What is your favorite marketing software?
You probably have your top 3 if you are running an ecommerce website.
Klaviyo for email… Gorgias for customer service… Canva for light design work…
Whatever you fancy, these apps are vital to your operations, and most likely they are also a daily habit. You check them when you get to work or multiple times per day. You have adopted them into your business.
You’d be up creek without them.
For SaaS companies, user (or product) adoption is key to their business model. If you never get used to using their software, you won’t continue to pay for it.
You would churn and they would lose money on you…
Adoption is how these software companies stay in business. Which is why they hire product adoption teams to make sure customers are onboarded properly and take full advantage of the capabilities.
I like this concept.
Because it is the customer’s success that they have to work on… keeping the customer is just the result.
And I think DTC ecommerce marketers would do well to adopt this concept.
I don’t like the word Retention
There isn’t anything wrong with “retention” per se.
Retaining customers is important for driving revenue, and it does help companies think about the customer beyond acquisition.
The problem I have is that this word is company-centric. How can we retain our customers. We have their email. Let’s find the perfect time to send an email or SMS to push them to buy again. Then we can automate the hell out of it.
This typical strategy will get some sales… Some people just buy stuff.
However, in the long run, the focus is still on you, the company, not the customer. Therefore, it is that much easier for a new brand to come in and swoop your customers off their feet.
And then they churn and you lose out on future sales.
So let’s do a mindset shift from retention to adoption…
Adopting Adoption
Back to SaaS companies. They hire teams for product adoption whose job it is to make sure that you use the product, use it correctly, use it to accomplish your goals.
That is how they win. There is no reason to use another solution if you already have one in play.
Over here in DTC-land, retention is widely viewed as post-purchase emails. But brands that take a page from the SaaS playbook and put in the effort to get customers to use their products… they get return customers naturally.
Adoption for Retention
Let’s say we are talking about a home mushroom-growing kit. I recently came across a company that makes these, and they are really cool.
So I order one of these kits. I get it delivered, and I am all excited. I grow myself some blue oyster mushrooms, and they look great. I cook them in a couple dishes, and it is fun.
I don’t really know what else to do with blue oyster mushrooms, so I put it away. I am busy so I forget about it.
A couple weeks later, I get an email about getting the shiitake kit. Maybe even a coupon… because “customer appreciation.”
There was no adoption in my usage of the mushroom kit. I tried it. I liked it. But it is not something that I do regularly.
I don’t have a good reason to buy more.
This might just be an example, but I do love mushrooms, and they drastically increased in price recently. So investing in a grow kit does make sense to me.
So what if these Mushroom People fed me content that got me into this hobby?
They give tips so I grow them properly. Provide recipes and health benefits. Link to a online group where I see how others are cooking up mushroom awesomeness… I might get into it.
Possibly it turn it into a habit.
And for the Mushroom Master who I purchased from../ it isn’t any more effort to create that type of content than it is to continually create and AB test a bunch of transactional messages…
How to Increase Adoption
Unlike with SaaS companies, customers don’t get an account representative to help them grow mushrooms (unless Mushroom Prime?).
So this all comes down to content. And content that is good for adoption is content that shows how a product can be part of a routine.
Regardless if it is mushrooms or makeup or mountain boots…
So let’s break it down to these 3 basic parts:
What content
Where content
How content
I remember years ago in a previous job, this was in men’s fashion, the CEO wanted to create an APP. Like wtf would some dude that bought a suit for his brother’s wedding want from an app.
Over-thinking content comes naturally in marketing. So beware.
Keep it simple. There is too much noise out there anyway. I’d rather enjoy a great mushroom dish and be good for the week than have to download another phone button to ignore.
What content?
Of course need to talk to your customers. It takes a lot of brain power to be creative and come up with new ideas. Let them give you inspiration. They already have ideas and are willing to share.
Where content
While you are talking with them, find out what platforms they prefer. Via email, A Subreddit, Facebook Group, or Blog… or a Substack newsletter?
Whatever works works. It’s like the Occam’s Razor of marketing - the simplest format is the better the complicated ones.
How Content
This is more of management thing, but keep in mind that teams get stretched thin when adding in new content initiatives. So only pick ones that can be executed with proper attention and enthusiasm from your team.
Otherwise, it will break down quickly.
The Point Is…
Retaining your past customers is a good thing, it just needs to be approached from the customer’s perspective. Or you risk being overly transactional and boring.
Get customers to adopt your products into their lives, and provide a place where they can share with you and others… and you will never have to wonder what to do for retention, cross-sells, up-sells, UGC, or social creative again.
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