How long do you think someone remembers your business after interacting with you?
You may be surprised to learn that it’s actually not likely to be very long.
In the late 19th century the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus tested his memory repeatedly as he studied memory retention over time. He plotted this data onto a graph which we now know as the “Forgetting Curve”.
The Forgetting curve shows that 60% of information learned is quickly forgotten within the first couple of days. The rate slows after this, however, a person can still have forgotten 90% of what they’ve learned within a month.
Now imagine this was just someone visiting your website a couple of times, or perhaps a purchase from a few months ago. You can easily see how that person will have forgotten about your business now right?
So how do you combat the Forgetting curve? How do you stay front of mind with your customers?
In a learning environment, people use a technique known as “spaced repetition”. This is where learning materials are revisited over time, increasing the ability of the brain to remember and retain information.
The good news for you is that you don’t have to be a Psychology major to understand and use these same techniques in your business. There are much simpler ways for you to stay front of mind with your customers.
Here are three techniques that you can use in your business to stay front of mind with your customers:
- Email Newsletter - Sending out a regular email newsletter to your audience will help your business to be memorable. Remember that you should be delivering more value than you are selling with your emails. Constantly sending out promotional content will cause people to switch off.
- Say Thank You - Saying thank you to your customers after they’ve purchased from you, is an easy way to stay memorable. This could be a handwritten note, a gift card, charity donation or perhaps something more special.
- Deliver Value Consistently - When you’re known for delivering value and helping your customers to solve their problems, guess who they’ll return to? That’s right, you! Create content that helps your audience with their problems. You could do this with blog posts, emails, social media posts, videos or even a podcast.
Being memorable and staying in front of mind with your customers is crucial. It can be the difference between someone choosing to purchase again from your business or shopping with a competitor instead.
Remember that it’s much easier and cheaper to sell again to someone who has purchased from you before. Attracting the attention of a new lead, engaging them, and converting them into a customer is a lot more expensive.
What can you do today that will make your business more memorable to your customers?
