The number of sales they make over time determines the success of every business. Making sales is impossible without getting and retaining customers.
While most brands put more energy into getting new customers, they forget that retaining old ones is much easier.
In fact, retaining an old customer is 16x cheaper than getting a new one. Email campaigns are one of the best ways of retaining your customers. In addition, today, we will go over proven strategies to improve email retention.
Why are Customer Retention Emails Important?
As an ecommerce business owner, there are several reasons you should take sending regular ecommerce email marketing seriously. Here are a few:
● Retention Emails Keep Your Brand Top of Mind
When someone signs up for your newsletter or makes a purchase on your site, you need to keep in touch by reaching out to them regularly.
One way to keep your business in the minds of your customers is by sending them emails that engage them and show them that you think about them.
● Existing Customers Buy More Often
People are more likely to buy from a brand they know instead of one they just heard about. Selling to a past customer works 60-70% of the time, but selling to a new customer only works 5-20% of the time.
Also, the worth of a devoted consumer grows continuously as they spread the word about your company. Think of your favorite pizza place. You have probably taken your friends there and have recommended the place to other people.
As we stated earlier, retaining an old customer is cheaper than getting a new one. This simply means that when you lose an existing customer, you’ll have to spend more money replacing them.
Sending customer retention emails will help buyers stick with your business and save you the cost of always trying to get new buyers.
Top Strategies to Improve Email Retention
Below are 10 unique and email retention strategies that you can use to keep your customers coming back:
Generic, one-size-fits-all emails are considered spam by the majority of customers. They are not only provoking, but they are also less likely to resonate with your customers than personalized messages.
You can use their name, make reference to previous purchases or interactions, and customize the email content to their specific interests and needs.
Also, use data enrichment tools and personalization techniques to adapt your communications to each individual customer and make them feel valued.
To do this, ensure that your email list is well-structured and segmented, allowing you to target specific groups of clients with appropriate information.
Your subject line is the first impression your email creates, and it’s critical for persuading people to open it. You need the best email subject line ideas for ecommerce to attract and gain the click through rate. Use something attention-grabbing and intriguing that will entice visitors to learn more.
Avoid using clickbait or deceptive titles because they might harm your reputation, as both a brand and a sender.
Some spam words and phrases to avoid include “free”, “discount”, and “limited-time offer.” Instead, aim to express a sense of urgency or exclusivity without being overly forceful. Here are a few tips to follow:
- Use action words or prompts
- Keep it short and to the point
- Createl curiosity
- Create a sense of urgency or exclusivity
Showing long-term customers some appreciation for their consistent support is an excellent strategy to keep them loyal. Consider giving them exclusive discounts or free gifts as a thank-you for their continuous patronage.
If you like, you can even create a reward ladder in which the longer a customer stays with you, the higher and more valuable their prize. This can create a sense of progress and encourage customers to stay for longer.
You do not want to pass up an opportunity to keep a customer simply because you neglected to send an email. Set up triggers and workflows to automatically send emails in response to specific actions or events, such as a customer’s anniversary with your organization.
To make this process easier, you can use email tools like Klaviyo, or Omnisend. If this seems too complicated or tedious you can hire a good email marketing agency like Retention Labs to help you out.
The idea is to either showcase the value customers are already getting from your product or try to encourage them to activate another feature of your product so they gain even more value.
When sending emails to customers, especially those at the point of leaving, include the pain areas you can solve, what sets you apart from your competitors, and how they can get the most value out of your product.
6. Create a Sense of Community
People are more likely to stick with a brand if they believe they are part of a community. Use targeted email marketing to connect with your consumers and provide a forum for them to share their experiences, customer feedback, and tips.
The secret to successful business communities is simple. Just focus on them rather than yourself. The community exists to serve them, not to provide another route for you to publish blog pieces.
A referral program for your ecommerce business encourages happy customers to bring in new ones. It also makes customers feel connected to your brand. You can give rewards when customers post your business on social media or when their friends make a purchase.
This way, you and your customers profit. They get something in exchange, and you keep more clients for a longer time.
Retention emails often use emotions to keep customers interested. Here are some common ones:
Emotions play a major part in decision-making, and tapping into your consumers’ emotions allows you to build a closer relationship with them. To make them feel special and cherished, send individual emails on their birthdays or anniversaries.
- Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): Show what a customer might lose if they stop buying from you.
- The feeling of exclusivity: Give loyal customers special deals and rewards that others don’t get.
- The sense of belonging: Create a community or loyalty program where customers feel like they are part of something important.
These emotional triggers make people more likely to stay with your brand.
Customers who cancel their subscriptions may do so because they haven’t used your product recently, or because they haven’t been active in a long time. However, it doesn’t imply they are permanently gone. Sometimes they can be brought back with only a little nudge.
You need to think about providing churned or inactive customers with additional incentives or promotions. Offer a discount code or a free gift to entice customers to try your brand again.
Content is one of the most effective strategies to keep customers interested. By providing interesting, relevant material in your retention emails, business owners ensure that their customers do not forget about their brand.
For the best interaction, go for quality long-form content. This could contain product specific tips and tricks, industry news and updates, or even funny and engaging content that reflects your brand’s personality.
Furthermore, you can enhance it with audio versions, reels, and other interactive content to extend the time spent on the website.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Customer Retention Emails
Unfortunately, there are some mistakes brand owners make in their emails while trying to retain customers. These are some of them:
People will likely ignore or delete your emails if they sound too generic. To avoid this, you can include their names on the email. For example, instead of saying “Hello’, you can say “Hi, Anny”. This way the receiver feels more carried along.
You can go a step further by paying attention to what they like, what they’ve bought before, or how they’ve interacted with your business. When people see that you actually understand them, they’ll be more likely to respond to you.
● Neglecting Proofreading and Grammar
If your emails have mistakes, people might not take you seriously. Sending a message with a big typo doesn’t look good. It can make your business seem careless.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to double-check before hitting “Send”. Use spell-check tools or ask a friend to give it a quick look. A clean, mistake-free email makes you look professional and helps people trust you more.
● Having multiple Call-to-Action
Whether you want to promote a sale, get feedback, or encourage a purchase, each email you send should have a clear objective.
Your readers might not know what to do next if your call-to-action (CTA) is unclear or if you have multiple CTA’s that say multiple things. Make sure you want your customer to do just one thing in each email.
If you ask them to buy your product, checkout your social media and read your blog in the same email, they’ll end up doing nothing.
So make sure you want your customer to take just one action in one email and place the CTA prominently in the email and make it clear by using action-oriented language.
A great and compelling CTA can significantly increase the response rate to your emails.
Conclusion
Maintaining a positive relationship with your consumers is very important to scale your eCommerce business.
When done correctly, emails can re-engage customers and even convert them into advocates of your brand. Want to keep more customers around with emails? Book a free discovery call with us to see how we can help.
