💬 Over the years doing growth marketing and being in the world of SaaS/B2B, I've seen some pretty cool initiatives that top household "startup" brands have done (some which aren't really startups anymore), to show appreciation to their customer base - and I've seen many also first-hand with brands I've worked with.
And I can say right now from what I've seen, even just the 'small things' (or what we deem to be small), can go a long way to build a positive rapport between a brand and the customer - which in turn, can help with retention (i.e. lowering churn), increasing loyalty, referrals, and just overall happier customers that stay longer (and there are many other benefits too, which I won't dig into all right now).
Plus, the good news is that many initiative areas that I share below aren't too costly to implement or experiment.
💬 The key thing to remember here is to tailor messaging and reasoning for showing appreciation based on the CX journey of the user/customer - in other words, keep in mind when brainstorming and going through these tactics below, where each initiative would make sense to do for various segments (and what messaging accompanies), for your brand.
Branded swag as a customer appreciation strategy has been around for a while now within the startups/tech ecosystem, and it still works - customers love good swag if they love your product, especially if the items are of high quality.
However, good swag is more than just giving away T-shirts - think about other products/items that people would find useful, or looks a bit 'higher quality - like good quality water bottles, totes bags, etc.
Plus, it's in many ways like free advertising, right? :) - It can be really effective when it's your swag is seen in the right circles.
For both new and existing user segments, think about ways to add in a bit of personalisation, outside of the usual email automation flows and marketing emails.
For example when it comes to new user signups, say 'thank you' and remind them they can reach out anytime, and that they're feedback is greatly appreciated to help with ideas/roadmap to improve the product.
And then for existing customers (and even a possible 'winback' tactic for those who've churned or potentially look like they may churn), send an email from the founder(s) directly - it could be updates on new products... or anything.
Note: Of course, you can automate these emails, but keep it plain-text and to the point - make the main CTA prompting a reply.
In conjunction with the above, you can go a step further by adding a personalised video (or do a templated video approach from the one video).
Now, these videos don't have to come from the founder(s) (due to time constraints), but it could be from the marketing or customer success teams.
Same method between existing and new users can apply to the examples above.
For segments that aren't as engaged or looking like they could potentially churn from a paid plan, a good 'customer appreciation tactic' is to have an automation email flow(s) in place that are focused on listening to customer feedback and reminding them of the value customers receive from the product (i.e. reviews, case studies).
Sometimes when you don't always know how your customers feel if they aren't as engaged (as it could be for various reasons), this tactic can be effective to remind them that you listen intently to requests/feedback (which can help improve confidence and hopefully retain users who could have potentially churned).
I like this strategy initiative that's utilised by many SaaS startups where they have a public roadmap and/or feature request board, which highlights features requested by users.
However, I've also seen many that look like they're either not as active, or simply there are comments/questions, but no recognition or replies from the business.
Personally, this is a big missed opportunity which helps with retention/reducing churn, but also acquisition - you want to show prospects and those users looking around that you listen and appreciate your customers/users.
The same practice above with replies also coincides with online views - you have to remember in most cases that users/prospects are naturally 'shopping around' and trialling out various products to help solve their problem.
One of the best 'signals' you can give in terms of prospects/user confidence and help guide them into choosing you as the software solution of choice, is to show that you take user/customer feedback seriously.
An awesome initiative to help your customers feel appreciated is through doing shoutouts on social media - particularly for any big news, or announcements/posts they share on their socials (for example, LinkedIn), that's related to the product offering/area that you're business is involved in.
Now, you can't do shoutouts for everyone, but particularly this is great for enterprise customers.
A tactic worth considering that helps key segments (especially top-tier - i.e. those who pay the most) feel appreciated (and also helps with retention, upselling, winback, and much more), are running "exclusive" events and AMAs.
Think about/brainstorm events like private networking opportunities, or the likes of doing 'exclusive' invite-only events and webinars with though-leaders - many potential ideas with the goal of making them feel they're getting awesome value.
A good perk to highlight to top user/customers segments is sharing 'exclusive' and beta/early-access to new features.
It's a good tactic because it helps top segments feel they're appreciated and receiving awesome value, plus receiving quality feedback at the same time.
Share content and value insights outside of the normal "read the latest blog post" type CTAs which many brands tend to default too.
Share helpful Loom videos, or the likes of LinkedIn carousels/posts with digestible tips to solve problems.
And to really nail personalisation and share great value, make sure it's content that resonates contextually to the segment you're sending it too - whether that be by industry, growth stage, or another attribute.
Good chance you most likely see this tactic adopted by eCommerce brands you've bought from/signed up to their newsletter, and you may have possibly seen this in the world of SaaS, but it's not as common as what I think it should be personally.
It's a small 'thank you' and customer recognition initiative that can help increase chances of being remembered.
In many cases for those reading, you probably don't need to know their date of birth (i.e. birthday emails won't work), but milestone emails when you know how long since they signed up, or upgraded, or used a certain feature - or whatever really.
It's another nice touchpoint to show you care as a business of them being a user.
More of a strategy consideration checklist point, and it depends on your ICP audience segments, as well as the mission of your brand, a great way to highlight appreciation for your users/customer's commitment to using your product/service, is by showcasing support for a charity or non-profit organisation that they can align with (and makes sense).
As an example reference, Atlassian setup a foundation (called the Atlassian Foundation), where they contribute 1% of profits, equity and employee time to help make impact to various non-profit projects.
