Understanding Retention in DTC

Retention is a hot topic in DTC.

But most marketers equate retention with one thing: Spamming customers with endless emails & texts.

Here's why this thinking is flawed, plus three retention levers anyone can pull:

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

First, what is "retention?"

At its core, it's this:

Ensuring your customers return to reorder.

Now, what makes someone purchase again?

For brands like Apple: Really great brand and product

For your local DTC brand: 37 annoying emails within a week from purchasing (kidding)

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

Folks repurchase when the product fills a need and is better than others.

Better =

1. Better Quality than others
2. Perceived value is higher than the cost
4. Solves a problem for them better than others
5. Makes them feel better than others (luxury)

etc etc.

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

Email/SMS is a vehicle to remind them of the thing that sold them into the brand the first time, and stay top of mind.

It's one of the ways to remind folks you exist.

Can also do this with an app, direct mail, etc.

But the art of retention is this:

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

Making sure the product meets the expectation you set across the customer journey and making sure your customers use it enough to need to repurchase.

Across the ENTIRE customer journey:

Ads
Website
Shipping
Unboxing
Returns
CX

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

I recently had @lovevalgeisler on the @downtochatpodcast to chat retention, and we hit on a bunch of fantastic points...

Here are just three tactical levers to pull to increase your retention:

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

1. Education: The better customers understand how to use your product, the better your chance of them liking it and consuming it.

Education needs to be done all along the journey. Make it your #1 priority.

✅ on your ads
✅ on the pdp
✅ post-purchase emails
✅ FAQ page
✅ etc.

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

2. Increase your odds of winning big:

One product means a 50/50 chance that the customer likes it, especially food/beverage.

If they buy multiple products? You're already doing better.

And if they shop across multiple categories?

Well, now you're really cooking with gas.

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

Not all brands have numerous sku's and categories.

But for those that do, increasing AOV should not only be done with volume, but also with assortment.

Increased AOV with multiple categories can often help retention quite well, not just growth.

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023

3. Leverage data to anticipate what your customers want.

Combining basket analysis with zero-party data allows you to predict where customers are headed based on similar journeys.

Instead of an "out of left field" upsell, be a personalized shopping concierge.

— Eli Weiss (@eliweisss) April 11, 2023