Why Email Marketing Works Well For Customer Retention

Most businesses are familiar with the idea of email marketing for new customers. But relatively few also understand the full benefits of targeting existing customers. 

Being successful at email marketing requires you to do both. Developing a process of drip-feeding relevant email marketing content to their inbox is essential for customer retention. 

In this post, we take a look at some of the ways you can be successful at email marketing and customer retention.

How To Succeed At Email Marketing

Email marketing is not dead. In fact, it probably offers a better return on investment than any other digital marketing method. Websand email marketing is incredibly affordable and versatile, making it something that all businesses can use. 

To be successful at email marketing, you’ll need to do the following: 

Be Clear On Your Goals

Not all email campaigns have the same goals. Therefore, you and your team will need to carefully specify what you want your marketing efforts to achieve. 

There are quite a few objectives that email marketing campaigns can have: 

1. Onboarding new subscribers
2. Increasing engagement with your brand
3. Encouraging existing subscribers to convert
4. Getting in touch with past customers who aren’t buying
5. Targeting niche groups of customers. 

Most businesses will create marketing emails that cover several of these categories, if not all of them. Some brands will ask email marketing services to do it for them.  Websand was built to cover all five options listed above.

Understand Your Audience

Successful email marketing campaigns also require you to know your audience. Don’t make educated guesses. Instead, collect as much relevant data as you can about them, and then segment your audience so that you can successfully appeal to them. 

In these matters, tools like Websand segmentation wizard, Facebook Insights and Google Analytics are your friend. Use these to find out demographic information and more about your audience’s interests. 

Use Technology

Just sending out a bunch of emails and hoping for the best usually doesn’t work. Most email clients block unsolicited emails sent in bulk. 

Smart businesses use tools like Websand to send legitimate marketing materials.  Allowing you to easily manage and segment your email data so it’s easy to send campaigns to the most relevant audience, or create marketing automation programmes to support business objectives such as customer retention.

Place Opt-Ins In Your Emails

You want your emails to provoke actions that encourage customers to take the next step towards conversion. It’s a best practice (and a legal requirement under GDPR), so therefore a very good idea, therefore, collect opt-ins when you ask people to hand over information, such as their name and email. 

Follow-Up

After you send out an initial welcome email you’ll need to follow up using Websand. Follow-ups increase the chances of gaining repeat business. 

Before you begin, think about how often you want to communicate with customers. Also, consider the type of content you want to include. Then create a plan that sets out the precise order and timing that consumers receive your emails. 

Once you begin sending out emails, you’ll need to test and track them to see how well they perform. Try to test as many aspects of your emails as you can, from the marketing copy to the layout and headlines. See which versions offer the highest opening rates. 

The Benefits Of Email Marketing For Existing Customers

Customer retention is essential for your business to be successful. That’s why it is imperative to use email marketing for existing customers. Here are some of the benefits that you can expect: 

Increased Credibility

Even if a customer has bought from you before, that doesn’t necessarily mean they think that you’re a credible seller. They may have simply purchased from you because there were no options available.

Email marketing, therefore, is a powerful tool that you can use to convince them otherwise. You can pack your marketing messages with valuable content that helps customers view you as a leader or authority in your industry. Continuously reminding your audience of your quality is a great way to get them to buy from you again. 

Improved Brand Recognition

Not all customers will remember your brand, even if they buy from you. So email marketing is a tool that you can use to enhance brand recognition among existing customers. The more times you can expose your branding to your target audience, the more likely you are to get repeat business. 

Most customers check their inboxes every day. So even if they just see your company name in the sender box without opening the email, that’s a form of marketing. Next time they want what you offer, they will automatically think of you. 

Increased Sales

Another benefit of email marketing is increased sales. Existing customers tend to be the most valuable because they are already convinced by your brand. Many want to make additional purchases, so long as you can convince them that they are getting genuine value. 

Again, email marketing can help. Some companies include product links directly in the email itself to make purchases even easier. Creating a special offer is another great tactic that you can use to drum up sales. 

Build Better Relationships

Lastly, email marketing allows you to build better relationships with your audience. It’s almost impossible to contact all your customers directly via phone. There are just too many of them. But when you use email, you can bridge the gap. Suddenly, you make all your existing customers feel like they are a part of your family – and that’s what encourages them to keep coming back. 

Conclusion

The benefits of marketing to your existing customers can be substantial. Some companies do it all themselves. But many prefer to use email marketing services that offer professional assistance. Websand is a marketing automation platform that helps to make the process easy, offering tools for analytics, retention, funnels, and increased customer loyalty.