Hacking Customer Retention
Purpose of any business is to create and retain a customer because high retention is always a deciding factor for achieving high profit. A research done by Bain & company has revealed that a 5 % increase in customer retention rate increases the profit from 25% to 95%. As we all know that it takes so much money to acquire new customers, the loss of each customer comes at a high cost. Increase in the average revenue you earn per customer, in turn, can be invested more in the company’s growth, creating a virtuous cycle.
The best example of retaining customers to a large extent is Amazon. The company’s subscription program, Prime membership has been a great success in retaining customers. 73% of the free trial subscribers have been converted to paying subscribers and 91% of the first-year subscribers have renewed for the second year.
Let us see the major factors that drive retention on which the companies should work to stop defections / churn ( rate of loss of new users) as early as possible
- Providing high-quality product/service that continually addresses their needs, making it a must-have product for the customers.
- Refining the new user experience and making the users to experience your product’s core value as quickly as possible.
- The use of triggers, such as mobile notifications and emails can be effective in helping to trigger the usefulness of your product in a user’s mind.
- Must be constantly watching competitor’s new feature or promotion and make your product being “ top of mind” with the customers. Communicating to the customers about your product’s new features and benefits easily accessible to make them stick with you.
- Looking for the opportunity to capitalize on the power of stored value, the more information customers have saved with your app/product, the more likely people will return to access the data and add more to it.
- To solidify user’s commitment to your product by making the use of it habitual for them. It can be done by convincing them of the ongoing rewards they will receive from returning to your product or service.
- Companies can consider having a large number of more specialized products with limited number of features rather than loading all possible features into a single product.
In order to ensure maximum retention, your first area of focus should be on early retention of new users. Also putting efforts at the resurrection (winning back customers who have abandoned your product) are also valuable since it increases the revenue. To proceed this, first investigate why did they disappear in the first place just simply by interviewing them. By creating specific custom email and push notification campaigns for these customers can sometimes bring them back.
With all these efforts put to place, every customer who is ultimately retained represents ongoing opportunities to earn more revenue for your company which is the ultimate goal.
Cultiv8: Nurturing Startups and Helping Dreams Take Flight
Cultiv8 is a Technology Business Incubator(TBI), sponsored by DST, Government of India and based out of Coimbatore. Established in 2016, we have worked with 80+ startups and invested seed funds of 4 crores in 21 startups. Also we have helped the startups raise more than 75 crores from external sources.
Helping Startups Grow from Tiny Seeds:
We help businesses with Mentors, Funding, and other resources. We provide end-to-end support for startups, guiding them from ideation to scaling up. Our holistic approach ensures that the startup receives the support they need at every stage of development.
Making Startups Self-Sustainable:
As an incubator we really want our startups to become successful and sustain on their own. Like a Venture Studio we help in business model validation and shape up the founder’s thought process aligned to customer needs.
Our programs are industry-driven, with partnerships spanning across industries, corporations, and government bodies. We provide funding support at various stages, including internal seed funds, working capital funds, and pre-series funds. We extend support even beyond your incubation period. Our custom designed Accelerator Program is designed to propel startups to the next level, with possible funding support and continued guidance.
Why Choose Cultiv8?
Cultiv8 isn’t just an incubator; we’re your co-pilots on the journey to launching your startup. We foster a strong sense of community among our startups, mentors, and investors, creating an ecosystem where everyone helps each other succeed.
If you’re ready to embark on a transformative entrepreneurial journey, Cultiv8 is here to help you take off. Join us now!!!
Key Features and Services of the Incubator
Product Developement | Business | Funding | Coworking spaces
We provide end to end solutions and services for all stages of startups.
- Idea to Concept:
- Business Prototype Development: Assistance in refining and developing initial business ideas into viable prototypes.
- Proof of Concept (POC): Support in building and testing proof-of-concept prototypes to validate the business concept.
- Lab Support: Access to laboratory facilities and equipment required for prototyping and experimentation.
- Funding Support: Guidance and resources to secure early-stage funding for the startup.
- Hackathons: Organizing hackathons to foster innovation and bring together creative minds to solve specific challenges.
- Concept to Product:
- Business Planning: Assistance in creating a comprehensive business plan to map out the startup’s growth path.
- Product Development Support: Access to lab infrastructure and technical expertise to facilitate product development.
- Seed Funding: Assistance in securing seed funding to kickstart product development.
- Co-creation: Collaborative opportunities with mentors, experts, and other startups.
- Co-Founder Discovery: Help in finding suitable co-founders for the startup.
- Coworking Space: Shared workspace facilities for the startup team.
- Lab Facilities (IoT & Embedded): Specialized labs for Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded systems development.
- AWS Credits: Credits or support for utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud infrastructure.
- Technology Partnerships: Collaborations with technology companies to access resources and expertise.
- Product to Go-To-Market (GTM):
- Technology Partnerships: Continued partnerships with technology companies to enhance product development.
- Business Development Partners: Connections to partners who can help with market entry and expansion.
- Corporate Partners and Mentors: Access to established companies and experienced mentors for guidance.
- Angel and Pre-Series Funding: Support in securing investment from angel investors and pre-series funding rounds.
- Accelerator Program: Participation in accelerator programs to expedite growth and development.
- Go-To-Market to Scale-Up:
- Scale-up Transformation Services: Where we help company to expand its operations, reach, and capacity to accommodate increased demand or opportunities.
- Growth Marketing: Marketing strategies and tactics to accelerate customer acquisition and market growth.
- Talent Acquisition: Support in hiring key personnel to support expansion.
- 10X Sales: Strategies and resources to rapidly increase sales and revenue.
- Investment Banking: Guidance on financial strategies, investors, acquisitions, and fundraising.
- Funding: Continued access to funding opportunities and resources for scaling up.
As an incubator we provide end-to-end solutions to cover every critical aspect of a startup’s journey, from ideation and prototyping to market entry, growth, and scalability.
Scale-up Transformation Services
About
Scale-up transformation is a strategic initiative undertaken by a company to expand its operations, reach, and capacity to accommodate increased demand or opportunities.
We offer Scaleup transformation services like Growth Marketing, Talent Acquisition, 10x sales, Investment banking, Funding, audit and strategy.
What we do
♦ Identifying the company’s issues and pain points
♦ Establishing the company’s Methodology & Framework
♦ Using the best solution to solve the issue and pain points
♦ Getting surprised with the Benefits
♦ Defining the scope of future engagement
Real time outcomes
About the company :
Accelerating industrial enterprise transformation for more productivity, efficiency and growth through innovative digitalization, robotization and decarbonization technologies.
Problem/Pain Areas:
ICP driven Content – Creating copy/content for each ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) of each individual business unit.
Hiring – Difficulty in acquiring the right resources to handle digital marketing tasks and campaigns.
Branding – Need for an approach that enhances the overall branding of each business unit.
Campaign Strategy – Lack of unique campaigns and communication strategies tailored to each unit.
Process – Absence of standardized processes to be followed across different platforms.
Measure – Need to establish clear KPIs/KRAs for teams involved in the project.
Methodology and Framework References:
They propose utilizing their proprietary 4P+P = P model, which involves streamlining people, process, product, platform, and adding an emphasis on process to achieve desired results. Their approach combines industry best practices with tailored strategies to address specific pain points.
Solution :
Short – term
♦ Optimize existing digital marketing activities for improved performance.
♦ Implement immediate enhancements to ongoing campaigns.
♦ Develop a content creation framework to cater to each ICP effectively.
Long – term
♦ Establish robust processes and workflows for efficient campaign management.
♦ Build a diverse team by hiring internal, gig, or outsourced professionals.
♦ Implement a comprehensive branding strategy for each business unit
♦ Set clear KPIs/KRAs to track performance and ensure accountability.
Benefits:
Engaging the services of a “wholesome consultant” offers several advantages.enabling them to align strategies with market trends and customer psychology. This holistic approach promises to significantly benefit the company, resulting in improved brand positioning and substantial revenue growth. the consultant can provide valuable guidance to elevate the company’s presence in the market and foster long-term success.
Future Engagement Scope :
The proposer presents a long-term consulting proposition, offering their services as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Maxbyte. This unique arrangement aims to facilitate ongoing collaboration between the proposer and Maxbyte, wherein they would deliver strategic guidance, supervise marketing operations, and steer the company towards sustained growth. Through their expertise and experience, the proposer seeks to play an integral role in driving Maxbyte’s marketing initiatives and overall success. The proposed engagement is designed to foster a fruitful partnership and ensure the consistent advancement of Maxbyte’s marketing endeavors.
Modes of Funding
Depending on their stage of development, sector, and business strategy, startups can obtain fund through a variety of channels.
Here are a few ways that startups can raise fund.
Types:
- BOOTSTRAPPING
- SEED FUNDING
- ACCELERATOR & INCUBATORS
- CROWDFUNDING
- VENTURE CAPITALIST & ANGELS INVESTORS
BOOTSTRAPPING:
This process entails using personal resources, earnings from the firm, or money from friends and family to finance the startup. Bootstrapping enables founders to maintain total control over their business but may restrict the scope and rate of expansion.
SEED FUNDING :
The initial financing that entrepreneurs get from investors, typically in the early stages, is known as “seed funding.” It aids in the creation of their teams, market research, and product development. Investors receive a portion of the company in return.
ACCELERATOR & INCUBATORS
These initiatives give entrepreneurs funds, mentorship, workspace, and other resources in exchange for equity. They are made to hasten startup growth and development over a predetermined time frame, often a few months.
CROWDFUNDING:
By using internet channels, crowdfunders may help startups raise fund from a huge number of people. Crowdfunding can take many different forms, including reward, equity, and donation based.
VENTURE CAPITALIST & ANGEL INVESTORS: Venture capital (VC) firms finance start-ups in return for stock. Startups with a strong potential for growth are more likely to attract VC funding.
Angel investors are people who put their own fund into start-up businesses in exchange for stock or convertible debt.
Nishanth KR
Business Analyst
Cultiv8
Will you get SEED fund for your idea?
Will you get SEED fund for your idea?
Being a start-up enthusiast, I have come across many innovative minds who wanted to raise SEED fund for their ideas. If you are a start-up looking for SEED fund, you may have so many questions popping out your mind: How and where to raise the SEED fund. As the term SEED itself describes, SEED fund is for start-ups who wish to turn their dream into reality to help them kick start their journey.
Before you think of raising SEED fund, you need to consider these 5 points as a must in order to become a successful entrepreneur!
- Product Validation
Rather than Sitting and talking with Google, Reach out to the real people outside. Talk with your friends, family members and most importantly to the people who are prone to be your future customers. Document their opinions/feedback so that you can conclude how far your idea/product will succeed.
- Know your Market
My boss will always say “Nobody will buy a Product since because it exists in the market; they buy only if it solves their problems or ease their lifestyle. So before you launch your product know your target customers. Do a deep market research, know the customer persona and nail a strong reason why they should buy your product.
- POC
Anybody can think of an idea but only those who have knowledge to develop and execute that idea can become a successful entrepreneur. You should try to build a demo / proof of concept and see if your idea is really working. You should be well versed in the technology/platform to develop your product, identify the challenges and undergo a detailed study on how to overcome the challenges.
“Investors always prefer to invest in what they see rather than what they hear”
- Business Model
Whether your product is a super wow product or a simple one, what matters most is “how do you make money out of it?” A clear business plan with all possible revenue models is a must while approaching the investors. Prepare a simple yet informative pitch deck with all information fulfilling the expectations of an investor. ( refer guidelines for preparing an investor pitch deck )
- Good Team
“Teamwork makes the Dreamwork”
A good team with expertise in different fields will definitely take your business to a higher level. Every team member will have something special to contribute on their part. So select your team wisely. Execution plays a major part as it is the outcome of your idea. Your product will be a success only with a good execution team.
You can get SEED funding from- Government schemes, angel investors, friends and family, Incubators, Accelerators, Venture Capitalists and Crowd funding.
Of all the sources, Incubators plays a major role in an entrepreneur’s journey. Apart from providing SEED fund, they provide a wide range of services including office spaces, mentorship, investor connects and business opportunities.
3 Things About How To Increase Your Revenue From Existing Customers Your Team has to Know
The ultimate goal of any business is to earn more money from their customers. But this doesn’t happen all of a sudden. To achieve this, you have to put ingenious efforts to acquire a large customer base, make them activated and retain them. Understanding deeply the psychology of customer behavior will help greatly in monetizing and increased revenue from them.
Let us see some effective ways to generate more revenue and optimize earnings from your customer base.
1. Data Analysis
Knowing your entire customer journey right form their acquisition to retention can help you in identifying the barriers in generating revenue and any friction in payment process. Analyze where the company is making most money and where they lose. Identifying these pinch points (where potential earnings are lost) and causes for the drop-offs will generate ideas for fixing up the revenue leaks.
2. Customer Segmentation
Customers can be segmented by measuring the level of user’s engagement an ARPU (Average Revenue per User). Customers can also grouped based on age, location, source of acquisition, products/service they use the most. Measuring the revenue from each of these customer groups will provide good insights on which customer segment you should increase your focus on.
This breakdown of user base varies for different companies. Therefore, creating these groups can lead to various ideas to satisfy customers with specific wants and needs.
3. Customized offerings
Personalization is a tactic for building strong relationship with customers to retain them. Major reason for success behind Amazon, Google, Netflix is they have developed strong “recommendation engines”. However, building such engines are not relatively complex as you think. It can be generated using the various algorithms on the data collected as per the requirement. To start with, target a small segment of customers to capture their response and effectiveness.
Conclusion
Apart from the above mentioned ways, you can boost up your customer’s purchases is to offer them additional items to purchase or more features to pay for. A good e.g. for this can be Amazon with its wide range of products and number of payment options which ease customers’ experience and satisfies them. Surveys can also be a powerful tool to know what people are willing to pay for.
To conclude, I suggest letting the customer data lead the way in measuring customer’s needs and the company to take necessary growth steps to maximize the revenue.
Program Manager
CIET-TBI
6 Steps To Optimize Your Website For SEO
It is very important to optimize your website for Search Engine Optimization. When someone searches for a particular product/service and if your company is offering that product or service then you should be listed in the first page of Google results. Less than 5% of the audience will move to the second page or further. Further, the person who is searching for the product or service is someone who needs the product/service making him a very potential client for the company. Hence, it is important to build the SEO of the website.
SEO can be quite intimidating because it does not have particular guide line and GOOGLE continuously keeps updating it crawler. But there are a bare-minimum things that needs to be taken care of while building the website. The six steps outlined below may not be enough to list your website in the first page of Google Results but these hygiene issues have to be properly addressed while building the site.
- Title Tag: The title tag of the website tells what the page is all about. It should be less than 70 characters. Choose the title tag for every page carefully.
- Meta Description: The meta description on pages of your website gives search engines a little more insight into what your page is about. To choose the right Title Tag and Meta Description for the pages do an anonymous search in google about the content you are writing in the page and google will display a list that will guide you better to choose the meta description.
- WordPress Plugins: If you are using WordPress to build your site then you can use free plugins like All in one SEO and Platinum SEO for Title Tags and Meta Description. You can also get suggestions using paid plugins like Scribe SEO.
- Index the Images: Make sure the images are indexed in line with the service or what the images describe. Many website index images as 1.jpg etc. This does not help SEO in anyway.
- Build Internal Links: When you write posts and blogs make sure the blogs are linked internally to other pages in the website. Like say a blog can be linked to the product page. Building external links is good but having internal links also matters when you cannot build external links.
- Format the blog: When you write a blog, name the blog properly. The content should be optimized to become a Snippet. This can be done by having a Header (H1) which will be the Title of the blog. Sub Headings H2 and H3 become the snippet. Make sure you use the format “H2.” and not “ H2)”. Search engines understand H2. Use Bold letters fro Sub Headings and important messages.
Finally to understand How SEO works and how to build SEO using content marketing i strongly recommend you use this guide by Hubspot. Click here for the link
Dr. B. Kaarthick,
CEO, Cultiv8
5 Ways to Generate Leads for B2B Business in India
I was having this interesting discussion on the process of generating Leads for one our startups that are working in the B2B space. We employed our model of Demand Generation to the business for Lead generation. Unfortunately, the model did not work very well for the startup. The reason is simple Indian B2B businesses have still not evolved in the online space. For instance, many decision makers in the B2B industry still operate in the offline mode. They may not have a LinkedIN Account. They still prefer Face to Face interactions. Sales proposals are sent to them on Whats app etc. Thats when i learned it requires a completely different approach to generate qualified leads for Indian B2B business. This blog focuses on writing a hypothesis to generate more leads for a B2B Business in India.
1. Determine your ideal customer:
The first step in the lead generation process is of course, identifying the ideal customer. Your ideal customer could be say, pump manufacturers.
2. Identify the list of companies that you want to target:
It may be very difficult for you to get the list of ideal customers from one source in India. You may have to use different sources. You can start with Google. Associations of the particular target group can be a good source. There are certain websites that provide details of various companies like JustDial, india Mart,in.kpmass.com. They could be a good source for developing the database of the companies. One ideal way of finding out more details about potential customers is talk to two or three mid management employees of the companies that your are targeting. They can provide you with details of other companies that work in the space.
3. Identify the decision makers in the company:
Many successful organisations in India are run in an unorganised manner. It is very difficult to find out decision makers in the company by looking at their designations or by searching in LinkedIN. The best way to identify the decision makers of a company is talk to someone in the company. Of course we could use different tools to find out the decision makers and their contacts. A list of these tools and approaches are listed in https://www.leadfeeder.com/blog/how-to-find-decision-makers-in-a-company/#gref. Though these tools are useful to generate leads in organised companies, building relationships with someone in the company is the best way to identify decision makers in unorganised sector which contributes to 80% of the businesses in India.
4. Whom not follow:
A very important aspect of the Lead generation program is just not identify and nurture prospective customers. Marketing has also ensure that certain leads should not be followed by sales. Sales teams may waste a lot of time by following leads that may not convert into business. One way to avoid this scenario is to build relationships with mid management teams of your customers who have 10+ years in the industry. The mid-management friends can guide you on which companies have budgets, their decision making patterns and also on the process they follow. They will have a thorough understanding of the whole industry.
5. Nurturing the Leads:
Once you have developed the database of the list of companies and the decision makers to reach out, you could use many marketing tactics to create awareness about your company , educate the decision makers on how your product/service can help their organisation better and complete the sale.
Once you have the list start the marketing campaign/sales campaign!!!
Dr. B. Kaarthick
CEO – Cultiv8
Why Customer Retention is Important?
If you run a business you know how hard is to bring in a new customer. You have to rely on advertisement and existing customer valuable feedbacks to grow your customer base. While every business owner plans to bring in new customers a highly knowledge one will work on ways to retain the existing customer. It is far cheaper than bring in new one.
Why a business has to concentrate on retaining customer than bring in new one?
As per stats it’s 5 times costly to bring in a new customer than retaining the existing one. A successful business will be profitable if it can retain their customer base. Customer retention is crucial in this fast paced world. Some call it art and some call it science, But I truly believe it’s an emotion. As a business we need to tweak the right emotions on the customers to retain them.
Key Factors for Business Growth
The key factor for any business to grow is determined by the 2 main non tangible factors trust and customer satisfaction.
Let me share my real time experience on these. The first key factor is Trust. 7 years back I was in Ohio, US and wanted to buy a digital camera as there was plans to go on a vacation on the upcoming weekend. Since ordering online will take time to deliver. I was also not sure if the camera gets delivered before the start of my trip. I decided to buy it from BestBuy retail store. The obvious question here is, Though there are lot of electronic stores why did I choose best buy?. The simple and straight answer is Trust. The store promises the buyer they are offering the product for the best price. And if at all we prove the same product is available somewhere cheaper they will match slash the price to match it. I went in bought a Sony 12 megapixel digital camera after testing out all the models in my price range. The trust that the customer gets is that he is buying an item for a price nobody else can offer. This is what makes a customer to return in the future as well. After that purchase and due to the trust I had on BestBuy I later bought 2 LED TVs, a GPS, iPad and Pen drives. That is the power of trust.
The second key factor is the customer satisfaction. Again let me share a personal story. Before 5 Years in Plainsboro, NJ. I entered into a super market on a special day. It was my spouse birthday and directly went to the pantry section and saw the cakes on the display. I chose one of them and asked the baker to write the birthday wishes too. She asked my favorite color and wrote the message. She packed it neatly in a box and handed it over to me. I took it with joy, billed it and marched to the exit door. Somehow I lost my balance and dropped the cake upside down. I was totally disappointed how our carelessness can turn the moments of joy into moments of agony. I collected the box from the floor and opened it to find out that the cake was totally messy. I went back to the pantry and met the same bakers and asked if there is another piece of the same cake I bought before. She enquired why am I buying it again. That’s when I explained the fate of the old cake. The point to note here is that since it was my mistake I didn’t ask for a replacement. But the Baker was so kind and she took the cake back and offered me a new one without billing it again. I thanked here so much and that act of kindness flashes me every time I go out to buy a cake for any celebrations. I head straight to same shop again and again for buying cakes.
Any business can flourish only with a returning customer. Trust and Customer satisfaction top my list when it comes to retaining them. As per Pareto principle 80% of business comes from 20% customers. If we have the knowledge to sort that 20% customer and able to retain them any business can be successful.
Know More about Factors that drive Customer Retention
I would like to quote to classic examples of PayTM mall and Amazon for retaining their customers. PayTM does that through cash back offers where as Amazon gives a % off on regular monthly buy outs. Amazon also is a classic example for underpromising and overdeliver. You might have ordered a product from Amazon and delivery time mentioned was 3-4 days at the time of order but you received within 2 days.
Final thoughts: Happy Employees = Happy Customers
Most of the time business overlooks its own employees. They forget that only when employee is happy he/she can keep the clients happy. Business should treat an employee as good and as important as its customer.
ArunAnand R