The competition is tough, the market is a little rattled, and the pressure is on to grow your revenue. Do you invest your marketing budget in more advertising and chase up cold leads, or do you try to create better, more profitable relationships with your existing customers? Perhaps with a B2B customer loyalty programme?

A report from Semrush found that an existing customer is between 60-70%  more likely to buy from you, compared to new customers where the chance of them buying from you is between 5-20%. So it makes sense to give those long-standing customers some attention! 

1. B2B customer loyalty marketing can increase sales!

When your existing customers have an established relationship with your brand and trust your advice and recommendations, they’re more likely to keep coming back for more! Especially if they’re being rewarded and receiving the right support, information, advice and of course relevant incentives for their commitment to your brand. 

Using sales methods such as up-selling or cross-selling will open up the door to new opportunities. Think Staples (office supplies) -  you order a box of recycled paper for the printer and they send you some cartridges for free! And before you know it, you’re ordering the same cartridge with every order going forward.

2. Keep your competition away by offering a B2B customer loyalty programme

By constantly interacting with your customers, getting to know them and nurturing the relationship, there’s less chance of your competitors nabbing them! But these interactions need to be useful, interesting and provide value! No one wants boring or complicated content or processes. According to Blue Corona, 80% of B2B buying decisions are based on the buyer’s customer experience. And whilst the study goes on to report that only 20% of buyers go on the price or product/service, that’s still a big % in our eyes and not therefore not to be ignored.

By offering your customers the chance to earn rewards for their commitment to your brand, they’re far more likely to return to you than shop elsewhere! Take VMWare, the computer software company, as an example. They rewarded their distribution partners with points every time they made a sale of VMware education solutions. These points were then redeemed in an reward catalogue, meaning they could choose something personal to them. The distribution partners felt appreciated and valued for their efforts and in return, continued to choose VMware education solutions over competitors.

3. B2B customer loyalty marketing helps retain the big spenders!

All things are not equal – if they were, life would be very boring and predictable. 

The same can be said for your customers. Some may be loyal to your brand (great!), but they don't necessarily make big frequent purchases. Others may be far more likely to buy in bulk. From a commercial perspective, you really want to look after everyone but especially those big spenders. As Fundera proves, 43% of customers are more likely to spend more money at businesses they’re loyal to. 

Your most valuable customers provide a significant return on your investment, so don't take them for granted. Invest in building and maintaining these relationships by providing the evidence of incentives they need to keep coming back –– it's an intelligent way of growing revenue without breaking the bank!

4. Don’t forget to keep nurturing those smaller buyers

Their sales may be small in comparison, but they have nevertheless chosen YOU. That’s a big deal. Take the time to nurture these tiny acorns and show them why they can continue to trust you with their business. It may not feel like a big deal to you, but it may be a huge spend to them. The more your customers trust you, the more they’ll rely on you to give them advice and guidance in the future. Establish yourself as their go-to contact, invest time to build and develop those relationships and make yourself their go-to contact every time and eliminate your competition.

5. B2B customer loyalty marketing provides valuable data and information

Loyal customers are a huge asset. If you have a B2B loyalty programme in place, you'll be able to access invaluable data about them and their performance. The data you gather can help you to:

•   Understand purchasing habits
•   Plan future product promotions
•   Highlight less popular products in your product line
•   Address any quality issues
•   Look to resolve any educational gaps in the customer journey
•   Understand your customers and deliver more value to them

B2B customer loyalty marketing is a sure-fire way to focus on maintaining and nurturing your existing customer relationships. After all, according to Outbound Engine, it costs five times more to retain an existing customer than it does to acquire a new one!

At Incentivesmart, we have valuable long term relationships with our customers. If you want to hear how we’ve helped impact our clients B2B customer loyalty marketing strategy, let’s schedule some time for a quick chat!