Web stories and customer retention

There is hardly a company out there that doesn't struggle with customer retention. Even if you have a decent online presence, and you know how to draw in new customers, you'll still need to take extra measures to ensure that you retain them. While there are different tools that you can use for this purpose, we feel that web stories are often underutilized. So, to help you boost your customer retention, we will use this article to explore web stories and customer retention.

Understanding customer retention

To make proper use of web stories to retain customers we first need to understand what web stories and customer retention truly entails. As we've written a couple of articles on story content and its role in marketing, we won't go over it in this article. Instead, we will assume that you are familiar with the basics of web stories, and proceed to elaborate on customer retention.

What is customer retention?

Retaining customers simply means encouraging them to work with you as many times as possible. The mere fact that the customer choose to work with you in the first place, means that they found something worthwhile about your company. And since you've managed to break the ice that we call customer engagement, it only makes sense to make full use of it.
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To retain customers you need to know what drew them in in the first place. Then you can use that knowledge to make them come back. If you manage to understand that, you won't have to constantly worry about finding new customers.

Why customer retention is important

Simply put, better customer retention universally leads to better revenue. The mere fact that you are trying to retain your customers means that they've already done business with you. So, instead of convincing them to spend their hard-earned money on your company, you simply need to remind them why doing so is a good idea. This is far more cost-effective, as finding new customers usually takes a lot of resources. And keep in mind that revising customers tend to spend increasingly more money, the more they do business with you. Some businesses rely on returning customers as they base their business model on recommerce. But even if you don't, increasing your retention rates simply makes sense from the cost-effectiveness standpoint.

Connecting web stories and customer retention

So, with all this in mind, where do web stories step in? Well, if you know how to use them, web stories can be quite effective in engaging your customers. The key thing to remember is that finding new customers and retaining old ones are different things. And, as such, require different methods.

Why web stories are useful for customer retention

Customer retention is a multi-layered process. Meaning that in order to convince customers to work with you again, you need to address them on different levels. Emails are an easy choice for this, as they offer a degree of personalization necessary for retention. Well-timed promotional offers can often do wonders for retention rates, as saving money is something nobody passes on. But, all this aside, where do web stories come into play?

The main reason why you ought to utilize web stories for customer retention is that they are not always seen as marketing content. When people go through their standard online content they tend to ignore any piece that seem like marketing. This is why YouTube has to put the 5-second minimum runtime on ads. Otherwise, viewers would simply close them without even taking a second glance. Meanwhile, web stories are not easily distinguishable from standard content. After all, people use stories to promote themselves all the time (just take a look at Instagram and Facebook). And so, we still can't quickly make the decision that a web story is a promotional content and that we don't want to see it.

This is exactly where the power of web stories plays a part in customer retention. Namely, if you believe that you can offer a promotion that will draw in previous customers, the best way to do it is via web story. A quick, clear, and engaging web story will easily inspire your previous customers to come back and work with you. And since they are already familiar with your company, you don't have to spend much time explaining what your company is about.

How to create web stories that retain customers

Now, all this is nice in theory. But how do you actually create stories that retain customers? Well, to create such stories there are a couple of things you need to take into account. First, you need to consider your brand and how it connects to customer retention. Some brands retain customers quite easily simply because the nature of their business incentivises continual use. But brands that work around the one-and-done business model will have a harder time retaining customers.

The second thing to consider is the message that you will use in web stories and the emotions behind them. The good thing here is that your stories don't have to contain much information. After all, your customers already know what your business is about and what you can offer them. Instead, you need to put the right emotion into your stories so that they will stick. For example, if you are running a shop for school supplies, you shouldn't use web stories to explain what you can offer or that your prices are low. To retain customers, simply emphasize that the new semester is just around the corner. And that you want your customers to be as equipped as possible. Add to that a discount for returning customers, and you can pretty much rest easy and see your retention rate skyrocket.