Create a Post-Sales Content Strategy for your Business Today

Create a Post-Sales Content Strategy for your Business Today

Did you know that increasing your customer retention rates by as little as 5% can increase your prots by as much as 95%! Do you still wonder if you need to invest time and resources into crafting a post-sales strategy for your business? The strategies undertaken post-sales are aimed at increasing repeat sales, gaining customer feedback enabling product innovation and enhancements, and lastly but most importantly increased referrals and brand advocacy. But before we discuss the various activities to be undertaken post-sales, it is important to gain an understanding of consumer behavior and examine its various stages. This will enable you to formulate an effective post-sales content strategy, by effectively mapping the different content assets to various media channels for each of these stages.

Stages of consumer behaviour

Stage 1: Consumption
Customer consumes/uses product/ service Once a product has been sold, the rst stage is the actual consumption or usage of the product. As a marketer, you need to ensure that you share adequate information to smoothen this process for your customer. This can be done via emails containing product guides, webinars or 1- on -1 free consultation to ensure that all startup issues with the product are addressed, and any troubleshooting that occurs during setup/usage is in a controlled environment.

Stage 2: Satisfaction

Customer is satised/ dis-satised with the product/ services. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction is a state of mind, triggered by the users experience with the product. Most users are inactive during this stage; perceptions pertaining to the brand and product are now beginning to take shape. You can leverage this effectively by creating innovative avenues/ interaction points to channelize positive perceptions (Satisfactions), build customer testimonials in turn turning them into brand loyalists/advocates. Dissatised customers need to be directed to the right resources so that the help required to resolve issues is accessible and immediate. Ensuring that the degree of communication is high with the new buyer is important in this stage.

Stage 3: Engagement

Customer engages with the brands The most critical stage, engagement refers to a constant dialogue between you and your customers. Consumers may choose to engage with a brand either to get ongoing support for the product/ service or gain training on how to use the product. Ensuring product adoption is high by crafting a content strategy that caters to the above needs will ensure that your customers have a positive experience with the brand.

Stage 4: Repurchase

Customer decides to repurchase/ renew contract/ service In this stage your customers opinion about the product is positive, and has now successfully become a repeat buyer. He has conrmed his allegiance to the brand and has demonstrated that through repurchase. Content Marketing tactics that conrm this decision will ensure that he continues to be a repeat buyer of the brands products and services.

Stage 5: Loyalty
Customer conrms his allegiance to the brand. A loyal customer is one who continues to invest in your brands product/ service. He has capitalized on what your brand has to offer and is convinced that there is no parallel competitive offer that can be equally compelling. Degree of trust on the brand and services is appreciably higher and is difcult to disrupt. Communication with such a customer should give him incentives for his stickiness with the brand and should aim at pushing him to the next stage of brand advocacy.

Stage 6: Advocacy
Customer promotes and recommends the brand In this stage the customer moves from just being a repeat loyal customer to becoming an advocate for your brand. He is committed to your brand and plays the role of an inuencer and an ambassador on behalf of the brand. He plays the role of the brand evangelist and is proud of his afliation with your brand/product/service. He openly shares his experiences with people, indirectly becoming a part of your organizations virtual sales team. Communication with such a customer should reward him for his loyalty towards your brand to ensure that he continues to promote and recommend it to his circle of inuence.