, which 10to50 per month, it’s expensive, but we have a kind of community there. So sometimes I skip the entire week, but I would not think to cancel it because of that community.

Vira: 10:57

Because you— because of the feeling of belonging and people who—

Andriy: 11:01

100%. Keeps you accountable. I think it’s, it’s like extremely low-hanging fruit for businesses.

Vira: 11:08

I agree. I agree. Well, the community that I personally love, absolutely love, even though, like, motorcycles are not my thing, is actually the Harley-Davidson community. Have you, Andriy? I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen their community, all of this, like, big guys and gals on this, like, cool motorbikes and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. What I didn’t realize, well, first of all, how old this community was. They actually started it in, like, back in the’80s. when they had financial troubles, believe it or not. They had some quality issues. I don’t remember what was it, but basically this new, cheaper Japanese motorcycles started appearing on the market, and Harley-Davidson happened to have some quality issues at the same time. So, their sales dropped insanely. So, in 1983, they were almost like, they pretty much faced extinction. And now Harley-Davidson is one of the, I think they’re valued at something like $8 billion or something. They’re like top 5 or top 50 biggest like US companies or something like that. Well, anyways, when they didn’t have money to market their product because they invested everything in that like quality control and in improving the product, in 1983, they actually started this community where you could pay some— I don’t think it was like a big amount of money, but you can actually pay to belong to this Harley Owners Group. It’s called HOG. And yeah.

Andriy: 12:40

So this is, this is the second strategy we would like to discuss. It’s like membership with some kind of perks. So similar to communities, but I mean, in some cases, it’s, it’s community like Harley-Davidson with some perks, or you buy a membership and you’re getting some kind of benefits out of that.

Vira: 13:01

Right. Yeah. Well, thank you for pointing that out. Because for me, it was like, so this like first 2, they’re like so connected almost. It’s kind of like a community, but you also pay for the extra benefits that you’re getting. And you do get quite a few benefits. You’re getting access to like exclusive events, you’re getting the right to wear that like Harley-Davidson logo on your, on your hat or on your like I don’t know, jacket or whatever. There are like tons of benefits. They also introduced some special kind of like insurance perks. There are tons of benefits, but also I feel like the biggest benefit of this organization is like you are having this like huge audience of ambassadors. And I actually checked like the number of people who like belong to this club. Just like Andriy, just a guess, like wild guess. What do you think is their like number of people belonging to this, like, or paying the membership for this club?

Andriy: 13:56

Oh, it’s hard. Like 1 million?

Vira: 14:00

Okay, it’s half a million, but it’s still very impressive. It’s, I mean, can you imagine like half a million people pay you as a brand money to be a part of this like exclusive club?

Andriy: 14:10

I just checked. And so they worth5billion,5.05 billion.

Vira: 14:15

Okay. Because I have like different notes in my different note, but like, it’s still very impressive, right? I mean,

Andriy: 14:21

yeah,

Vira: 14:21

of course. It’s insane. Like, especially considering that they were like pretty much at the verge of going bankrupt in the ’80s. And they just like, because they didn’t have enough money to like advertise, they come up with this like unique idea of having pretty much like ambassadors, I guess. But in this case, they were not paying ambassadors, ambassadors were paying them to be a part of this exclusive ambassador club. How cool is this, right?

Andriy: 14:47

Yeah. So another example, and probably everybody nowadays have this, is Amazon Prime, where you pay, I don’t even know how much you pay, like$99 or 140peryear,andyougetabunchofdifferent,like,bunchofbenefitswithit.Themostimportantbenefitsisfreeshipping,andtheotherbenefitslikePrimeVideo,what,likemusic,andsomekindofdiscountsandsoforth.Soyou’repayingthismembershipandyougetmuchmorevalue,right?Somyrecommendation,myhypothesis,let’ssayifyoudon’tchargeforshipping,Maybeit’sagoodideatostartchargingforshippingandintroducelikesomecheapmembership,like10, 20,30 per year membership and offer free shipping only to the members. Like, I mean, if you have that ability to do it, but it gives more perceived value and it keeps the customer in your store. So the next time they shop around, they’re like, oh, I have a membership, it’s free shipping there. So, so it’s Might be better to retain this way.

Vira: 15:56

No, it’s such a cool idea. To be honest, I’ve like, I haven’t seen a lot of brands doing that. It’s more like a thing of like a bigger marketplaces kind of brands. But I, but I do love this strategy. I think

Andriy: 16:09

it’s so cool. I, because I did the audit of the, of one brand, we were bidding on them, Classic Tees, the t-shirt brands, by the way, they fit perfectly. Pants and shirts.

Vira: 16:26

And you’re not affiliated with them?

Andriy: 16:28

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I’m not. And actually, they picked another agency to work with. So I’m a little bit upset because I was a fanboy coming to the presentation anyway. But they do have membership. I forgot they have 2 different plans. One is 30,another90 or$60, and you get Like different benefits.

Vira: 17:21

So it’s not like a subscription model. It’s just like a, you’re getting, you’re paying for the benefit of like free shipping and different perks, right?

Andriy: 17:31

Yeah. So actually, it’s called the Insider’s Club. The membership that pays for itself. It’s 20% back on every order.

Vira: 17:40

So it’s like a cashback model.

Andriy: 17:43

Yeah, unlimited free shipping. And only$1 a month.

Vira: 17:48

Okay. Okay.

Andriy: 17:49

Billed annually at $12. That’s

Vira: 17:52

such a cool idea. And I mean, they’re obviously not making money off that, like $12 per year. It’s more like they’re getting their customers back because of that, like perceived value that the customer is expecting to get from the brand, right?

Andriy: 18:06

Yeah. And 2 more perks. It looks like they— you’re getting the card, some kind of like credit card, but it’s not credit card. And also access to exclusive sales and deals. Of course, and priority customer service.

Vira: 18:20

Ooh, I wonder how that priority customer service would work because honestly, I would pay money to, to be able to get a hold of a customer representative. Like,

Andriy: 18:29

we partner up with Gorgeous. I don’t know, do you pronounce Gorgeous or some, some— anyway, the Gorgeous customer support, the help desk. And when you, if you are, let’s say, a member, It’s like on the back end, they push you like in the priority automatically. So like when you typing in some kind of request, they push you the first. So everybody who even was before you, but they are not member, you kind of pass them and you will be the first one.

Vira: 19:01

I love this idea. That’s so cool. That’s so cool. So here you have it, you guys, 2 strategies already. Strategy number 3, use of mobile apps. Andriy, you— I know for a fact you’re using a few of them. Can you like explain what do you mean by use of mobile apps?

Andriy: 19:18

Sure. So I mean, originally, let’s look at HubSpot. If you’re not familiar with HubSpot, HubSpot have a lot of free tools that businesses are paying money for. So they started with free tools and they still offer free tools like free CRM, free chat on your website, free website builder. They have a bunch of free tools. This is how they get you kind of in the door. And of course, if you want to use more of it, you have to pay. Or same thing with apps. You are using the app, let’s say Fitbit. Fitbit. I used to have Fitbit a long time ago and I like how they entering, how I can enter my weight in Fitbit. So Fitbit, I stopped using Fitbit as a watch probably a long time ago, but I stopped using Fitbit app probably only the last year.

Vira: 20:14

Wow.

Andriy: 20:15

So it shows you the value of that app which stores data, which stores some information, which has something, and people care about that. They don’t want to lose. I used to work with a personal trainer and I was paying like around$300 per month. And I stopped working with him, but actually I want to stop working with him a long time ago, but I did not because I did not want to lose the data.

Vira: 20:44

And

Andriy: 20:45

because I want to like kind of— I always postpone it, postpone it to cancel with him because I want to like transfer the data, but it never happened. So that’s cool. I just overpaid.

Vira: 20:55

Yeah. I mean, there are some apps I’m like guilty for paying even though I’m like not using the product anymore. I’m just just like using the— I’m like, just like paying for the data that they already collected from me. For example, Oura Ring. I love this a lot. You know what Oura Ring is, right, Andriy?

Andriy: 21:14

Yes.

Vira: 21:15

For those of you guys who don’t know, it’s basically like a ring that collects data about the quality of your sleep. When I first got it, it was like, their membership was free, but then they introduced this like6membershiporwhatever.Andtheycollectthisdataaboutyoursleep,yourbodytemperature,stufflikethat.Well,nowIwearmyOuraRingeveryday,butIhaven’tchargeditforlike6monthsorwhatever.SoIjustlikewearitasanaccessory,whatever.I’mnot,I’mnotinterestedinthatdataanymore.Takemelikeliterally3secondstofallasleep.SoIknowthatI’mlikeasleep,sleepingchampion.Yeah.IdoappreciatehavingallofthatdatathatIwaslikecollectingforayear.SoIcanseethat,okay,sothis,whenIhadthisworkout,thisishowmybodyresponds.OrwhenIlikedothistypeofactivity,thisishowmuchsleepIneedto,orthisishowIrecover.DoIusethatdata?Notreally.DoIstillpay6.99 per month? Yes. And possibly, and possibly if they will launch a new product or something like that, it will be easier for them to convert me just because I use their app even though I stopped using their product. Same with actually with Nike Run. Have you used the Nike Run app ever?

Andriy: 22:31

No, I did not.

Vira: 22:32

Because you are a Strava guy. Right?

Andriy: 22:35

Yes. Yes.

Vira: 22:36

Okay. Yeah. Because you’re like that cool athlete. I feel like cool kids use Strava, like professional athletes, people who know a thing or two about running and all of this. Like other people who want to be runners, they use Nike Run. But anyways,

Andriy: 22:52

do you have to pay for Nike app?

Vira: 22:55

No, actually it’s free. I think you can purchase some additional features or additional trainings or whatever, but it’s free. And I really love when you first start, they actually hire this coach And they have like these guided runs. And I really love like every time I start my run, it says—

Andriy: 23:12

This is a great example. Like Nike, the athletic brand, they have an app and this just shows you the value of those apps. And of course it might cost you, you might need to invest something in, in this. So it’s, it wouldn’t be cheap, but it will improve your retention. I know that Under Armour, they either purchase or they develop from scratch their app. called MyPal, MyPal, to enter calories, enter what you ate. I do have this subscription. It’s like $60 per year. And the last time I entered what I ate, probably 2 years ago. So, but I still, I still have the app.

Vira: 23:54

Yeah.

Andriy: 23:55

Because I’m planning to enter something in near future.

Vira: 23:59

Yeah. And I mean, what I also love about this Nike app, obviously I do love the guided runs and like the workouts and stuff like that, but also you have to enter like, what type of shoes you’re using for running. Oh. So first of all, they can give you like a recommendation or whatever. But also, and I didn’t know it’s a thing because I was like wearing my like running shoes for years, but apparently there is like a limit of kilometers you can put on your running shoes, just like for the sake of your feet staying healthy or whatever. So you need to like replace them every like certain like number of kilometers or whatever. So I do keep track of like what kind of shoes I use for what kind of run. And then it gives me like a reminder, hey, it’s time to, like, upgrade your shoes or like, these are the models that you can purchase, which is like super cool. And honestly, I, I did purchase the pair of Nike shoes I, I didn’t need, honestly, because of that function. So I love that.

Andriy: 24:53

It, it reminds me, that’s why they upgraded the app. So I use at my home, we use iRobot Roomba, the robot to clean the floor. And recently they came up with the update. So now I have like 3 trackers, one for filter, one for brushes, and one for their like spinning thing. And it’s, it’s with each, which each cycle, the progress bar goes like higher and it’s like, oh, it’s time to replace this, it’s time to replace that. So basically they tell me that I need to buy more of that. Yeah. Yeah,

Vira: 25:32

well, very smart of them, but that’s why I use Dyson because you like pay$1,000-something one time and then you don’t need to like replace anything. You can just like—

Andriy: 25:41

No, I have Dyson, but Dyson you have to take and do something. There’s like, it’s like the next generation.

Vira: 25:49

You have everything, you Americans. We are Europeans, we are built different. I can say that officially because it’s my 3rd week living here, Right. So,

Andriy: 25:58

yeah, you’re officially British.

Vira: 26:02

Not really, but I enjoy saying that. So, yeah. So here you have it. Use of mobile apps can definitely help you retain your customers, but also convert them and upsell them. One strategy that I’m very curious to learn more about is actually offering store credit. Andriy, you know more about that because you were the one who added this recommendation. Tell me more about it. How does it work and why it’s a good idea to introduce program like this.

Andriy: 26:30

Sure. So typically what we see brands doing is like, hey, get them to opt in to get 10% off or 20% off or whatever the off is or 50% off. And let’s say 50%. So you opt in and something costs$100, you get 50% off and you’re like, great, I just saved $50 and you’re done. Right. So there’s no, no need for you to come back to the store.

Vira: 26:59

Right.

Andriy: 27:00

But store credit, how it works, so it’s like 50% back, for example. So you’re paying$100, but you’re getting back 50inthestorecredit.Sointhefuture,youwanttocomebacktothestorebecauseifyouwanttospendanother100, you already have50,50 which you can apply towards your purchase. So maybe for you as a business, it’s the same thing in terms of how much discount you’re giving. However, it gives incentive for a customer to come back to spend more with you. And this is, I mean, perfect retention strategy.

Vira: 27:41

And basically the money does not leave your business, right? It’s like it stays there. And what I see some businesses are doing, and I think you can do it with some like apps like like GetFundYou or whatever the name of that app, but they actually give you the option. So you can either get like an actual cashback, which is like $30, for example, you can get a 30Visadebitcard,orifyouwant,youcanget36, which is like 20% more if you opt in to get like a gift card for the store. And so basically they incentivize you to get a better value, but with their Which I think is like super cool because literally the money, they do not leave that like ecosystem that you built for your business. So yeah.

Andriy: 28:30

Yeah.

Vira: 28:31

This is so cool.

Andriy: 28:32

I actually did experience something similar, but when I was requesting a refund, they were offering me something similar like, hey, you will get the full refund on your card or you will get like 20% more, but as a store credit. Yeah.

Vira: 28:50

IKEA, I think IKEA does it now. Well, IKEA in UK anyways, because like in Canada you can like literally use the thing for a year, return it, and they’re going to give you your money back to your credit card. But here they give you money back in like a form of like gift cards that you can only use in the store. And yeah, it’s very smart actually. I haven’t like experienced it as a marketer yet, so I haven’t like worked with cashback, but we just introduced this like new app with one of my clients. We haven’t like launched it, but they’re looking into using it. It’s called the Social Snowball. I think we briefly talked about it, but basically it’s kind of like a program for ambassadors, but you can pick whether you’re getting your money if someone purchases based on your referral, whether you’re getting the money just like cash money or higher discount, but with a store. So there are ways to automate it, guys. You don’t need any fancy technology. You can literally automate everything with apps. Okay, so strategy number 5, introducing a subscription program. We’re not going to go into— we’re not going to get into details because it’s pretty straightforward. But basically, there are like tons of, tons of reasons to introduce the subscription. It helps you with retention, it helps you to predict business revenue, it helps you with like the average order value and stuff like that.

Andriy: 30:15

And 2 more things that I would like to point out in Amazon, I like what they do with a subscription to retain even subscribers longer you stay subscription with a subscription style cycles, higher your discount is. Mm-hmm. So sometimes you sign up with a 5% monthly and after 3rd subscription cycle it bumps to 10% or 15%. So this number one and number 2 is to offer some kind of incentives before the expiration of subscription. I know Adobe does it. So typically they say, hey, your subscription is about to expire, get for 60 days for $0, but you need to sign for the next year. Okay. So basically you’re getting 2 months for free, but you need to sign up for the next year. So basically it’s like they catching you. And yesterday I received a notification on my phone from Apple, they, hey, get 3 months of Apple TV for free. And I’m like, oh, wow, I didn’t press because I didn’t read the fine print because they maybe will sign me up for the entire year.

Vira: 31:33

Now I do have like a bunch of this little calendar reminders for myself to cancel a bunch of like free stuff that I subscribe to from like different emails. So yeah, I do, I do use them a lot. These promotions, I do really like the next strategy that we’re just going to— that we’re going to cover. It’s called Inspire with the Mission. And this is not something that you can like measure, but this strategy, it does work really well for those like mission-driven brands.

Andriy: 32:06

Vira, so in the last probably 2 years, I just buy Rosie’s Shoes. They are not cheap. I mean, relatively not cheap. Like what, like, like$100 plus? And for like winter boots, it’s like $200 plus, which are not cheap. But I buy them, first of all, it’s like they look great, I love them, but I’m buying for the mission. Like, I love how they transform the plastic bottles into shoes, which is kind of sustainable. It’s all about sustainability, which means a lot to me and for my family. Mm-hmm. So we buy special like garbage bags with special like detergent. So the next, another example is Earth Breeze. And I know some of our team members like this brand as well. It’s— you can use them for, I mean, for washer, like to wash your clothes. And also I think they have pods for dishwasher, so they don’t have any waste. So they don’t have like film, like everything is dissolvable or how you call it.

Vira: 33:09

No, that’s, that’s super cute. And I mean, that’s huge, obviously. And it’s just like that extra motivation to convert customers like you and just like extra motivation to stay with the brand. Right. And I really love when brands are going even like extra step, they are doing the extra step. And there’s this brand that I purchased from due to different reasons. It’s called Ten Trees. Have you heard of them? It’s like, they’re like pretty big. They are pretty big in Canada, in the States. They are this like local Vancouver brand that like every time you purchase something from them, their clothing is also made from like recyclable materials, from like the organically sourced materials and stuff like that. But every time you purchase something from them, they they basically plant a tree on your behalf. And they have this really cute reward kind of program. It’s more like achievement programs or whatever, where you can actually earn different badges depending on how many trees you planted or how many trees the brand planted on your behalf. So there is this Planter. So that’s just like when you first register for their program. There is like Go Doer when you have like 20 trees, Community Builder, Carbon Conqueror. It’s a really cute naming too. It’s like super fun. All of this, like badges are really cute. And they do have like stickers on Instagram as well that you can like reuse. I’m currently at like Go Doer because it’s like, I think it’s like second out of like 6 levels or whatever. So I didn’t spend like a lot with them, but it’s like 20 trees, you guys. I already like planted 20 trees. Like I already did something good on this earth. So yeah, I mean, I love this brand and especially when all of this is like communicated nicely. So good job, Ten Trees. Love what you’re doing. Okay, so this example by Ten Trees, it’s kind of like an example of inspiring with the mission, which is one of the strategies that we recommend you to use to retain the customers. But also, it’s a great way, it’s a great example of like a reward and loyalty programs. And you guys, you use them a lot. You’ve seen like a lot of brands are doing them. I personally really love what Princess Polly does. Andriy, have you heard of them? It’s like, it’s more like a brand for not for kids, but like for younger adults. So they are the it brand for Gen Z shoppers. And basically, they created this program that resonates with the younger generation, right? And they call their tiers, it’s like all themed based on like concerts and music festivals. So they have like this tier called general admission, this tier called front row, VIP, backstage pass, and stuff like that. But basically, like depending on what tier you are that, you can get like different, like experiential rewards. So you have, you can be featured on their Instagram and TikTok. I think they do have like a few million followers. So that’s huge. So you can earn yourself a place in their Instagram or TikTok stories, which I think is huge. You can also get access to their exclusive like Facebook or Instagram events. So like online events, but also they do have this like physical events with like the founders, different festival getaways hosted with the and invites for VIP customers only. So I think it’s such a cool idea, and especially because you can earn these points by volunteering your zero-party data. So they do have this like Princess Polly style quiz, like a hub with all of the latest like fashion trends and stuff like that, where they collect information about your preferences, your lifestyle, and stuff like that. And then based on your preferences, they send you to like a landing page with products recommended for you. And then by giving away this data, by purchasing these products, you can get to like a different tier and you can be invited to their fancy VIP-only events. I think this is such a cool idea, such a well-thought loyalty program.

Andriy: 37:19

Yeah. And 2 cents from me. I sometimes I don’t understand why brands don’t do that, don’t have loyalty program. Maybe there are some brands where it’s not applicable, but for majority of brands, It is doable and applicable and it’s not expensive, but the benefits is like tremendous.

Vira: 37:42

Yeah, that’s huge. That’s huge. Andriy, let’s talk about like strategy number 8, empowering with convenience. I know you’re always like convinced by convenience. This is like a big one for you. Yeah.

Andriy: 37:56

So I will show you kind of 2 extremes, good and bad. So Amazon, as we all know, Amazon have a 2-day shipping with a Prime membership here in New York. When I used to work in corporate America, they had 1-hour or 2-hour delivery.

Vira: 38:16

That’s insane.

Andriy: 38:17

Yeah. And also for their Whole Foods, because I live not far from the distribution center, they do the same-day delivery. So this is convenience and people pay extra for convenience and people will stay with you because of the convenience. So but on another extreme, Rode, Rode mic, I believe it’s Australian brand. I do love their mics and like right now recording on their mic, but I just recently purchased a mic. I tried it, mic sound was amazing, but I didn’t like this, like the size of it, how heavy it is. So I was trying to return and I did not buy on through Amazon because they didn’t have— it was not available. It was not available on their store, but it was available through Shopify shop. I don’t know, like shop.com, but it was through— it’s like market, another marketplace, and I bought it. But I cannot now, I cannot return it because they said like, did you open it? I am like, of course I opened it. So like, but in our policy it says if you open it, you’re not able to return. And I’m like, now I’m like ending up with this $400 like mic. I continue buying Rode mics? Probably yes. Will I use their website? Never. Just, I’ll just use Amazon. That’s it. Because it’s like their website, their like terms and conditions, whatever they have, it is terrible for nowadays consumers.

Vira: 39:46

Yeah.

Andriy: 39:47

How can I try mic without, without opening?

Vira: 39:50

You are just very American, Andriy. This is how the entire world lives. Like literally, I’ve never, I’ve never witnessed such good customer experience as they do in the States. It’s even better than Canada. I mean, you guys are spoiled. So, but yeah, I see, I see your point, Andriy. So definitely. Okay. Strategy number 9, educate your customers. I love this strategy. It does take some work on your end, but you can do it through different mediums. You can do it through email marketing. You can educate your customers about your products through your social media, through your blogs, platforms. What brands, Andriy, do you think are doing a good job with like educating their customers?

Andriy: 40:31

I know only brands from like in SaaS space, like HubSpot, they have their academy, Klaviyo, they have academy. So I know those brands, but I do— I cannot name specific brands, but I know there are some fashion brands, they have like makeup courses and they offering the courses either for free or depends what tier you are in, in their loyalty program that you can enter, access that course. course, but basically some kind of educational material that’s valuable for your customer but complementary to your product,

Vira: 41:06

right? Yeah, we actually just launched this, like, one of the flows for Facebook leads with one of my clients where we are offering like a shocks buying guide to potential Facebook leads. And so far it’s, it’s doing amazing. So we like literally created this like big PDF with a detailed buying guide for people who are searching for this product and it’s, it’s doing amazing. Yeah. So the conversion rate there is like through the roof. So people do tend to trust brands who communicate through delivering the value. Okay.

Andriy: 41:41

Agree.

Vira: 41:41

This last one, Andriy, it’s like completely yours, like this idea. And I love how you titled it, Subscribe and Delight. Tell me more about it. I think I know what you’re going to tell about the example, But tell us more.

Andriy: 41:57

Yeah. So I, on YouTube, I have a short about that. So I, we are customers for one oil shop, oil and seasoning shop, and they have amazing, amazing like olive oils. And I’m the guy who like, I don’t care what I eat in most cases, but this like, now I care about like olive oil because probably I never eat—

Vira: 42:22

Olive oil and hot sauce. Yeah.

Andriy: 42:24

Hot sauce. Yeah. But so we were buying We buy all oils and vinegar from and seasoning from this store. They have local stores and they have it like online. And one day we receive a package. It’s like decent size pack, like like small but still like big like bigger package. It’s like iPad size package. And I’m like asking my wife like what did you order? She says. I didn’t. I’m like, okay, maybe they send it by mistake. And I’m opening the— I’m opening the box and there’s, uh, oil samples with different infusions and flavors which we did not try before. So basically it’s like free gift, but it’s kind of teaser that what we can buy from, from, from their store more. So it’s like— and listen, it’s a free, free advertising because like I’m bragging about this to my friends, to hear it on the podcast. They’re doing bad job with because I don’t remember how— what’s it called? Like Taproom Seasoning and Oil is like the extremely long name. But if you want to know exactly, I will include them under the description. We are not affiliated, but they have amazing products.

Vira: 43:42

Big question, did you purchase some of these oils after you received the sample? Did they convert you?

Andriy: 43:48

I’m not buying anything from them. I mean, I’m personally technically not buying from them, but my wife. So I bet I bet we did. I bet we did.

Vira: 43:56

Nice. Yeah, it works every time for me because that’s something that you don’t expect. And it also that like going extra step and delivering the value when you expected the least. So I love the strategy. Cool. So here you have it, you guys, 10 fun retention strategies for the year 2024. Let us know if you’re using any of them in our, in our channel, in our WhatsApp channel where we have 10 people, you can be number 11. And no, it’s a fun, it’s a fun little community. Definitely join in. And thank you.

Andriy: 44:28

flowium.com/WhatsApp.

Vira: 44:30

Yeah,

Andriy: 44:31

the easy link, it will redirect you.

Vira: 44:33

Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of this little family, email family of ours. And we’ll see you next Tuesday.