Build followers, not customers
In today's society, it is important in business to retain your customer base. But this can be a difficult thing to do. We see too many online businesses have their client base chipped away by clever competitors. If you don't stay ahead of the game your clients will move on.
Clients are fickle. They are selfish and customer loyalty only extends as far as it benefits them. As soon as they can see another business has better benefits, they will abandon you and go with your competitors. If you have ever experienced this you know how frustrating it is. You may even feel personally offended to see your clients go to another business or provider. And why wouldn't you! You worked hard to make those clients happy. And just like that, they leave you.
It's a harsh reality in business, clients are selfish.
It may sound harsh to the clients as well, but even you yourself are a consumer, as well as a business owner. So ask yourself, "When was the last time to changed providers, or businesses because of a better deal or price?" Chances are it was not too long ago. Think of the last time you changed telephone carriers, or the last time you changed hair dressers, or the last time you changed carpet cleaners. These people helped you and you abandoned them too! Clients are fickle.
So how can you work towards retaining a customer base? One that is resistant to competitors advances? It's simple, build a following, a cult, a group of people that are excited about your products or services and are happy to tell everyone they know. These people may be in a parallel industry or be consultants that can recommend your services. Marketing yourself to these people instead of your clients can help build word of mouth loyalty. Even if these people wouldn't buy or use your products themselves.
There is no stronger marketing than a recommendation from a friend or a person you trust. Again, think back to when this last happened to you. Your friend says "Have you tried the new restaurant down the street? Its fantastic!" and now, you want to see how fantastic it is. It's the strongest form of advertising.
So, back to the point. If you can find a group of people, not clients, that are excited about your products and services, and you have a product or service that is worth talking about, gear your marketing towards getting these people to talk about you to their friends, or recommend you to their clients.
Think about Apple. They only do a very small amount of advertising. How do they get so much exposure? What Apple rely on is the gurus (the people who pay to watch Steve Jobs do his 2 hours keynote) to go out and tell all their friends about how "cool" Apple is. So their friends want one and so on...
This is the type of community that you need to retain your clients.