Research shows that it costs up to 25 times more money to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing customer, and that increasing customer retention rates by 5 per cent can increase profits from anywhere between 25 and 95 per cent!
Email marketing campaigns are one of the easiest and most cost effective customer retention strategies. So how can you create engaging email campaigns that work?
#1. Establish trust
Trust is crucial. Trust is what makes customers willing to pay a premium to work with you rather than switch to a competitor. Part of the recipe for gaining trust involves consistency. This includes regularly scheduled communication and following up on what you say you will do. So if you promise a sneak peek of your new product in the next e-newsletter, make sure that you deliver and let customers know when they can expect to receive it.
#2. Provide value
All successful businesses solve a problem. That is why customers buy from you. A great strategy for retaining customers and keeping readers engaged with your newsletters is to give away some of your knowledge and wisdom for free. Share your thoughts in a succinct way that offers a tangible solution or benefit to your readers. This doesn’t have to be just informative – sometimes value can be given through entertainment too.
#3. Segment your email list and adapt content
Every customer is unique but certain customers will share similarities. By grouping your email list according to these similarities you can adapt your message to achieve better results. For example some of your customers may be single with no kids whereas another part of your target market may be parents. Both groups may have different needs and priorities. Segmented lists allow you to create content specific to different audiences. This helps your customer feel better understood which is crucial in establishing trust and an ongoing relationship.
#4. Encourage social media integration
An engaged customer is likely to share your content if you make it easy for them to do so. Use social media sharing buttons in your email newsletters to encourage word of mouth referrals. This also helps customers interact with you with more and share their thoughts. Remember email campaigns shouldn’t be a one-way conversation.
#5. Keep it short
The makers of email plugin Boomerang recently released an infographic showing their insights from analysing 5 million emails. The results?
- On average people receive 147 email messages a day taking up 2.5 hours of their time
- The average user immediately deletes 71 of those emails
The point is if your emails are going to be the ones that are consistently opened and not deleted without having been read, you need to be conscious of taking up people’s valuable time and keep it short and snappy. A good way to do this is to include short teasers with links through to blog posts for users to read the full article if they’re interested. In the body of the email your motto should be: summarise, summarise, summarise.
#6. Master the art of the perfect title
The other key to making sure your emails are getting read is to improve your copywriting skills or pay a copywriter to come up with better email titles for you. A title is all the user will see in their inbox so it better be catchy.
#7. Include calls to action
Ultimately what defines an engaged customer? An engaged customer is one who takes action. It’s your job to seduce your readers into taking action. You might do this through deals, coupons, or competitions. Not every email needs to feature an ethical bribe though. Sometimes all you need to do is tell the reader what you hope they will do once they finish reading the emails. This is known as a call to action. Do you want them to:
- Buy now!
- Download free report
- Share this on Twitter
- Drop me an email
Whatever it is, make it clear.
Consistency with email campaigns will pay off in the long run, and is much easier than constantly trying to attract new business. Try out the tips above to keep your customers happy and engaged with email marketing.
Luke Chaffey is a Digital Marketing Specialist with KBB Digital. For advice on Digital Marketing, including SEO services and Digital Strategy, visit www.kbbdigital.com.au
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