Customer Retention: Using Emails to Sell More to Your Existing Customers

You might have come across this statement many times that retaining current customers to make repeat purchases is cheaper than finding new customers. There are many studies that validate this statement. According to Harvard Business Review, the cost of acquiring a new customer is 5-25X more than retaining an existing customer. In the crowded e-commerce universe where the cost of clicks and conversions is always increasing, this statement stands true for many businesses. 

What is Customer Retention?

It is a group of activities carried out by a brand or business to increase the number of repeat customers and grow profits from every existing customer. This depends on the relationships with your customers and their perceived value of your products and services. Customers stay with you depending on how you handle your customer relationships, communicate your brand’s value, and deliver on that value.

When working on customer retention strategies, you offer and get more value from your current customers. You ensure that the customers stay with you, acknowledge and appreciate the value-addition your products or services offer, and enjoy their experience. 

Using Email Strategies to Sell More to Your Existing Customers

Emails play a crucial role in increasing customer loyalty and getting back your repeat customers. Here are a few useful tips on how you can use email strategies to retain your current customers. 

1. Identify user segments based on loyalty level

If you segregate your database based on the loyalty level of customers, you can create customised email campaigns and flows to particular customers depending on their exact point in the funnel. Using these emails, you can encourage customers to move to the next loyalty level, which would increase their customer lifetime value (CLVs).

Here is how you can divide your database:

• New Friends: Have bought your products or services one-two times and followed your brand on social media. 
• Brand Evangelists: Have bought your products or services up to three times, followed on social media, and are eligible for free shipping. 
• Brand Advocates: Have bought your products or services up to five times, followed on social media, used referrals to invite a friend, and are eligible to receive a gift with purchase and mini products.
• Brand Bandits: Have bought your products or services more than five times, followed on social media, used referrals to invite a friend, and are eligible to access special events and products before other customers. 

2. Automate emails based on loyalty

You can integrate your loyalty platforms with email service providers to create personalised communication.

Here are a few tips on including loyalty in your emails:

• Welcome Emails: This is a great way to communicate with your newly acquired customers and show off your brand’s personality. 
• Referral Emails: You can offer customers loyalty points or some other benefits when they refer a friend to your store. This is a brilliant way to incentivise your existing customer base plus acquiring new customers. 
• Points Balance Emails: Inform your customers that they have loyalty points which they can use to purchase products. This is a clever way of re-engaging with your at-risk customers. 
• Points Expiry Emails: This is a reminder for customers to use their loyalty points that will expire soon. This reminds them about you, and the points attract them to make purchases. 

Occasional Loyalty Emails: You can offer your loyal customers early access to events, promotions, and sales.

3. Encourage Brand Advocacy

Customers that come to your store through referrals are 16-24% more loyal. When your existing customers engage in your loyalty programs, they vouch for your brand and become brand advocates. You can share a unique URL in an email that they can share with their friends to refer your brand and in return, earn loyalty points. These friends of your current customers who receive the referral emails will be more open to trying your brand as the referral is coming from somebody they know and trust. 

4. Use omnichannel marketing based on your loyalty program

When you segregate the loyal customers in your database, you can combine the sections you created for email and other channels such as Gmail, Facebook, and Instagram for custom audience targeting. Communicating with your customers on different platforms will remind them about your brand and help you create a presence.

Using Email Strategies to Improve Customer Retention and Increase Sales

Emails are one of the most successful marketing methods used for customer retention. Email marketing can help you boost your sales and prove to be one of the most profitable and reliable ways. 

1. Understand your target audience

When the messaging or communication in your emails is useful for the subscribers, they would show more interest in your emails and then products. For this to be effective, you need to have a thorough understanding of your target audience. 

You need to segment your email list as it will help you divide your email list into more targeted sub-groups. This activity will help you target your customers according to their personal preferences. You can also personalise the communication about your products or services, making the promotion more relevant. 

2. Send regular emails

Sending regular emails to your email list can increase your number of sales. When the subscribers have willingly joined your email list, you can keep in touch with them by sharing necessary updates and information about your products and services. Subscribers tend to appreciate timely information received by the brands they follow. 

An average professional invests 28% of their workday in reading and answering email, based on a McKinsey analysis. If you take an average full-time worker in America, this translates to 2.6 hours spent and 120 messages received every day. 

According to data gathered by Magnetic, in the United States and Canada, 44 percent of people check their personal email 1-3 times in a day.

3. Keep the emails and subject lines short and relevant

When your emails are short and simple, you can get a better response from your campaign. Your communication should be clear and sharp so that your readers understand the message and can efficiently act on them. If they find your offer appealing, they will visit your store to learn more about your offering.

You should be straightforward with your communication and use bullet points to break information. Always use one CTA instead of using multiple CTAs throughout the email. This will not confuse the reader and help them take action quickly. Mostly your readers would open the email on your mobile phone; hence they should be able to easily and quickly navigate through it.

Your email’s opening rate will depend on your subject line. It needs to be transparent and reflect what the email is about. Once your reader has opened your email based on the subject line, the content of the email will help establish a connection with them. 

4. Use white space

Along with appropriate messaging, your email should be visually appealing as well. That does not mean that you invest time heavily in designing it. Instead, you should focus on keeping the design clean, making the content easy to read and act on. 

Your email’s structure should have a lot of white space. It means keeping the paragraphs short, using bullet points, dividing the content into subheadings according to the content. This will help your subscribers scan through the email quickly and understand what it is about. This also increases the chances of them acting on the CTAs. 

These tactics are tried and tested by many brands and businesses who have successfully retained their existing clients and are able to get repeat purchases from them. The more you customise them according to your brand’s personality, the better you will be able to connect with your customers.