This post comes to us from the Market Leader blog:

I have a very dear friend who recently opened a retail clothing store. As a business newbie, one of her biggest fears is how to build a loyal customer base and keep them coming back to the store. It’s a common concern of all business people, considering how much more expensive and time-consuming it is to chase after new business.

Yet one of the most common mistakes business owners make, according to Entrepreneur’s Daniel Bortz, is focusing “so much time on attracting new customers that they skimp on the effort it takes to create loyal customers.”

While your leads aren’t yet customers, to retain them in any capacity requires offering them a reason to keep coming back to your website until you can convert them. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective ways of doing this.

The Right Tools

No matter what stage of the process buyers are in you can be certain that what they most want to see are listings. It may seem overly obvious, but the most important tool on your website is an IDX (Internet Data Exchange) system. Without this, leads will quickly move on to another site that offers the opportunity to search for listings.

Your website should also remember who has registered so that when the lead returns to the site, she isn’t treated as a new user. Having all of her interests conveniently saved gives her a reason to come back.