Create Customer Loyalty through Email Marketing

Create Customer Loyalty through Email MarketingWhy is it that some customers will consistently buy from a specific vendor, even if a better price is available elsewhere? It might have something to do with what happens after the sale. Email marketing, when done correctly, can improve the business to customer relationship, keeping customers coming back and buying more.

Gaining and keeping customers is not just a matter of providing good products and services at good prices. That is certainly important, but today’s business environment is information driven. Customers are better informed, and have more choices than ever before. Companies must add value to the entire customer experience if they are to succeed.

Building a Qualified Customer Email List

Each customer that purchases a product through a company’s website can be added to a mailing list and marketed to directly, later on. Working in this way, such a company could build its mailing list of qualified customers and target special promotions and sales to that customer base, saving valuable time and effort marketing to the company’s specific audience, instead of everyone else.

How Email Marketing Newsletters Add Value

How email marketing adds valueWhen sending out emails to a customer list, companies shouldn’t just send more advertising. Instead, customers should be sent even more useful information, in this case exclusive baking recipes and tips, covering whatever needs that customer might have. Advertising for related products and services would also be included.

Instead of sending out full articles, only email small introductions to the articles. Include links that take the customer back to the company’s website for the full story, and further advertising. This not only adds value to the company’s service, but ensures that customers return to the company’s website again and again. Informational emails encourage continued patronage. The reason is simple: it goes beyond what the customer expects. Price is no longer the driving force for choosing this company over its competitors. The added value provided through an email newsletter has created customer loyalty.

Not contacting a customer after a sale is like throwing away a sale. It is a lost opportunity. If the customer likes the company’s products and service, the customer relationship has improved and they will repay the company by referring their friends. Now the customer has become an evangelist for the company.

Follow Up with Customer Surveys

Follow up emails are also a part of email marketing, and customer loyalty. Many people like sharing their opinions, if asked. This also means that emails are not only for marketing purposes, but for sending out customer surveys to refine the business processes as a whole.

Email marketing surveys can also be a source of new customer leads. In the survey, ask customers if they have any friends who might benefit from the company’s products and services, why, and the friend’s email address. Try and get specific information about the customer’s needs. If they respond, contact the customer and refer them to the spot in the company’s website that holds the answers that solve the problem. Also follow up with any potential customer lead you’ve been given.

What happens if a business contacts a customer, and the news isn’t good? What if the product isn’t working for them? Then what?

Don’t see it as bad news. It’s not bad or good, it’s just information. This is an opportunity to step in and help; to provide added value through service. Many times, a customer’s expectation is that companies don’t care. If the company jumps in and quickly solves the problem, the customer might be surprised. Helping customers work through a bad experience is a sign that the company takes each customer seriously. Sometimes, customers who have had a single bad experience, that was quickly corrected, become the most loyal customers, leading to more referrals and repeat business.

As companies use email marketing, they create added value, giving their customers opportunities and incentives to purchase again. A single sale is not the best result. Creating a loyal customer who is willing to purchase again and again is much better.