Black Friday and Cyber Monday are over, and you’re likely sighing in relief because it’s quite a hectic time of the marketing calendar. Your business has likely gained a surge of new customers, so now the real work begins. We’re working with our clients to turn these seasonal shoppers into loyal, long-term patrons, and we’d suggest you to do the same. The post-bfcm activity is often overlooked, but it’s well worth focussing on. A modest 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25% to 95% boost in profits, making retention strategies a valuable part of your post-Black Friday activity.

Here’s our guide to customer retention after Black Friday, where we share strategies you can put in place to maximise long-term value and build lasting relationships with your new customers.

Why Customer Retention After Black Friday Matters

Retention is one of the most cost-effective ways to drive growth in most businesses. From a psychological standpoint, if you’ve delivered value, someone who has already bought from you will be far more likely to do so again. And, whilst acquiring new customers is important, it’s far more expensive than retaining existing ones. It can cost up to 5x more to acquire a new customer than to inspire a current customer to purchase again. Customers who stick around also tend to spend more, with loyal buyers contributing 67% more to a business’s revenue.

Focusing on customer retention after Black Friday means you can:

• Increase repeat purchases (and therefor increase CLTV)
• Build predictable revenue streams.
• Improve the return on your Black Friday investment.

5 Strategies to Retain Black Friday Shoppers

1. Audit Your Existing Retention Efforts

Before adding new tactics into the mix, look at what you already in place to identify areas that can be improved. Here’s what you want to ask yourself:

• Are repeat purchases happening? Review your data to see how many customers from past campaigns returned for more. Look at the benchmark for your specific industry too.
• Which channels perform best? Assess the effectiveness of email, SMS, and social media campaigns.
• Is your audience segmented effectively? Segmentation is key to delivering personalised communication that resonates.
• Are there deliverability issues? Ensure emails are reaching inboxes and not being flagged as spam.

Start by auditing these areas, so you can build a solid foundation for your post-Black Friday customer retention strategies.

2. Create a Data-Driven Retention Strategy

We’re nerdy when it comes to data, and to be honest, we recommended you become the same! A data-first approach to strategy means your efforts to increase retention will be more efficient andbetter  targeted. Here’s how we recommend you start:

• Set Up Foundational Tools: If you don’t have this set up, it’s a must. Create email sign-up forms and design an engaging welcome series to make a strong first impression.
• Define Key Metrics: Track important indicators like repeat purchase rates, customer lifetime value (CLTV), and revenue per recipient. These provide insights into what’s working and where adjustments are needed.
• Monitor Customer Behaviour: Use analytics to understand purchasing patterns, preferences, and engagement levels. This data helps craft tailored messages that speak directly to your customers’ needs.

A data-driven approach ensures your communications are timely, relevant, and effective.

3. Build Detailed Audience Segments

Segmentation is a cornerstone of effective customer retention after Black Friday. It allows you to create highly targeted campaigns that resonate with specific groups.

• Segment by Behaviour: Group customers based on actions, such as purchasing habits, product preferences, or browsing history.
• Segment by Demographics: Customise messages based on location, age, or interests for more relevance.
• Engagement-Based Segmentation: Identify your most active customers and create re-engagement strategies for those who’ve gone quiet.

Refined audience segmentation ensures every message is delivered to the right person at the right time, maximising engagement and conversions.

4. Personalise Your Communication

Personalised communication is the norm these days, and customers are more likely to engage with messages that feel relevant to them. Resonate better by implementing these tweaks to your comms:

• Email and SMS Campaigns: Use customers’ details to craft more personalised offers and messages; names, purchase history, and preferences. Suggest relevant complementary products or exclusive discounts based on their Black Friday purchases.
• Targeted Content: Tailor subject lines, email lengths, and promotional offers to the specific segment you’re targeting. For example, if they are a repeat purchaser of a brand you stock, reach out to them about that brand for a better response.
• Cross-Channel Integration: Ensure a consistent experience across email, SMS, and social media so that your messaging and brand is reinforced across all touch points.

A little word of warning, do be mindful not to overdo it. Over-personalisation can feel invasive or a bit creepy if it’s not well thought through. Balance delivering value and addressing customer needs.

5. Automate Workflows for Retention

Automation is the short-cut we recommend to better managing customer retention efficiently after Black Friday. There’s a lot that can be done and automated workflows help to make sure your customers receive timely, relevant messages without requiring tonnes of your teams’ time.

• Welcome Series: Introduce your brand and its values while offering a small incentive for their next purchase. Ideally this is a series, not just a single email. 
• Post-Purchase Emails: This is where you want to start building a relationship with your new customers. Offer tips for using their new products, Share related items, and request a review (not all at once). This can be a strategic nurture sequence to upsell and support your CLTV metric.
• Abandoned Cart Reminders: This one’s a bit of a no-brainer / basic, but it’s worth a reminder. It’s a stat that you’ll want to improve on, so A/B test this, update it frequently, and make sure it’s optimised to include any time-sensitive discounts or free shipping offers that might seal the deal.

Automations done well will keep your brand top-of-mind while nurturing customers along their journey. Don’t sleep on them.

Continuous Improvement: Test, Learn, and Refine

For long-term success, don’t set and forget this part of your marketing. Ideally your agency will continuously test and optimise your approach and look at the following:

• A/B Test Content: Experiment with subject lines, images, and offers to determine what resonates best.
• Monitor Performance Metrics: Track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to identify areas for improvement.
• Refine Audience Segments: Regularly update segments to reflect evolving customer behaviours and preferences.

By refining your efforts, you can maximise the impact of your retention strategies.

Long-Term Loyalty: The Ultimate Goal

If there’s ever a time to add this to your goals list it’s now. Loyalty programmes are one of the best ways to keep your new customers engaged long after Black Friday, and keep your CLTV nice and healthy. Here’s a look at how you what you can put in place:

• Reward Frequent Purchases: Offer points for every purchase, which can be redeemed for discounts or gifts. There are apps and plugins for this.
• Exclusive Perks: Share early access to sales, VIP-only events, or free shipping for loyal customers. Rewarding your best customers is well worth it.
• Subscription Services: For applicable products, implement a subscription model that offers convenience and ongoing value. Read this full post on that here.

Loyalty programmes are well worth investing time to create.  Whilst the main goal is to encourage repeat purchases, they also create stronger connections with your customers.

To Wrap This Up

Excuse the pun. This holiday shopping season is just the beginning of your relationship with your new customers. You’ve no doubt invested a lot of time and money into customer acquisition, so now it’s the savvy thing to do to focus on enticing these customers to stick around. With the right customer retention strategies in place you can turn these buyers into loyal fans, ensuring these sales deliver a strong ROI over the long-term. Add these action items to your list for this week: audit your efforts, look at personalising communication, improve or set up automated workflows, adopt a new tactic to build loyalty. These strategies will help maximise lifetime value and strengthen both your brand and bottom line in the long-term.

At Good Karma Consultancy, we’re experts in helping businesses like yours create retention strategies that drive sustainable growth. If you know you don’t have the set up to support making the best ROI from the money you’ve just invested in customer acquisition for Black Friday,  get in touch to apply for our help.