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Proof that customer retention works

Proof that customer retention works

I have spent over a decade building email and lifecycle programs that get existing customers to come back and spend again, across more than 40 brands and industries as different as non-profits, retail, SaaS, and healthcare.

 

You do not need an enterprise budget or a data team to bring customers back.

 

You need to know who your customers are, when they stopped engaging, and what would make it worth their while to return.

 

The results below show what that looks like in practice.

Sample emails Marino Marks

Non-profit donor reactivation

Segment your list by how engaged people already are

A donor who gives every year is not the same as a donor who gave once three years ago. I built a campaign that treated them differently, with messaging matched to each person’s history with the organization.

 

Donations grew 91 % over the previous year, with email responsible for 69 % of all giving.

 

If you run a small business, this is the same idea as separating your best repeat customers from the ones who bought once and disappeared. You do not need a big list to do this. You need to know who your people are.

 

Industry: Non-profit

Customer retention - Marino Marks
customer lifetime value - Marino Marks

Retail win-back campaign

Go after the customers who already stopped buying, not just new ones

Most of this brand’s marketing budget went toward finding new customers.

 

I built a campaign aimed at the opposite group, people who had already bought before and gone quiet, with personalized win-back offers and recommendations based on what they had purchased in the past.

 

That campaign generated 20% in additional revenue in one quarter.

 

For a small business, dormant customers are often your cheapest source of new revenue. They already know you. They already trusted you once. Getting them back usually costs less than acquiring someone new.

 

Industry: E-commerce

Retail email engagement

Personalize what people see, don't just email everyone the same thing

I rebuilt a weekly campaign so different customers saw different content based on what they cared about.

 

Click rate increased 54 % compared to the previous year, bringing the average up to 5.2 %.

 

This works the same way at any size. Even a simple split, like customers who bought recently versus customers who have not bought in six months, gets you most of the benefit without needing a big system.

 

Industry: Retail

Email Engagement - Marino Marks

E-commerce lifetime value

Suggest the next purchase based on what someone already bought

I built email campaigns that recommended related products based on each customer’s purchase history, timed to when they were likely to be ready to buy again.

 

This increased customer lifetime value by 20 % within a year.

 

For a solo business, this might just mean following up with a past client about a related service, or telling a past buyer when something they’d actually want is back in stock. The mechanism is the same, offer the right next thing to someone who already said yes once.

 

Industry: E-commerce

Customer retention

Stay in touch after the sale, not just before it

Most of this company’s communication stopped once someone signed up. I built onboarding sequences and check-in campaigns that kept customers engaged well past their first 90 days.

 

Customer retention increased 15 % over 12 months.

 

This is often the biggest gap for small business owners too. The energy goes into landing the customer, then nothing happens after that. A few well-timed check-ins after someone buys can be the difference between a one-time sale and a repeat customer.

 

Industry: SaaS

Email marketing impact - Marino Marks

Platform experience across the tools that support retention systems

Certified across a range of email and marketing platforms, from enterprise tools to small business platforms. Whatever you are using, I can guide you in setting up a retention system that works with it.

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Mailchimp Academy Foundations Certification

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Ready to bring your customers back?

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