The evolving business landscape demands two things – innovation and a fresh influx of clients. Innovation to be relevant amid growing competition and new clients to rake in the numbers. However, it’s often the case that the pursuit of new clients leaves little time to splurge on keeping the existing ones active. The result is a long list of dormant clients that once brought thick revenue. Reactivating old clients like these can be much more beneficial for you than spending endlessly on acquiring new ones. In this article, we’ll explain why.
What do we mean by “Reactivating Old Clients”?
Sure, you must have tried calling your dormant clients. It didn’t quite work out. But did you make a generic effort, or did you implement a refined strategy? If you didn’t have something more unique and well-defined in place while approaching your dormant clients, it’s highly unlikely that things would pan out as expected. By reactivating old clients, we mean orchestrating a coordinated effort – a mix of micro-strategies that would help you optimize your every move. Picking up the phone and calling them without a tested strategy will most likely end up in failure. That’s exactly what we don’t have to do.
Why Reactivating Old Clients is a Blockbuster Strategy
Before we delve into the HOWs, let’s understand the WHYs. Here are three key reasons why you must spend equal time and resources on reactivating dormant clients, if not more, to what you do for new acquisitions.
More cost-effective than acquiring new clients is
Acquiring new clients is almost entirely dependent on generating leads, which is expensive. Generally, multiple teams are involved, including dedicated individuals employed for lead generation. Once onboarded, getting new business from the existing clients has no additional costs. Thus, tapping into the old clientele and finding ways to reactivate them is a highly cost-effective track for growing the business. Moreover, resources spent on reviving old clients will have a much higher ROI than hunting for new ones.
Increased revenue, with almost no additional cost
Nurturing relationships with existing clients involves considerably lower costs, if any at all, than acquiring new clients. It’s like digging and maintaining a gold mine for a steady revenue inflow, rather than setting on voyages to discover treasure chests every other day. Dormant clients are trees with low-hanging fruits that need minimum attention and effort to reap the benefits. With timely watering and maintenance, they will continue to yield for a very long time.
Easier to convince old clients
Imagine yourself being a customer of a bakery for years. However, you’ve stopped buying from them for whatever reason. The bakery decided to introduce a new range of cheesecakes and is looking for new business. The owner contacts you and says they miss you and want you to try the new range of pastries. The owner also tries to get new customers to try the cheesecakes. Who do you think is more likely to try the pastries? Of course, it will be you, because the bakery is a tried and tested avenue for you. Thus, old clients, even if they no longer deal with you, are more likely to trust you than the new customers you spend a fortune acquiring.
How to Reactivate Old Clients?
While reactivating dormant clients is essential, approaching them needs a thoughtful and meticulous effort. Here are four key elements you need to consider while approaching old clients for new business.
1. Appropriating data of dormant clients
The first thing you must do is accumulate your old clients’ data, analyze it on various parameters, and categorize them appropriately. The categories can be based on the period a client had been associated with the company, the revenue generated, and the volume of business conducted. Target the clients that seem to have a good time doing business with your company but stopped in recent times. On the other hand, those clients that hadn’t brought considerable revenue previously can be focused on last.
2. Designing new/exclusive strategies to reignite interest
Once you’ve categorized the old clients, the next step is to analyze why did they go dormant in the first place. The reason could be unresolved issues, whether the pricing was higher, or whether they simply needed something more. Identify the pain points and design new campaigns addressing those issues before reaching out to the clients. Attract them with the exact solutions they need, which could be better pricing, comprehensive services, or more transparency.
3. Conduct special marketing campaigns to attract them
After identifying the pain points that made a thriving client dormant, you need marketing campaigns addressing those issues. Get the messaging right, make the client feel valued, and give them what they need. However, a marketing campaign for old clients needs to be different from how you attract fresh ones. The older clients need a more personal and emotional appeal to reignite a sense of connection, trust, and belonging. Identify employees the client favored and have them take the lead. You can also introduce some exclusive discounts or loyalty programs to revive old clients and keep them active.
4. Try different methods, test each one
Reviving old clients is much different than attracting new ones. While attracting new clients is more or less unknown territory, old clients come with history and data, which can be used to design multiple and multi-level strategies. To find the most effective method to reactivate dormant clients, try different tactics and arrive at a conclusion. Begin with testing on clients not too important, and then use the tested methods to engage with the most important ones.
Conclusion
With volatility and anomalies popping up frequently, adaptability is probably the biggest asset for a business. As competition continues to grow steeply across industries, businesses need to adapt and find ways to keep the existing clientele alive and kicking. Thus, reviving old clients is key, and finding ways to do it is a top priority. Start with analyzing data of your past clients, categorize them, lay down exclusive strategies and campaigns, and bring the dead back to life!
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Noman Shaikh is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bombay Reads. He grew up in Mumbai, a city he loves more than any other, and currently works as a content consultant. His expertise lies in creating high-quality academic and marketing content in the form of blogs, articles, op-eds, etc. Noman has worked with reputed brands, including Economic Times (through Spiral Media), Coinbase (through MattsenKumar), AdEngage, Della Group, GBIM Technologies, VAP Group, etc. For his published portfolio, click here. Contact Noman on noman@bombayreads for engagement.