We all have heard the old saying that it's more economical to retain existing customers than to win new ones. It may be old advice, but it still holds true. Not only is it more economical to retain existing customers, but these loyal customers are also more likely to make word-of-mouth recommendations and become brand advocates.
Email Marketing is one of the most result-oriented and easiest ways to keep existing customers engaged. However, a significant majority of organisations still somehow fail to leverage email marketing as retention vs. attraction tool.
Let us find out how you can keep your customers coming back with email automation.
Build an email list that wants to hear from you
Most organisations unknowingly commit the mistake of getting caught up in the numbers. They end up believing that a long list of leads and prospects is what they should be after when in fact their primary goal should be to focus on a smaller but effective list. Having millions of people on your email list is great but there's no use in it if you don't hear from anyone of them.
A big majority of organisations end up bringing people on their email lists that aren't a great fit for their brand or worse yet, they have no idea whatsoever who you are. Then when you send promotional emails to them, they feel confused and even end up hitting the dreaded spam button. Too many spam reports on the table and your email domain run the risk of getting blocked and this means that you can even up losing people who actually want to hear from your brand.
Send them something unique, relevant, and useful
The best thing you can do to win and retain customers is to think about the expectations, requirements, beliefs, and preferences of your target audience. Find out what might feel valuable and useful to them and then create engaging, crisp, and purpose-driven emails that they'll actually want to open, share, or forward. Tell them clearly and exactly what they can expect from your promotional emails. That way, they would not be tempted to hit spam or feel surprised when your promotional emails reach their inbox.
Personalise
Personalised emails connect better with people. in fact, they bring 14% more clicks and 10% more conversions than generic emails. However, you should remember that personalisation is not just about auto-filling someone’s first and last name. Instead, you should focus on customer segmentation into categories or groups and then create unique emails for each segment based on their preferences and known interests.
You can start by sending a short and engaging survey to your existing customers, asking them what they would like to see from you, and telling you more about them. This can be an excellent way to connect with your target audience. If you have a CRM system such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM system already in place, you can leverage it to collect more information about your existing and potential customers. For instance, you may send a special heads up to customers who have bought the same product multiple times the next time it goes on sale.
Make it mobile-friendly with a clear CTA
Today, more than three-fourths of all emails are opened on a mobile device. Therefore, it does make sense to use a mobile-friendly template if you want your promotional emails to have any chance of being read. Also, all promotional emails must have a clearly-defined call to action (CTA) as to what email recipients are expected to do after reading it - i.e. answer a poll, enter a contest, or visit the website.
CTAs must always stand out from the rest of the promotional or awareness text. They should ideally be in a brightly-coloured button that is easy to click, from every device. Furthermore, you should always experiment with different subject lines, email topics, CTAs, and design elements to find out what yields the best results.
Discover the potential of email automation to keep your customers coming back to your brand. Call or email us at C.I.G Consultants now!