When you’re the owner of a small business, it’s vital to grow your brand and link up with your customer base. Good communication via email is a great tool to engage, inform, and keep your current customers interested. This blog post will explore several strategies to attract new customers and, more importantly, achieve customer loyalty by ensuring they remain engaged with your business.
Here Are Some Strategies to Achieve Customer Loyalty
1. Welcoming email
You can always make a good first impression and express your thanks for signing up to a service or buying a product. Use this opportunity to add vital details about the business and keep customers informed, especially if you’ve created a new domain.
- Be sure to use the customer’s name to add a personal touch
- Include any relevant discounts or offers that can only be found through email
2. Transaction emails
If a customer has purchased an item, then they’ll expect a confirmation email as soon as possible. This small act simply helps reassure the customer that the purchase has gone through and to provide more details about delivery time.
- Let customers know where they can track the shipping
- Inform customers when the item has been sent
3. Newsletters
While some people might be annoyed at constant newsletters, they’ll be engaged if you keep things steady at once or twice a month and pack the emails with interesting news, updates, and promo codes, which can actually achieve customer loyalty. People will then look forward to the newsletters and be willing to visit the website more often. When done right, effective email marketing that looks good and informs customers can generate a great return on investment.
- Stick to a schedule but don’t overwhelm people with email bombardments
- Make the newsletters look visually appealing and not packed with too much text. Consider using an email marketing service to help with email designs and templates
4. Follow-up emails
While not compulsory, a follow-up email does nevertheless help keep the customer aware of your business and encourages repeat visits to your website or physical store.
- Thank customers for purchases and ask for positive Google reviews
- Offer updates of price reductions on items bought previously
5. Promotional emails
One way to achieve customer loyalty is through consistent and valuable communication. customers practically expect to see promotional emails at certain times of the year, such as Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Black Friday. This is where you can inform your customer base about discounts and special deals only available to those subscribed to the email list.
- Use time-sensitive promotions that ensure customers react quickly
- Be aware of the time of the year and what customers are expecting
6. Event emails
Is your business having some sort of party or event? Then shout about it to those on your email list. Provide details about the event, as well as reminders the day before and a thank you email to share any highlights.
- Detail what is at the event, such as live music, free food and drink, free merchandise, a raffle, etc.
7. Feedback emails
The only way you can improve a business is with direct feedback from people who have used your service or bought a product. Send out survey emails and ask for feedback to get real opinions on how you performed.
- Keep the survey short and make it multiple choice
- End the survey with the opportunity to write a summary of the customer experience
- Provide an incentive such as a discount on the next purchase after the survey
8. Cart abandonment
Many online businesses struggle with cart abandonment, but emails can often fix the situation. Perhaps the customer forgot about the item or just felt like it was too expensive. Some online stores offer a discount or free shipping for items that have been abandoned.
- A well-timed email can make all the difference to ensure the customer eventually buys the product that they abandoned.
As you can see, email is a powerful tool for any small business and the impact is huge when used at the right time with the perfect message. This targeted approach can be a key component in efforts to achieve customer loyalty.
