Heard of churn rate? If not, well, yikes! Churn rate, in a nutshell, is the rate at which your big business water bottle is leaking out customers – to put it visually. Businesses with high churn rates are at risk of spinning their wheels or even losing money. For example, a business with a churn rate that is equal to its rate of growth will not only have no net growth, but could also be losing money if it’s paying into an advertising and marketing budget to acquire that customers that help its numbers stay “even.”

Further complicating the situation is the fact that churn rate can actually be measured in a number of different ways. It can be

– The percentage of customers lost over a certain time

– The number of customers lost over a certain time

– The dollar value of recurring business lost

and more.

The bottom, line, however, is that a high churn rate is universally an indicator of the need for some patchwork in your business. This two part series is going to explore several ways in which you can actively combat your churn rate. More specifically, we’ll explore strategies for preempting churn – it is almost universally easier to retain customers than to reacquire them after they are already lost (intuitively, this makes sense).

Step Onto the Scene with a Bang!

One of the first steps to churn rate is to nail the first impression. When someone signs up for your mailing list or subscribes to your services, you want them to be excited about being part of your ‘family’. What you don’t want is for them to just barely be pushed over the decision threshold, ready to back out at the first sign of doubt.

For most online marketers, this means having professional, slick interface, website, and user experience design from the beginning. Just as a job interview is your first chance to make an impression on a potential employer, your website is a first point of contact for impressing new leads. It also means putting forth a killer offer from the beginning that jumps out as a must-have. By extension, this means getting your targeting perfect from the beginning. Landing pages need to be optimized for the search terms and/or channels people use to reach them. Split test the heck out of your pages, and put in the work to make different landing spots for different pathways of entry.

Follow-up On Promises!

Admittedly, anyone can make a good initial impression by writing up a great offer, but your immediate turn rate will largely be determined by how well leads feel their expectations are being delivered on. If you promise a solution, don’t fall into the trap that so many internet marketers fall victim to by only giving away half solutions.

Let’s say you run a product on how to lose weight. Your mailing list opt-in form promises a guide on how to lose your first 10 pounds. Some marketers would send a guide out with the first two steps of a four step method to dropping weight. But not you! No! You’re going to give a complete method that will really start to change scale readouts. Your email series is actually going to be useful (what a concept!).

You’ll be building trust, and, though it’s counterintuitive, customers will be more likely to make a purchase of a weight loss system from you after you’ve already given them something that produces results. What you’re selling can help them build on the progress they’ve already seen. Obviously, this can apply to any niche!

Alright, that’s it for the time being – see you all in part two.