Looking for more repeat business or subscription renewals? How about re-energising a section of the existing database who haven’t purchased anything for a while?
Email marketing can help achieve many great things for your business with a proper strategy in place and the right platform.
Many business owners focus simply on setting up email campaigns to reach out to new prospects, nurture leads along the sales funnel, follow up with abandoned shopping cart customers, and so on.
But email marketing has the ability to increase customer loyalty too. After all, growing your business is not just about getting new customers; it’s about retaining your existing ones and looking after them so that they choose to stay with you into the future.
A well-thought-out email marketing strategy helps you reach out to existing customers more frequently and more relevantly, increasing the ‘touch points’ and bringing you closer to them.
And the beauty of it is that existing customers are more likely to open and read your emails than ‘colder’ contacts in your database.
Email marketing can therefore have a positive effect on loyalty to you and your brand. Here are seven tips to get you started.
Clean and segment your database
What is the quickest way to develop bad sentiment and drive customers away? Repeatedly send them irrelevant and annoying emails.
A ‘clean’ database contains all the right contact information and no ‘dead’ contacts. Be sure to give yours a regular scrub.
A segmented database separates contacts into groups based on factors such as gender, location, engagement level, purchase history, and so on.
If you put time into tagging contacts in your database and segmenting them properly, you can make sure that only the right emails go to the right individuals at the right times.
Personalise, personalise, personalise
Emails may take many forms and be aimed at achieving many different things but there is one common ingredient to all successful campaigns: relevance.
Content without context or relevance is essentially spam. The more you understand your target audience, the more you can tailor content to what they’re really after.
Personalisation goes beyond simply using a customer’s first name in emails. You need to answer the questions they have, cater to their preferences, and focus on improving the experience of doing business with you. How about sending them congratulations and a discount coupon on their birthday, for instance?
Marketing automation provides you with the data to track all the information you need; use your email campaigns to put personalisation into action with your content.
Inform & entertain with news, tips, FAQs & other original content
When you understand the ‘buzz’ topics and what your customers want to know, you can shape content to satisfy their demands. There should also be regular news within your industry or particular sector that would be of interest to your customers.
Communicate all this through professional copywriters, if you’re not qualified to write it yourself.
Create newsletters and email campaigns that reach out with informative, original content and you will bring your business closer to your customers.
Share customer stories
Customer stories are engaging and can have a galvanising effect on others.
People love to read about success stories and how they might learn from real-world application. Can they pick up some tips on using your products or services by emulating what other customers have done?
By featuring case studies and real-world examples, you can go a long way to increasing good sentiment and loyalty.
Cater to customers’ viewing preferences
We know that millennials generally love video; but how do your customers prefer to view content?
It may be long-form articles, shorter posts, infographics, memes, video, podcasts, or short tips. Learn your customers’ preferences with content and also their viewing devices.
Of course, make your content mobile-friendly as, for most demographics these days, mobile viewing outstrips desktop viewing.
Incentivise loyalty with discounts
Through your email campaigns, it’s possible to incentivise loyalty. How about running promotions or exclusive discounts for customers who send you referrals?
Why not design a series of emails that ‘sell’ the idea of a referral, introducing the offer of a discount voucher; and then, for customers who refer a client but do not claim their voucher discounts, send automated follow-up emails as reminders to clients that they need to claim before the expiration date.
This is a fine way to create good sentiment amongst customers.
Offer other perks – like early access to deals
Make existing customers feel special. Offer your best customers early ‘sneak peeks’ of upcoming promotions and offers; allow them a preview of new products and services that you are introducing.
Give them a little virtual ‘red carpet’ or VIP treatment and they will usually respond well. It’s a great way to let them know you care, while also marketing the business.
Increase loyalty with email marketing campaigns
Despite the rise of social media, instant messaging, and online video, it’s still the humble email that consistently gets the best return on investment for marketers.
One way to ensure a good return is to reach out regularly to the most important customers you have: the existing ones who are funding your business.
After all, if you’re like most businesses, 5-10 percent of your customers generate 70-80 percent of your revenue. They deserve your attention.
Email marketing can help you inform, educate, amuse, entertain, and delight your customers and build closer, more loyal, and more lasting relationships with them.
To find out more about how your business can start increasing customer loyalty through email marketing, contact our team on 02 9929 7001.
The Preferred Email, Events and SMS Automation Software For All Australian Government Departments
Swift Digital’s templates help you effortlessly create stunning emails and events communications using our drag-and-drop email and event builder.
You can raise engagement with embedded images, videos, polls, article feedback, and emojis and schedule messages to send at the right time.
Government departments’ unique marketing requirements are covered with Swift Digital, and full compliance with all anti-spam and privacy laws is guaranteed. Swift Digital is also ISO 27001 certified.
Swift Digital is Australia’s leader in marketing automation software and event management working with organisations like the NSW Government, ATO, and companies like Westpac Bank and Qantas.
Find out why we’re the Australian government department’s number one choice for their professional communications and events.
To find out how your business can get the best out of Swift Digital’s platform, contact our team today.
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