We all hate goodbyes – particularly when it’s related to a customer who has previously spent a tidy sum yet appears to have vanished into thin air. In fact, sometimes, you don’t even get the chance to say goodbye. This could’ve been avoided, perhaps just by sending a few customer retention emails.
Return business is vital if you want your company to grow. It’s just as important (if not more so) as new customers, because return business can become a reliable income stream that ensures staff are paid, the electricity bill settled and your marketing budget topped up.
Want some good news? Retaining business is far easier if you use email marketing. So powerful are modern email marketing platforms that they can re-engage long-lost customers who haven’t spent a penny with you for a considerable amount of time.
What’s more, you may have a significant number of those customers out there somewhere, waiting to be tickled (not literally – don’t worry) into another purchase.
Research suggests that existing customers are 50% more likely to spend more and try out new products than new customers. The revenue they generate for your business is also far cheaper to obtain, which is why the following retention emails need to be in your locker.
“We miss you” customer retention emails
Don’t give yourself a hard time – it happens to everyone.
Every once in a while, a customer will purchase something from you and then vanish. They may even do so after a glowing review.
What gives?
Nothing! You’ve done nowt wrong – and neither have they. Life probably just got in the way.
Happily, this means a gentle reminder that you exist might be all you need to re-engage that customer and have them spending money with your business again.
You don’t need to get too soppy, but a tongue-in-cheek ‘we miss you’ email with a picture of a sad puppy and offer of a discount if they return may result in a few sales you could really do with.
Happy birthday!
Let’s not lie – we all love birthdays. You feel special, wanted and – most importantly – end up with lots of stuff and money for free.
If you have access to the dates of birth of your email subscribers, why not join the well-wishing and send them a happy birthday email?
These customer retention emails are considered among of the best forms of direct marketing, because they rely on personalisation to make people feel special. And, if you make someone feel special enough (by providing a ‘unique’ special offer for them to redeem on their big day), they’ll probably return to spend a bit of their birthday money.
Thank you 🙂
Probably the simplest way to make friends and influence people is to thank them for a good deed, and you can do the same with email marketing.
If you know which customers have spent the most with you, why not export that list of email addresses, upload it to a fresh contact list in your email marketing client and pop out an email thanking them for being so awesome?
It works. A simple note of thanks and offer to return for a discount (although just a ‘thanks’ and link to check out your latest wares may be all you need to do) will make those past customers feel special, wanted and as though they have a connection with your company that they’d unfortunately forgotten about.
Who will be able to resist customer retention emails that make them feel special?
Abandoned carts
If a bricks-and-mortar retailer returns from his lunch break to find half-filled shopping carts strewn across the shop floor, he can’t do much more than swear quietly beneath his breath before ordering someone to tidy them up.
An online retailer, on the other hand, has one significant advantage – data (and the fact that their shopping carts are nothing more than bits and bytes).
If you can grab a list from your eCommerce platform of all users who have abandoned their shopping carts, you can pull one of the oldest – and most effective – tricks in the book; email them.
Some will have simply been way-laid while shopping and forgotten to return. Others may have had their laptop stolen during the train journey on which they began their shopping expedition. Whatever the reason, a little reminder that you’re still there and the cart can be reinstated is a great way to bring them back and seal the deal.
And finally, don’t forget… the welcome email
Every long customer relationship starts with a nice welcome, which is why the humble welcome email makes an appearance on this list of customer retention emails.
If you sign up for updates from a retailer only to never hear from them, or create a new account without any form of ‘thank you’ for having done so, why should you even bother making that first purchase, let alone return in future?
A welcome email is a great way to connect people to your brand and incentivise prospects to buy something. What’s more, you can include the option to refer your offering to friends and family in return for a discount, thus significantly widening your potential audience.
Just remember to personalise your welcome emails. As those birthday greetings, welcome emails are far more effective if they appear intended for that person and that person only.
Wrapping up
One of the primary goals for every business should be customer retention. Without those existing customers, your business simply won’t grow, nor will it stand a chance of surviving in this fiercely competitive digital economy.
Our tips above only scratch the surface, but by adding these retention emails to your email marketing plan, you should see an upturn in revenue and increasingly happy customers.
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