Keep Your Customers with Email
I have been to a few tradeshows and seminars lately
and have taken the opportunity to talk to a wide variety
of small businesses. One question I always ask is "how
do you communicate with your customers and prospects?" A
number of times, the answer has been "well, we send a
holiday card every year." I am always surprised at that
answer.
While holiday greetings have their place, a business
cannot live by one outbound communication per year.
Granted, these cases might have been extreme but chances
are, you have probably wondered about your own
communications strategy. Are you communicating enough?
My advice to businesses is to think about how many
times during the year/quarter/month a customer needs
you, or your products or services, and let that be your
guide to determining how often to reach out and touch
your audience. Think of this number as a minimum, then
build from there.
Your business could be a marketing consulting firm, a
software company, a nonprofit, an educational
institution, a car dealership, a florist, a restaurant,
a vineyard, a rock and roll band - you name it! Success
and profitability is all about creating loyal customers
(e.g. clients, users, donors, buyers, diners, drinkers
and fans) and driving interest, repeat business and
referrals.
Since it is roughly six to twelve times less
expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to
acquire a new one, the value of customer loyalty and
repeat business is just too compelling to ignore.
According to Bain and Company:
- A 5% increase in retention yields profit
increases of 25 to 100 percent.
- Repeat customers spend, on average, 67 percent
more than new customers.
It's All About Communication
Communication is a critical part of any relationship.
Take a lesson from small businesses that long ago
grasped the dynamics and importance of building customer
relationships through communication. They nurture their
customers over time by learning and remembering
individual preferences and interests. They acquire this
customer information directly from customers through
personal interaction. And they keep in touch with
customers on a regular basis ensuring their organization
remains "top of mind."
Statistics show that it takes six to seven contacts
before you can turn a prospect into a customer. All that
contact can be expensive and time consuming. That's
where email marketing becomes a critical part of any
organization's marketing efforts.
Email Turns Prospects and Visitors into Loyal
Customers
Email marketing enables you to proactively communicate
with your existing customers instead of passively
waiting for them to return to your Web site, visit your
store or office, call you on the phone etc. With email
marketing you can solidify existing relationships,
initiate new ones and convert your one-time visitors,
buyers and members into repeat business and long-term
customers or contributors.
No matter how your visitors, prospects and customers
found you; perhaps you paid for search engine placement,
sponsored a newsletter, rented an opt-in list, placed a
banner ad, distributed a flyer or sent a postcard; email
marketing adds to your bottom line because it allows you
to maximize your investment in those expensive and time
consuming marketing efforts and improve the return on
investment (ROI) of every dollar you spend to obtain new
business and develop profitable customer relationships.
According to DoubleClick, good email marketing wins
over consumers:
- Well-executed permission email marketing
campaigns can have a positive impact on consumers'
attitudes towards companies.
- 67% of US consumers said they liked companies
that, in their opinion, did agood job with
permission email marketing.
- 58% of consumers said they opened those
companies' emails, while 53% said that such emails
affected their personal buying decisions.
Why is Email Marketing the Answer?
Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing
tools available today. It is easy, affordable, direct,
actionable and highly effective. When you add email to
your marketing mix, you spend less time, money and
resources than with traditional marketing vehicles (e.g.
direct mail or print advertising) And, with email
marketing, you can communicate more quickly which means
your time-sensitive information is disseminated in
minutes, not days or weeks - and you can see the results
of your efforts instantly.
Email marketing is at it's most effective when used
in communications to your existing customer list or
"house list" as a means of customer retention.
Communicate More Information, More Often
Email marketing is an affordable way to stretch a tight
marketing budget. It can cost as little as fractions of
a penny per email! With a response rate five times
greater than direct mail and 25 times the response rate
of banner ads, email marketing is the most effective way
to increase sales, drive traffic and develop loyalty.
Unlike direct mail, there is virtually no production,
materials or postage expense. So, with email marketing,
you can easily and affordably create more communications
that are valued by your customer, and you can make those
communications support and enhance your brand in a way
that substantially differentiates your company from the
competition.
Your communications can include newsletters,
preferred customer promotions, sale notifications, new
service announcements, event invitations, greetings and
much, much more.
Educate Your Customers
Information and education make your customers and
prospects much more valuable because they are more
likely to buy when they can make an informed decision.
Why force prospects to look elsewhere for the important
information they need? Your email communications can
gently lead a prospect through the sales process,
provide important data and drive the prospect to your
website for more details and/or a purchase.
For example, an email newsletter is uniquely suited
to accomplish the long term goals of customer retention
and loyalty, while it can still contain calls-to-action
that provide short-term benefits.
For most businesses, a well-educated customer uses
products and services to their greatest advantage. And,
guess who will be the first in line to buy when
something new becomes available?
Studies show that both senders, and recipients
increasingly prefer email marketing. According to
DoubleClick:
- Permission-based email is far and away the
preferred method of online communication for
consumers. 75% rated it as their preference, with
only 25% preferring postal mail and 0% choosing
telemarketing.
Foster Long-lasting Relationships
Email is an easy and inexpensive way of establishing
early and long lasting relationships with your prospects
and customers. And the benefits of these relationships
are far reaching. When you inform and educate prospects
and customers, they begin to perceive you as capable of
addressing their needs. Even better, they may look to
you as an expert. This develops trust, opens the door to
two-way communication and allows them to share their
pain points with you.
Using the information you gain from your prospects
and customers, you will be able to better serve their
ongoing needs, hone your unique selling proposition and
slowly close the door on your competitors. In the
process, you may discover hidden sales opportunities
that you may not be addressing.
Easily Measure and Improve Your Results
The benefits derived from most types of marketing and
advertising are very difficult to measure. With email
marketing, however, you can easily measure the number of
emails sent, emails opened, bounce backs, unsubscribes
and click-through rates.
You can also tell who opened your email, which links
in your email motivated the most clicks and, even more
specifically, who clicked on each link. All of this
useful information can help you send highly targeted
campaigns to the individuals most likely to respond to
your offer, thus improving your results going forward.
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