In our last post we talked about how to use email marketing for customer acquisition, but it’s equally important to retain the customers you already have. Here are five emails to send if you want to increase customer retention:
1. Appreciation Emails
Customer retention relies on two critical components: providing an excellent product or service, and making customers feel valued. The simplest way to make someone feel valued is to say Thank You.
At a minimum, you should be sending Thank You emails after customers place an order or book a service. You might also consider sending special promotions to loyal customers. Here’s a great example of an exceptional customer retention strategy from Zappos.
Another way to make people feel appreciated is by letting them know what their support means in a practical way. For example, the shoe brand Tom’s has built their entire business model on the buy a pair, give a pair platform. People feel good about spending money on their shoes because they are also giving back to those in need.
While you probably don’t have something as obvious as one-for-one, your customers’ support still extends beyond your own pocket. Maybe your business donates to a particular charity. Or maybe the actual service you offer is something you can quantify. “Because of your loyal support, we’ve been able to give 10,000 customers the vacation of their dreams.”
This kind of message lets you humble-brag about your accomplishments while making the customer feel like they are a part of something important.
2. Personalized Recommendation Emails
Personalized recommendations are all over e-retail sites. Click on one product and the site will immediately recommend three others. The genius of this is that it exposes the customer to more products without requiring them to initiate a search.
Some email services can collect data on what a customer browses or buys as a result of an email. This data is useless to you unless you take the opportunity to follow-up with personalized recommendations.
If you’ve got a customer who routinely buys anti-aging skincare products, send an email letting them know about your best-selling retinol serum. Or maybe you have a client who comes for a basic massage once a month. Why not send an email recommending upgraded services and explaining why they’re beneficial?
3. Abandoned Cart Emails
This morning I was browsing on Old Navy’s website. I got distracted and navigated off the page. A few hours later, I received this email which jogged my memory and spurred me to complete my purchase.
The statistics are pretty good for Abandoned Cart emails. With a 45% open rate and approximately half of those converting to click-throughs, we know that these nudges are effective.
The only downside is that this feature only works if someone is logged in so the system can track their cart. Yet another reason to get people to create accounts and give their contact information as soon as possible.
4. We Miss You Emails
This type of email ties in with personalized recommendation emails, but is targeted at bringing customers back. You might use this email to let customers know about something new you are offering or to include a limited time discount as an incentive.
If your business is service-based, We Miss You emails might look like reminders for service updates. “It’s time for your teeth-cleaning,” or “Let’s get those gutters cleared out before the winter,” can be effective messages for drawing customers back.
5. What’s New Emails/Exclusive Content
Customers appreciate being in the loop. When you share new launches, products, services, team members, professional designations, awards, or recognitions with your customers, they feel like part of the club.
Even better, consider whether there is exclusive content (think Sneak Peek) you can offer to loyal customers. Think about luxury brands. Chanel and Hermes are able to charge outrageous prices because they are selling so much more than a product. They are selling exclusivity.
Customers like to feel like they are in the know and on the inside. Targeted emails with exclusive content make customers feel special and included which makes these great emails for customer retention.
We hope this series on email marketing has inspired you to take the plunge and start your own email campaigns. And if you get stuck, remember that we’re always here to help!
