If you happen to’ve ever heard of the Pareto precept, you’ll know that theoretically, about 80 p.c of your gross sales and income come from roughly 20 p.c of your buyer base.
Whether or not or not that’s precisely true, it’s simple that your finest prospects — those that follow you longest, purchase from you most frequently, and have the highest common order values — are notably worthy of consideration.
You wish to interact them, encourage them to assessment your merchandise and refer their family members, and attain out to them with personalised gives primarily based on their earlier behaviors and shopping for choices.
On this article, I’ll clarify:
What Are “VIP Prospects”?
Ever been to Las Vegas?
In that case, you’ll know that Sin Metropolis’s casinos do no matter it takes to maintain you content (and spending cash).
For the typical particular person, that may imply free entry to the dinner buffet and a pair complimentary drinks.
These are completely engaging perks. However they seem like chump change to the highest-rolling VIPs, who may be jetted in first-class on the on line casino’s expense, picked up on the airport in a limousine, and given the most effective suite within the lodge, all on the home.
It’s just about the identical within the retail world, besides your prospects are shopping for merchandise fairly than enjoying baccarat or poker.
As a result of they’re so beneficial to your enterprise, it’s in your pursuits to retain them for so long as doable.
Whereas VIPs look totally different from one enterprise to a different, they typically tick at the least one in every of these bins:
- Lengthy-standing buy historical past
- Brief timespan between buy
- Excessive lifetime worth
- Excessive common order worth
Why Are VIP Prospects So Precious?
On a primary degree, VIP prospects are likely to spend extra money than your common shopper.
However their significance to your enterprise goes method additional than that.
KPMG analysis into loyal prospects—a few of whom will likely be VIPs—discovered that:
- 86 p.c will advocate an organization to family and friends
- 66 p.c will write a constructive on-line assessment after a good expertise
- 46 p.c will stay loyal after a dangerous expertise
In the meantime, Zendesk found that 52 p.c of shoppers exit of their solution to buy from their favourite manufacturers, whereas Yotpo revealed that 56 p.c of loyal prospects will spend extra on manufacturers they really feel loyal to — even when cheaper options exist.
VIP prospects additionally signify a disproportionately excessive quantity of gross sales, with analysis from Gorgias demonstrating that repeat consumers signify 44 p.c of income and 46 p.c of orders — regardless of accounting for simply 21 p.c of the typical ecommerce model’s buyer base.
Mixed, all these components imply that VIPs have a huge influence in your backside line.
Which suggests it’s in your finest pursuits to grasp who they’re…
Methods to Establish VIP Prospects
As I’ve already famous, there’s no single definition of “VIP buyer”, as a result of what makes a buyer a VIP naturally varies from one ecommerce retailer to a different.
For an attire model, VIPs may place an order each month with a minimal worth of $75.
However for a retailer promoting high-end family home equipment, it’d look extra like an AOV of $300+ and a purchase order frequency of as soon as per quarter.
And also you in all probability don’t wish to apply a blanket rule. As an illustration, treating your top-spending 10 p.c of shoppers over the past 12 months as VIPs may work, however on the identical time it excludes “new” VIPs who solely burst onto the scene a pair months in the past.
Complicated, huh?
If you happen to’re unsure the place to begin, use one in every of these two approaches to establish VIP prospects:
1. Run an RFM Evaluation
To determine what a VIP appears to be like like, you first want to grasp how their behaviors evaluate to your common buyer.
Try this by performing a recency, frequency, financial (RFM) evaluation. Which means crunching the numbers to establish:
- How lately your prospects made a purchase order
- How steadily they purchase from you
- How a lot cash they spend in a median transaction
Having benchmarked your complete buyer base, create a section representing — for instance — your prime 5 p.c of shoppers primarily based on common order worth.
Then slice and cube that section to solely embrace the 5 p.c of current purchasers and frequent consumers.
Voilà, you’re left with a subset of high-spending, steadily shopping for, lately lively buyers. In brief, your VIP prospects.
(N.B. you may additionally wish to construct a section of shoppers with excessive AOVs and buy frequencies who haven’t bought lately so you may goal them with a winback marketing campaign).
2. Analyze Buyer Buy Historical past
RFM evaluation requires a good bit of legwork.
For an easier (albeit much less exact) resolution, use product buy historical past to separate your VIPs out of your common-or-garden prospects. Particularly, look for many who have a tendency to buy higher-priced or non-discounted merchandise; these persons are your VIPs.
There are some apparent limitations to this strategy.
For starters, it solely works in case you provide merchandise throughout a number of value factors. If you happen to completely promote $1,000+ mattresses, everybody (or nobody) appears to be like like a VIP.
It additionally doesn’t think about any of the opposite parts that may make somebody a VIP. Simply because a buyer purchases a single high-value product, does that make them as a lot of a VIP as somebody with a persistently excessive common order worth who’s purchased a number of instances over an prolonged interval?
In brief, you threat losing a bunch of time, effort, and engaging gives on individuals who aren’t actually VIPs in any respect.
Nonetheless, when you have one particular product — or a whole class — that prices much more than your common product, this generally is a fast and efficient solution to hone in in your most beneficial prospects.
Methods to Reward VIP Prospects: 3 Methods
You understand who your VIP prospects are; now it’s time to determine goal them.
Use these three concepts for VIP prospects to:
- Make them really feel extremely valued
- Level them towards merchandise they’ll love
- Encourage them to advertise your model
1. Construct a VIP Submit-Buy Workflow
I’ve spoken beforehand concerning the significance of constructing a complicated post-purchase workflow that can assist you remodel extra first-time consumers into loyal repeat prospects.
It’s arguably much more vital to do that for the individuals who make the most important contribution to gross sales and income: your VIPs.
A VIP post-purchase workflow is all about delighting your prime spenders, making them really feel particular, and acknowledging how vital they’re to your enterprise.
For finest outcomes, you want greater than only a single e-mail.
With Shopify information revealing that including an additional channel in your workflow will increase income by 38 p.c, it is sensible to make use of a spread of messaging sorts when concentrating on VIPs.
Think about the next post-purchase sequence, which leverages e-mail and onsite advertising and marketing to information VIPs towards their subsequent transaction:
E mail #1: Thanks for the Repeat Order
An ordinary thanks e-mail usually comprises:
- A short abstract of the client’s buy
- A message thanking them for his or her order
- Some type of incentive to buy once more
As an illustration, Harney & Sons makes use of its thanks emails to supply first-time consumers a $10 low cost on their subsequent order:
However bear in mind: we’re speaking about VIPs right here, not just a few random newcomer.
Which means you might want to elevate your messaging to make it clear simply how vital they’re to your enterprise.
As an illustration, attempt sharing a private thanks out of your CEO or founder that welcomes the client to your VIP membership. And spell out the advantages of being a top-tier buyer, equivalent to:
- Unique reductions
- Early entry to gross sales and promotions
- Sneak peeks at new merchandise
E mail #2: Right here’s a VIP Low cost
Observe up your preliminary thanks e-mail with a VIP-only low cost.
It must be clear to the recipient that that is one thing uncommon and tough to earn—and that they’ve solely gotten entry to it due to their standing.
That method, you’re encouraging them to maintain shopping for from you to retain their VIP standing.
Onsite Messaging: Don’t Neglect Your VIP Low cost
I’ve already famous that emails alone aren’t sufficient.
The common open fee is nineteen.66 p.c. And whereas VIPs usually tend to interact together with your advertising and marketing communications than the typical buyer, you may’t take it without any consideration that they’ve opened (or learn) your thanks emails.
For that motive, it pays so as to add an onsite aspect to your VIP post-purchase marketing campaign, so that they’ll be greeted with a customized message subsequent time they land in your web site.
A sensible play at this stage is to remind (or, in the event that they by no means noticed your e-mail, inform) them of their VIP low cost.
And don’t neglect to welcome them again to your retailer by title.
2. Share Single E mail Campaigns
E mail is the preferred type of advertising and marketing automation, with 55 p.c of entrepreneurs utilizing it to streamline their campaigns and generate extra income.
However that doesn’t imply automated workflows ought to make up each single facet of your e-mail advertising and marketing.
That’s very true in the case of VIP prospects, who deserve a extra extremely personalised strategy—nearly like account-based advertising and marketing within the B2B world.
Your purpose right here is to sprinkle single e-mail campaigns all through your content material calendar to maintain your most vital prospects feeling vital.
Communicate to them like they’re a part of your interior sanctum; inform them about stuff that’s occurring behind the scenes; give them entry to info (and gives) that the typical particular person in your advertising and marketing checklist gained’t get to see.
Most significantly, make certain they know that they’re solely receiving these particular emails due to their VIP standing.
That method, they’re extra more likely to really feel appreciated—and incentivized to keep loyal to your model.
Luxurious furnishings and residential decor model One Kings Lane does this by providing VIPs early entry to sitewide gross sales:
However that’s not the one viable strategy.
Listed below are another techniques for single-email and onsite campaigns designed to transform and delight your VIPs:
| Objective | Channel | Messaging |
| Convert | E mail | VIPs get an additional 5% off |
| Convert | E mail | VIPs get first dibs on our new product |
| Convert | Onsite | You’re invited to our VIP-only sale |
| Convert | Onsite | Take a look at our new product first |
| Delight | E mail | You’re particular to us, take an additional 10% off this week |
| Delight | E mail | Thanks for at all times coming again |
| Delight | Onsite | Welcome again, VIP! |
3. Ask for Suggestions
Questioning deal with VIP prospects? One other widespread technique includes sending common emails asking for numerous forms of suggestions, equivalent to:
- What they give thought to a current buy
- How they discovered their most up-to-date buy expertise
- Whether or not they’d be ready to write down a assessment or share a advice on social media
Right here’s a easy instance of a suggestions e-mail from J.Crew that invitations prospects to assessment their newest buy:
With over 93 p.c of customers studying evaluations earlier than shopping for on-line from an unfamiliar firm, it’s at all times value producing extra evaluations—particularly from the purchasers who love you most.
However your purpose right here isn’t simply to collect extra evaluations, nor to raised perceive what VIPs take into consideration your model, merchandise, and buyer assist. It’s additionally about constructing a relationship with a loyal buyer.
For that motive, we advocate:
- Including as a lot personalization as doable. It’s best to know a lot about your VIPs, from their title to their newest buy to their favourite product classes. With analysis exhibiting that emails with personalised topic strains see 50 p.c increased open charges, it pays to incorporate as a lot (related) personalization as you may.
- Sending from an actual particular person’s tackle. Based on one examine, emails despatched from an actual particular person generate 50 p.c increased open charges than these despatched from manufacturers. Whilst you don’t wish to apply this studying to each e-mail you ship, it’s a great match for small-scale, 1:1 campaigns (like one-off suggestions emails).
- Asking for suggestions through e-mail reply. Encouraging the recipient to share their suggestions by replying to your e-mail makes them really feel they’re having a actual dialog, not studying a advertising and marketing message. It additionally streamlines the method as a result of it doesn’t pressure them to go to one other platform to present suggestions.
Flip Extra Prospects Into VIPs With Drip
Turning repeat prospects into loyal VIPs is about combining two issues:
- Efficient segmentation
- Customized messaging
Drip helps you do each, higher.
Our segmentation instruments mix retailer, customer, and advertising and marketing information so you may create conduct and engagement-based segments that replace dynamically.
And our e-mail advertising and marketing platform makes it fast and simple to design extremely personalised, on-brand emails with no coding required.
Sounds good? See for your self by signing up on your 14-day free trial.
