The 6 Best Ways Supplement Brands Can Boost Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value for a dietary supplement brand is one of the most important points of data to track.

In fact, if you’re looking to scale your supplement company you can’t do it without measuring Customer Lifetime Value.

Customer Lifetime Value is the amount a customer spends with your brand over the course of their lifetime.

In essence it’s how much an average customer is worth to your supplement business.

Supplement brands have the advantage.

Because the customer has to, or at least should, continuously take dietary supplements everyday to maintain optimal health.

So the function of the product itself, as any consumable product, lends to a recurring subscription model.

Recurring subscriptions means your Customer Lifetime Value is likely to be higher, since a customer will continue to stick with you over time. On average of about 3 to 4 months.

As customers continue to take your supplement, they continue to have good results.

In addition to buying other products from you.

It’s the accumulation of all of those sales over time that make up the Lifetime Value.

Increasing the Lifetime Value will allow you to spend more to acquire a new customer, which in turn will increase the number of customers and your overall business.

But how does one go about increasing lifetime value?

6 Ways Dietary Supplement Brands Can Increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV or LTV)

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #1

There’s a bit of a trap with Customer Lifetime Value, if you’re not careful.

It’s an easy one to slip into after all.

And that is thinking of CLTV as a single number for all of your customers.

When the reality is that some customers spend more with you than others. It’s an average.

Therefore, treating all customers the same leaves money on the table.

A simplified way of looking at this is through an 80/20 lens.

Whereby 20% of your customers are generating 80% of the profits.

This makes increasing your CLTV easier if you focus on the top 20% of your highest LTV customers rather than all your customers.

Those are your top VIP customers.

If you treat your VIPs differently, like the higher value customer they are, they will bring up the the total LTV of all your customers.

You do this by first giving them less.

Less promotional emails. Don’t put them on your batch promotion emails or your affiliate / JV swaps.

You want to nurture this group not burn them.

Then give them more.

More value. Even more than they may have already gotten when they first became a customer.

This can be everything from a truly special higher ticket offer just for them, or

Maybe a years supply of your supplement with an additional 3 months supply for free at a discount price that normal customers never get.

Your creativity is the only limit here.

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #2

Another great way to to scale your supplement brand CLTV is to implement a rewards program.

A rewards program not only keeps customers longer but also encourages them to spend more with you.

By building up points from purchases that the customer can use towards rewards, they become more vested in buying from you over time.

Rewards programs can increase customer retention by 5% which translates to an increase in profits by 20% or more.

The benefit to the customer is that they get more than they normally would.

And a points program is a simple but effective way to create a win – win situation.

This tactic has worked for credit card companies and airlines for years and it can work for your supplement company too.

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #3

As mentioned earlier, the advantage a supplement brand has is the recurring subscription model.

If you could get more customers to stick on retention longer it would be a game changer for your Lifetime Value.

One way to do that is to create multiple engagement points.

Each engagement acts as a reminder for the customer.

Most supplement brands only use email as the primary communication point with customers, and that’s a great part of the overall strategy to extend retention but only one touch point lacks overall power.

Multiple touch points for a new customer is always more impactful when they are establishing a habit of taking a supplement everyday.

Email alone is not enough, which is why you can also add a curtesy customer service call. This is just a check in to see how they are doing in the first week of receiving their first bottle. It’s not a sales call but rather a call to support their journey to a healthier life.

There are many other areas that a new customer can be effected as well.

Specifically through retargeting ads.

Most marketers use this channel as a way to capture a lost sale but it can also be used to reduce continuity churn by…

Targeting first purchase customers with retargeting ads that support product use in the first 2 weeks to build that habit.

Using retargeting ads to repeat customers to support continuing next month.

SMS text messaging is another big opportunity to build a habit by sending text reminders to take the supplement at key times of the day.

Reward customer loyalty can also be a big one. To get a customer over the critical hump of the first month you can add in a free product at month two. This delight and surprise tactic will stand out and just might keep them on for month three.

And lastly, show appreciation with a hand written note for continuous use. The personal touch goes a long way.

All of these tactics are great to extend churn and increase LTV but they are even more impactful if you combine them and use them at specific key points in time. For example, right before they are about to drop off.

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #4

This CLTV boost again ties into recurring subscription.

Anything you can do to increase the stick rate of continuity adds right to the LTV. As Perry Marshall says, it’s a small hinge that moves a big door.

This tactic comes before they even get their first subscription bottle.

It’s in the consideration stage where this tactic comes into play.

Consideration not of the product but the consideration of the offer.

Do they buy the one time purchase or the subscription offer?

It’s standard practice to give a discount on the subscription offer. This nudges the prospect towards the subscription.

But this LTV boost tactic nudges them in a second way. People make buying decisions based on emotion and therefore they need more than just a discount to initially convince them.

The nudge here is to frame commitment in your sales and offer copy.

This get’s the prospect to commit to better health at the buying point and thus nudges them toward the higher LTV subscription option.

Additionally, reaffirming that commitment at strategic points, for example at month 2, month 3 of their subscription via email and even snail mail goes a long way to extend the average stick rate of continuity.

Both will give you a big boost to LTV.

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #5

The front end sales page is a place that most supplement marketers overlook when it comes to increasing Lifetime Value.

Most marketers will offer multiple packages, each increasing in value, as a way to increase average order value (AOV) and thus get an initial spike that contributes to LTV.

But where they fall short is in the front end sales copy itself.

Sure they sell the value but the boost tactic here is to frame the bigger packages in your sales copy. Just like the previous tactic nudged them to the subscription offer. This tactic nudges them to buy the bigger package.

Customer Lifetime Value Boost #6

The final LTV boost I’ll share with you here is to increase your up-sell take rate. And or increase the gross profit of the up-sell offers in your funnel.

One reason why this strategy works so well is because, it’s easier to sell to an existing customer. And that’s exactly what an up-sell does.

I covered up-sell funnel secrets to selling more in a previous article so I won’t go too deep here. But if you’re not using up-sells after the cart and credit card entry step, you can add a lot more to your LTV. And if you already have post purchase up-sells and you’re not A/B testing them there’s a ton of untapped money for you there too.