Email marketing is one of the efficient marketing tactics used by brands worldwide to retain their customers. This marketing strategy has worked out for businesses in diverse industries and is considered a cost-effective way to minimize churn.
That said, retaining customers via email marketing requires a lot of effort and experience. A standard email campaign is reported to have an open rate of less than 2%. So, it’s challenging but totally doable.
Here are 6 tips that can help you improve customer retention via email marketing.
So, without further ado.
Let’s dive in.
1. Get Opt-Ins
This is the first step to improving your customer retention via email marketing. Your email list comprises people who have opted-in to receive emails from you. And it’s possible that your customers may not be subscribed to your list.
Sending your customers emails without them being subscribed to your list is not recommended. You may have their email information but technically they haven’t given you consent to receive emails.
So, your first priority should be to get opt-ins from your customers. Once they’re subscribed to your list, you can start designing your campaigns.
2. Be Creative With Your Subject Lines
Did you know that around 47% of users open or discard emails based on the subject lines?
An email subject line is the first thing a user sees when your message appears in their mailbox. And in most cases, it dictates whether or not a customer would open your email.
A creative subject line is a key to grabbing the attention of your customers. It can be very off-putting to use mainstream or automated subject lines, especially in the emails you send to retain customers.
Personalized subject lines can have a significant impact on the performance of your campaign and boost open rates by up to 26%. Even doing things as simple as addressing your customers by their names goes a long way.
3. Tailor Your Message
It’s essential that you tailor your message to the specific use cases. Most businesses use email automation tools to draft and run their email campaigns. And there’s nothing wrong with that. However, a grave mistake that companies often make is sending impersonalized emails to their recipients.
There might be different reasons for customers to consider switching from your brand to another alternative. So, it’s unwise to address all of your recipients using a similar tone and the same message. It just won’t work.
Even if they opened your email. It’s highly unlikely that they’d actually pay heed to what you have to say. Email marketing campaigns are reported to generate an average ROI of around 4400%. You can acknowledge a similar outcome by tailoring your emails as per the respective use cases.
4. Don’t Forget to Follow Up
People receive countless emails on a daily basis. So, it’s possible for yours to go unnoticed. Carefully planned follow-ups help you convey your message and ensure that your retention campaigns deliver the best results.
However, you should avoid pestering at all costs. It’s normal for people to read an email and take some time to respond or take the required action. You should always respect the boundaries and privacy of your customers. Sending repeated follow-ups often does more harm than good.
5. Optimize Your Emails for Mobile Devices
People are always on the go these days. So, they often prefer to go through their mail when they’re on their way to work, going back home, or waiting for their morning coffee. And in most cases, the devices they use to access their mail are their smartphones.
Around 68% of people access emails through their mobile devices. Yet, a common mistake made by email marketers is that they seldom optimize their emails for smartphones. Your customers can access your emails through any device of their choice. And you don’t know which one it’s going to be.
So, it’s best that you optimize your email campaigns for all leading mobile devices to ensure a seamless user experience.
6. Keep Your Customers Updated
Continuous improvement is the key to ensuring customer retention. But, sometimes, it’s already too late. By the time you’ve improved your product or service, the customer has already left. There can be two reasons for it.
First, you took way too long to make the required changes. By the time you evolved, your customers already switched to a better alternative. In this case, you can attract your churned customers through retargeting campaigns.
Second, the customers didn’t know that you were trying to make things better. In this case, things could have been different if they knew that you were improving your product or service.
We often take feedback from our customers but seldom thank them for it. Even after shortlisting wise suggestions and adding them to our pipeline, we don’t inform our customers that we are working on the suggestions received.
This is a huge mistake that often leads to unfavorable results. So, to boost your retention, it’s essential that you keep your customers up-to-date on how your product or service is evolving.
It’s a Wrap
Around 80% of marketers believe that email marketing facilitates customer retention. However, it’s important that your campaigns are carefully planned and executed. If you’ve been working on a customer retention email campaign, try out the 6 ways prescribed and see if they work out for you.
