In a world full of competition, it’s essential to develop new ways to retain customers. To ensure you keep your customers for life, you need to look at the whole picture including your employees, your finances, and various internal processes.
You may be wondering how you can use email to retain customers. This marketing tactic is more effective than you think. In fact, it’s been shown to improve customer retention by 34% and boost revenue by 20%.
Let’s take a look at how to use email to retain customers.
Developing the Right Strategy
The first and most important step is to develop a clear strategy. What will you do with this newfound power? Will you blast out emails to thousands of customers every day? Will you try to convert inactive subscribers into active ones? Or will you try to retain the customers you already have by enhancing their experience?
The best strategy will be driven by what you hope to achieve. If you’re looking to grow your customer base, consider experimenting with email marketing. But if you want to retain your current customers, shift to creating value and delighting them with your brand.
Using Personal Stories
Stories work really well in marketing. They make your product or service come to life and allow the reader to place themselves in the scene. When used effectively, they can make your emails more personal and engaging.
The best way to use stories is to layer them throughout your emails. You can start with a short story to set the scene. For example, you could write, “Dear valued customer,
As you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking about your favorite pair of shoes, or the spring weather, or the way you and your spouse celebrated your anniversary. These are just a few examples of stories that may come to mind when reading this email from my end. Now let me tell you about how your shoes helped me grow my business.
…
“
Then you could use a couple of story pieces to illustrate your point. For example, you might write, “Your shoes are one of the most iconic parts of your overall look. When you wear them, you embody elegance and style, which are both qualities I admire. They also provide a great platform for you to display your personality, which is just one of the ways I found your email to be charming.”
Make It Relevant
Your email’s audience is only as good as its relevancy to the person receiving it. If you want to retain customers, make sure you keep your emails relevant to your leads. You can do this by tying your email content to a customer’s actions or behaviors. For example, if you know your customer likes to travel, you can send them emails about discounts to attractions in their travel destination or about discounts to hotels in popular destinations.
Segmenting And Targeting
The golden rule of marketing is to segment and target your audience. To do this effectively, you need to know your audience’s profile. What do they know about your product or service? What websites do they visit? What do they value?
For example, if you’re selling shoes and you know your customer base is mostly from the US, segmenting and targeting the American market would be a good idea. You can do this by sending specialized emails with offers suited to their needs. If they value style and fashion, you could send them style-related offers or fashion-related offers.
Once you have your audience segmented and targeted, you can develop a list of leads who are likely to become customers. Use this list to send out personalized emails inviting them to visit your website or mobile app. You can also consider using drip campaigns to nurture leads and turn them into loyal customers.
Experiment
You should always be open to new ideas and experimentation. If one strategy isn’t working for you, try another. And if the results from your initial email testing aren’t promising, you can always shift tactics and try something new.
The takeaway here is to be patient and don’t be afraid to try new things. Remember that every email marketing strategy involves experimenting to see what works best for you and your business.
Measurement And Analysis
Measuring and analyzing your email marketing efforts is essential to determining their effectiveness. There are several ways to track the success of your emails, including:
- Unsubscribe rates – Determine the percentage of people who unsubscribe from your list after you’ve sent out an email. This is a good indication of how effective your campaigns have been. If you’re not seeing many unsubscribers after an email campaign, it may be time for a change in strategy.
- Demographic information – With the exception of email marketing to children, you must always ensure that your emails do not contain content that’s inappropriate for the general public.
- Online survey results – Many companies now allow customers to take an online survey after they’ve received products or services from you. These surveys help you determine what features your product would benefit from and what changes you can make to make the customer experience even better.
- A/B testing – This approach lets you test different versions of your email to see which one is most effective. For example, you might trial different subject lines or alternate between personalized and automated emails.
The information you collect from measuring and analyzing your email marketing will allow you to track its success and determine what changes you need to make to continue generating high levels of interest.
Email as a Functioning Communication Tool
Marketing through email is a form of communication that most people are already familiar with. The beauty of email as a marketing tool is that everyone on your email list already has an email address. This makes it much simpler to send out automated notifications and reminders about promotions and new products. And since everyone on your email list is already familiar with the tool, it takes less time to get them to see you as a valuable resource rather than an advertiser looking to sell them something.
Summary
To conclude, using email to retain customers is a viable option. The key is to find the right approach for your business. If you want to grow your customer base, consider experimenting with email marketing. But if you want to retain your current customers, create value and delight them with your brand.