Now that you have a few customers, you might be wondering how to keep the momentum going. As any experienced business owner will tell you, one sure way to grow your business is to keep current customers coming back. In this post, we’ll explore the secret to repeat customers.
Everything old is new again
Long before Mark Zuckerberg tempted businesses to turn social and people of the world went dizzy with mobile apps, email was the primary online marketing tool for business. Today, an email marketing strategy is still one of the best ways to nurture repeat customers.
Your return on investment (ROI) from email marketing now stands at just over Rs 4,003 for every Rs 95 spent.
This explains why email is still regarded as the best tool to approach prospective and existing clientele — even at a time when other information channels are growing rapidly.
As renowned marketing coach and speaker David Newman said, "Email has an ability many channels don’t, like creating valuable, personal touches — at scale."
How to bring customers back again and again
Regular emails can increase the number of returning customers by keeping your business at the top of your clients’ mind.
An email campaign is nothing more than a series of emails sent to multiple people at once. Keep reading to learn how you can create an email campaign for your business.
Steps to create your first email promotion
Before you run a successful email campaign, you’ve got to do some groundwork, so that you’re primed for success when you finally send that first email.
1. Set your goals
Any good promotion starts with setting goals and the same applies to email marketing. So decide on a clear objective before you spend any time or money on the effort.
For example, you might set a goal to increase visits to your website by 5%. Or your goal might have to do with engagement — in other words, how many email readers take a desired action such as sharing your email.
Once you have some experience with email marketing, you can start setting more specific goals. But for now, just pick a goal to get started.
2. Build an email list
The most successful email campaigns start with a list of email IDs from qualified leads. “Qualified leads” means people who are interested in your products or services.
The best way to build a good list is to invite your website visitors to sign up for an email newsletter.
Email tools such as GoDaddy Email Marketing make it a matter of a few clicks to add a newsletter signup form to your website, blog or social page. Email IDs submitted through this form are added to the tool for use in your email campaigns.
Undoubtedly, it is challenging to grow your subscriber’s list in the crowded online space, especially with so many small businesses like you vying for attention. To increase signup, consider offering an incentive such as a free eBook or savings on their first order.
3. Understand email types
As you think about ways to increase repeat customers, you should understand the different types of email campaigns. You can group the emails you will send into three broad categories:
Promotional emails
As the name suggests, promotional emails are about new or recurring sales. The goal of these types of emails is to get readers to respond in some way — by clicking for more information or actually buying a product or service.
Relational emails
In these types of emails, you offer the subscribers what you’ve promised, like a:
- Weekly newsletter
- Free gift
- Birthday or anniversary wish
The goal here is to strengthen the bonding with customers by providing useful or entertaining information.
Transactional emails
These are the messages that businesses need to send in order to complete a transaction during the purchase of a product or service. Order and delivery confirmation emails, reset your password and invoice updates are some examples.
4. Provide useful information
The most important element to your success is the quality of the articles, infographics and videos in your email newsletter.
The term ‘content is the king’ has been overused in marketing. But it has an everlasting impact, and email marketers should make sure that every email they send contains high-quality, useful information their readers will welcome.
Pay attention to the subject line, as it plays a crucial role in getting people to open your emails.
As you create your first email, keep these tips in mind:
Include non-promotional text that provides value to customers. This could be interesting facts, local news or tips on how to do something related to your products/services.- Adding video, infographics or audio clips increases reader interest and engagement
- Close with a call to action (CTA) that urges the reader to do something — click, call, read more, etc. The best calls to action are short and clear.
Be sure to include an invitation to visit your website, along with a link, in your email. Once you have your email written, then you are ready to send your first email campaign.
5. Make sure it’s mobile friendly
For any email campaign to lead to repeat customers, design plays an important role. No matter how well-written your email is, if the design is not good, it’s a waste of your time and money.
As more people today read emails on mobile devices, you must be sure your emails can be read easily on smartphones.
Before choosing an email tool, check to be sure all its designs are made for mobile viewing.
To keep readers from disabling images, format your photos as described here.
The right mix of text, images, infographics and videos can lend more interest to your email campaign and improve your response rate.
6. Measure your results
The most important step in any email marketing campaign is measuring the results. Here are some common numbers to watch:
- Unique Open Rate tracks the number of individuals who’ve opened your email. This is different from an open rate that includes multiple opens by the same recipient.
- Click-through Rate or CTR measures the number of readers who click one or more links in the email. Generally, the more clicks, the better.
- Bounce Rate is the percentage of people on your list that didn't receive your message because it was returned by the receiver’s mail server.
- Unsubscribe Rate is the rate at which recipients unsubscribe from your email campaign. Generally anything over 1% means you need to improve the quality of your email content, change the frequency of your emails, etc.
- Spam Complaint Rate is a big concern for email marketers. High spam complaint rate is a clear indication that your recipients don’t see value in your emails. Take action to improve your content.
By reviewing and tracking these numbers, you can get a better idea of how your email marketing messages are performing. You should be able to see these metrics using your email marketing tool and Google Analytics.
Repeat customers — it's really no secret
In summary, email marketing is an ideal way to stay in touch with your customers — and will likely lead to repeat sales. A few things that can make your email efforts successful include:
- Tailoring each message with personalized messages and offers
- Focusing on fostering relationships
- Including interactive elements like video and surveys
If you can repay your customers’ trust with high-quality content, design and offers, your email marketing strategy will be a big success. So, good luck!
