Email remains a powerful tool for businesses looking to engage with customers and boost their ROI. In fact, a study by Litmus found that email marketing generates in excess of a $35 ROI for every dollar spent. In this blog post, we will discuss 10 ways to use email to engage customers and increase sales.
1. Announce new products or services.
One of the best ways to engage customers is to let them know about new products or services that you’re offering. You can do this by sending out an email announcement, but it should be tailored based on what you know of your customers’ interests. Don’t send out products you know they’ve bought (this is an area we help clients integrate multichannel data into a CDP solution) but do send meaningful accessories that go with the products. I recently bought a “smokeless” firepit and was impressed by how well-timed future promotions were around all their accessories.
Be sure to test within your announcements to include different images, videos, or other forms of rich media to really capture your audience’s attention.
2. Invite customers to participate in surveys.
Surveys are a great way to engage customers and also develop what we call a “progressive profile”. You can keep surveys short and even use AMP to contain the experience within the email. The data collection informs you of your customers’ interests, helps you measure their engagement with your communications, and builds out a more complete profile so that you can better communicate with customers. This data can then also be used for multi-channel targeting.
3. Spread good wishes!
Send a birthday, anniversary, or another special message to your customers. These good wishes are a great way to show your customers that you care about them and their business. You can even include a discount or coupon code as an added incentive for them to continue doing business with you.
This type of email should be personal and tailored to the customer, rather than feeling like a generic form letter. Again, using profile data to influence creative design and wording goes a long way toward being authentic with your customers.
4. Offer discounts or special deals for subscribers.
Discounts and deals drive customer loyalty and boost sales. People love getting discounts, so offer them! You can even offer different deals for different customers based on their purchase history or other data points. This is also a great way to win back lapsed customers and automate inventory clearances. We recommend applying analytics to determine the offer based on offer testing, profit margin rules to prevent over-incentivizing, and trending product analysis to determine when a FOMO-inspiring promotion makes more sense than a discount or free shipping. We’ve even found that creating an exclusive pre-sale is a great way to generate interest and sell out in minutes. Be careful though… you don’t want to train customers to do things that will prompt your system to send a discount (I’m looking at you, cart abandonment tactics!). Always include an element of surprise or at least apparent surprise since you’re going to make data-driven decisions, right?
5. Give them the inside scoop.
Your email subscribers are interested in your company, so give them the inside scoop! This could include previews of new products or services, information on upcoming sales or events, or even just a behind-the-scenes look at your business. What may seem like a daily grind to you is fascinating to your customers so give them a peek and develop a strong emotional brand connection.
6. Deliver prompt updates.
Customers appreciate prompt updates, especially when it comes to their order status or other customer service inquiries. If there is a delay in shipping or some other issue, let your customers know as soon as possible. And, if you have good news to share (their order shipped early!), don’t wait – send that email right away. Your customers will appreciate it and this is something that can be automated so you can stay on top of your business while your MarTech does the rest.
7. Educate and inform.
Share your knowledge and expertise with them through educational content such as tips, tricks, how-tos, and more. Not only will this help build trust and credibility with your audience, but it can also lead to more sales down the road. When this content is tied to your site analytics, you can develop interest levels that become profile attributes. Those can then be included in your segmentation to drive more targeted communications.
We recently developed a campaign for a large athletic organization that included content related to youth sports. While our profiles did not contain any information on who had children, monitoring the click behavior enabled us to send more youth-focused messaging to the people who clicked which in turn powered a probabilistic model to determine a segment that would be likely to be interested in youth activities. They learned from the content and we learned from their consumption.
8. Show your support.
Do you have a cause that you and your company are passionate about? If so, use your email list to show your support and rally people around the cause. This is a great way to build brand loyalty and connect with customers on a deeper level. And, it can be used to drive sales for related products or services.
9. Try new things.
10. Know when to stop.
The last thing you want to do is annoy your customers with too many emails. If they feel like they’re being bombarded, they’ll likely unsubscribe or worse, mark your emails as spam. So, it’s important to know when to back off. The best way to do this is to keep track of engagement levels and adjust your sending accordingly.
Also, know when to say goodbye. If someone hasn’t opened one of your emails in six months, it’s probably time to unsubscribe them. You don’t want to keep sending emails to people who are no longer interested. Not only is it a waste of time and resources, but it can also hurt your deliverability rates.
By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to engaging your customers and driving more sales. Did you find this blog post helpful? Share it with your network and contact us if we can help you engage your customers.
