Hmmm…that sounds rather scary. Email marketing is for life – but that doesn’t mean you have to do it forever and ever even once you’ve retired to your Caribbean island paradise (I can dream).
The ‘life’ I’m referring to is the life cycle of your customer.
Yes, it’s great to have regular newsletters or email offers that go out updating your customers of new products, great advice and the occasional not-to-missed offer. But it would be even better if they received emails that reflected their relationship with you.
Matching your email marketing to relationship status
To make your emails resonate with your customers it is essential you send timely targeted emails. By that I mean your emails should be tailored to the stage in your relationship you are at with your customers.
Some examples would be:
1. Welcome
Once someone has signed up for your newsletter or made their first purchase from you, send them a Welcome email.
It doesn’t have to be a long communication just something that welcomes them, tells them the type of emails they’ll receive from you and perhaps an introductory offer – perhaps offering 10% off for one day only.
2. Conversion
You are bound to have customers who receive your emails but don’t take any action. Perhaps they’ve only ever made one purchase from you and you need to tempt them back to buy again. They may never have bought from you.
If that’s the case this email needs to encourage them to open their wallets and buy. A great way to break down the barriers that’s preventing them from buying is by making them an offer they can’t refuse. Perhaps a buy one get one free, or 20% off your next order if made within a week.
By making your offer time limited you’ll encourage them to take action quickly.
3. Come back
On your mailing list you will have a lot of people who have gone cold on you.
They probably signed up a long time ago but have never made contact or bought anything.
Many companies spend a lot of time and effort attracting new customers but don’t lose sight of your existing customers.
The best way to tempt them back is a win back offer – tell them they are important to you and you want them back. Make them an offer they can’t refuse, something so tempting they’ll just have to buy.
As you can see, tailoring your email marketing campaigns to your customers is a great way of developing relationships and showing your customers they are important to you.
Standard emails are all well and good but by tailoring your communications to each individual type of customer you will strengthen your relationship with them.
Remember to look at your marketing list not as one entity but as several different types of people. Work out where each person is within their marketing relationship with you and send them emails accordingly.
That may sound like a lot of work but many email marketing systems these days offer you the flexibility of running these types of campaigns.
Give it a try.
Perhaps you’re already splitting your marketing like this. If so, leave a comment below and share your experiences. Do you find it works?
2 comments ↓
What software would you use that lets you organise your contacts into groups like this and can it be done automatically? It seems like a great idea but a little time consuming if you have to go through your list and pick out those that haven’t bought anything or those who haven’t bought in “x” months.
You could use a service such as mailchimp.com which will allow you to create groups from your list and also offer choices for your subscribers as to what type of information they want and frequency. I don’t think this can be done automatically for an existing list but, although a lot of work initially, it will pay dividends in the end because you are able to ensure each customer gets the information they need.
Hope that helps.
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