Having a successful business is not limited to doing good at acquiring new customers.
Did that surprise you? Because acquiring new customers is important in any business. But what if I tell you that it's not only that...
To have a successful business, it's also essential to retain your customers. But it's not easy. For some business owners, keeping customers is challenging.
Not anymore. Because through email marketing... it's now easier than ever to connect with your customers and build long-lasting relationships with them.
And that's what you'll take away from this blog. You'll learn...
- What are customer retention and email marketing?
- What are the key benefits of customer retention?
- Why should you incorporate email marketing into your digital marketing strategy?
- 5 important email marketing tips to increase customer retention.
After reading this blog, you'll have some ideas on smashing your retention email marketing. So, let's start. Shall we?
What are customer retention and email marketing?
Customer retention means your customers are staying with your business. They're purchasing from your products and keep returning to your eCommerce store. They are your loyal customers.
While email marketing is sending transactional messages to your customers or contacts through emails.
So, what happens if you combine these two?
With the right customer retention and email marketing strategies, you can improve these two. You can increase customer retention and make your email marketing successful.
But before we talk about these strategies, let's discuss...
What are the benefits of customer retention?
Customer retention is important in having a successful business because it's...
1. Cheaper than customer acquisition
When you're acquiring customers, you need to go from the top of the sales funnel before converting them into paying customers.
You need to allot a marketing budget to introduce your brand, like ads, content, and more. It takes more work.
But for retention, you don't have to start from the top. They're already aware of your brand and have purchased from your eCommerce store already. They know the quality of products and services.
The challenge you need to face is how to keep them. Aside from being less expensive, loyal customers are also...
2. More profitable
If you have new products for release, your existing customers will more likely buy them than new customers.
As I said, they already know your business. They have a first-hand experience with the efficiency and quality of your products and services.
In fact, loyal customers are spending 67% more than new consumers. This just proves they are more profitable than newly acquired customers. Also, you can...
3. Get more referrals
Loyal customers are willing to hype your products on social media or talk about them with their family and friends when there's a chance.
I mean, you can't vouch for a product or business you haven't tried yet... that's why they can give you more referrals.
Now that we talked about the benefits of customer retention for your business, it's time to discuss...
The benefits of email marketing
Email marketing is a great digital marketing tool because you can...
1. Personalize your message
This means you can send an email based on the customer journey. In this case, you'll send an email based on the fact they already purchased from you once or are your repeat customers.
You can send an email based on their current needs. Aside from that, email marketing can also help you...
2. Connect with a relevant audience
Unlike other forms of digital marketing, you don't have full control over who will see your content. But through email marketing, you can.
These audiences I'm talking about are people who are aware of your brand. They know what you do and what you offer. That's why they signed up for your email list in the first place.
So, you are sending commercial emails to relevant people. Not the random ones who might not even be interested in your business.
Another benefit is you can...
3. Collect customer feedback
One way to increase customer retention is by making your customers satisfied. Because knowing what your customers want will also increase customer satisfaction.
That's why email marketing is a great tool to know what your customers think about your products and services.
If you think these benefits are amazing, let's talk about the...
5 Customer retention email marketing tips you can implement
To nail your customer retention emails, you need to come up with exciting things to entice your customers to purchase again from you.
You're probably wondering how. One thing is you can...
1. Reward existing customers
You can reward customers who give you loyalty by rewarding them with something. This will encourage them more and buy from your eCommerce store.
What are these rewards, anyway?
- Discount codes
- Referral codes
- Free shipping
- Free products
- Exclusive codes
When they purchase from you, give them rewards that they can use on their next purchase. This way, they have a reason to purchase again from you.
You can also create a customer loyalty program where you can give more rewards to customers who are purchasing repeatedly.
See? Sending rewards through emails can make your customers excited! It would also help if you...
2. Personalize the emails
Personalizing emails is not just using their first names or sending them automated emails during their birthdays.
Personalizing means sending them emails based on their customer journey, needs, and data. How to do this?
- Send them personalized recommendations. Check their previous purchases and give recommendations based on their history.
- Remind them of products in their shopping. If they already shopped from your eCommerce store but didn't buy all the products... remind them of what's left in their carts.
- Create an appropriate email marketing calendar. Receiving emails at a comfortable time will increase the open rate and improve your communication.
For example... if their location says State A, you can send an email related to their location. It can be to offer them free shipping within the state or inform them about a pop-up store opening.
This is one of the best customer retention emails because you're sending them emails based on their current needs.
To boost customer loyalty, you can also...
3. Send customer feedback surveys
Happy customers will be your brand's biggest fans. But how can you make them happy?
You can start by asking them what makes them happy. Ask for their feedback because some customers will be happy to do so. You just need to ask them.
This will also make them feel valued because their opinion matters to the growth of your business. And if they have negative feedback, you can fix them!
Asking for customer feedback will help improve how you run your business. In return, more customers will stay loyal to you.
Another way is to...
4. Offer excellent customer service
If an existing customer has concerns by email, make sure to address them quickly. That's one of the most beneficial ways to use emails for your customers.
Doing so can increase customer retention because your customers know they can rely on you if they run into a problem or have concerns.
So, make sure to utilize email marketing and make your customers' lives easier. But to make YOUR life easier...
5. Automate your email marketing process
As a business owner, you might forget to send emails to your email list. But don't worry, because there is a way to do this.
You can send automated emails by investing in email marketing apps or tools to keep your customers engaged.
Some of them allow you to send emails based on the customer journey... which is practical because you won't be sending emails that look written by robots.
What are these tools?
- Mailchimp
- Klaviyo
- MailerLite
You can choose a plan depending on your budget and the size of your business or customer base.
Lastly, it's important to...
6. Analyze email marketing and customer retention metrics
To continue retaining your customers, you need to see if your current email marketing strategies are working. If not, it's best to adjust the game plan.
You also need to calculate your customer retention rate. Why? Because you might need to re-strategize both your customer retention and email marketing strategy.
Analyzing your data and adapting to changes will help you succeed in retaining your customers and email marketing.
That's why you need to...
Create a robust email marketing and customer retention strategy!
Increasing customer retention is not just limited to email marketing... but I'm not saying you need to choose between the two.
Because email marketing is NOT less important. It is a powerful tool that can help you in many areas of your business.
But having great customer retention strategies is critical because email marketing will just help you amplify them. They work hand in hand.
As they say, you shouldn't put all your eggs in just one basket.
So, it's important to think of more ways to retain your customers. Some of these are:
- Nurturing relationships outside emails
- Building social media communities to get more customer engagement
- Leveraging customer data in building customer relationships
- Offering exclusive deals to existing customers
- Being there for your customers 24/7
- Making sure your products are top-quality
Once you come up with superb customer retention strategies, you can use email marketing to strengthen them.
To succeed at both of them, you also need to create a foolproof email marketing strategy. How? Read the...
Ricky Hayes
Llouela Asim