As an email marketer, you may feel that you have achieved success if you have a large, high-quality mailing list full of people who frequently read what you send out. However, the aim of your email marketing campaigns should be to achieve a return on your investment, and this will only happen if your customers start (and keep) buying things from you.
Most of the marketing emails you send out are likely to be focused on getting your subscribers to make that initial purchase from you. However, studies have shown that it is far simpler, and more affordable, to get an existing customer to make another purchase than it is to attract a new buying customer to your business. Therefore, a good chunk of your email marketing efforts should go towards encouraging your existing customers to keep buying from you. Here are some ideas to help make that happen:
Abandoned Shopping Cart
Have you ever had a customer almost make a purchase from you, only to abandon their shopping cart at the last minute? This is something that shouldn’t be ignored. It’s the ideal opportunity to encourage a customer to return to your website. Not every abandoned shopping cart is a conscious decision. Your customer may have got distracted, or just forgot about it. An email reminding them of the items they have in their basket may be the push they need to go on and complete the purchase. They may even then go on to browse your site and make further purchases.
This example from QVC shows what an abandoned shopping cart email should contain. It clearly shows the customer what item it was they were in the process of purchasing, and gives them an obvious link to take them back to the item in their cart:
Wishlist Sale
If a customer enjoys the experience of shopping with you, they may wish to set up a wishlist (a list of items they may like to purchase or receive as gifts in the future) on your website. However, many wish lists are set up, and then later forgotten about. Your job should be to encourage your customers to make purchases from their list. After all, they are all items that they have shown that they want to buy.
In order to prompt your customers to make a purchase from their list, you could send them an email letting them know when on of their preferred items is on sale. This will not only remind them that they put that item on their list in the first place, it will also show them that it is now at a desirable price, hopefully promoting them to make that purchase.
Steam send out email alerts whenever an item on their customers wishlist goes on sale. The subject line clearly lets the subscriber know what the email contains, and the email itself contains clear links to that the customer can easily go on to make a purchase:
Loyalty Offers
As a loyal customer, it can sometimes seem that all the best offers go to new customers (‘10% off your first purchase’, for example). This can put some of them off making a repeat purchase from a company, instead choosing to take advantage of a new customer offer somewhere else. Instead of just rewarding your new customers, you can give special loyalty offers to the customers that have already make a purchase (or purchases) from you. This will help show them that they are valued, and that they are just as important to you as your new customers.
Westin Gourmet sent their subscribers a selection of special offers they would take advantage of in order to thank them for their loyalty:
Getting your email subscribers to make purchases from your company should be one of the main aims of your email marketing campaigns. By using some of these tips, getting customers to buy, and keep buying, should be simple.
