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The end of the year is the perfect time to show appreciation for your existing customers in ways that build loyalty and boost sales.
We asked five SaaS and software companies what they did for existing customers around the holidays. In this piece, you’ll find successful strategies to reward customers, reduce churn, and increase their lifetime value.
1. Focus on Upsells and Cross-sells
Upsell and cross-sell opportunities are the most straightforward way to increase the lifetime value of your existing customers.
This strategy worked well for Natalie Luneva, co-founder and CMO of outranking.io, who ran a successful promotion on an add-on that’s popular with many of their power users. “We ran a limited-time, one-week promo where we discounted the add-on and saw a spike with hundreds of extra purchases that was a nice bonus to our MRR,” Luneva said.
Similarly, CocoFinder ran a holiday promotion offering users an automatic upgrade to a higher-tier plan. “The automatic upgrade worked best if combined with a coupon option that allowed users to upgrade their plan at a lower price than the basic plan,” explained Harriet Chan, co-founder and marketing director of CocoFinder.
2. Run a Limited-Time Lifetime Plan
Gorilla ROI generated $200,000 in sales in one week by offering a limited-time lifetime plan during a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, when consumers expect to see the biggest and best deals of the year.
The lifetime plan encourages loyalty, which is why the promotion didn’t just lead to a one-time boost in sales. Customers on the lifetime plan average a 1.5 to 2 times higher lifetime value, as well.
3. Create a Loyalty Promotion for VIPs
When you’re constantly running promotions to attract new customers, your existing users can feel left out or stuck with a plan that’s more expensive than it should be. To combat those negative feelings, run specific promotions for current customers to reduce churn.
The team at Proqura use the end-of-year season as an opportunity to reward customers that have stuck around:
“Every Christmas, we send our most loyal customers some loyalty coupons that have special discounts and offers they can avail within the next two months,” said Haroon Sethi, CEO and founder of Proqura Technologies. “This is a rather popular campaign each year and one that has brought us a lot of profits.”
If you’re not already offering a loyalty program, the holidays can be a good time to introduce it. Bookyourdata.com offers a loyalty program that includes lesser fees, faster service and 24/7 support from our customer services staff. “Repeat customers also get several charges waived for our services,” CEO Gary Tailor explained.
4. Run a Holiday Giveaway
“We primarily focus on customer retention strategies over the holiday season,” said Eden Cheng, co-founder of PeopleFinderFree, “especially during a time in the year when so many of our competitors are trying to attract new leads.”
PeopleFinderFree holds holiday giveaways for existing customers that have signed up for their email newsletter. Each year, the company gifts ten year-long premium plan memberships.
“We also ask our customers to share our contest on social media to raise their chances of winning the contest, which often helps us to generate some good buzz in the process,” Cheng added.
5. Run a Holiday Referral Campaign
MacKeeper runs the same holiday referral campaign each year. They allow current users to gift a subscription to their friends and family members for as little as $1. “For businesses like ours, it’s all about getting users to give us a chance, and the holiday season is the perfect opportunity for that,” COO Mykola Tymkiv said.
Gift subscriptions work well for MacKeeper, which makes cybersecurity software.
For B2B markets or more niche B2C companies, the key to success is to offer an incentive of enough value that makes customers’ efforts worthwhile.
Setting Up Coupons and Promotions in FastSpring.
Coupons and promotions are easy to manage using FastSpring, the #1 full-stack commerce solution for growth-stage SaaS and software companies worldwide. We offer world-class SaaS payment processing, and we also help you manage sales taxes, VAT, currencies, payment methods, compliance, and more.
Learn more about how FastSpring can help you grow your business in new markets worldwide.
